Univeral Horror Movie Classics

Let's discuss these great films. Which one is your personal favorite to watch? Where do you see the influence of these movies in today's horror?

I've honestly only recently really gotten into them, but my personal favorite so far is probably Frankenstein with The Wolf Man coming at a close second. Strangely enough, Frankenstein has a scene that disturbs me more than most horror movie scenes. I don't know why. (SPOILER) It's the scene where the monster unintentionally drowns that little girl, and then you see the father carrying her limp, dead body through town. That scene has always really bothered me.

I don't think I've ever seen a true classic horror film from the old old days. Psycho or Night of the Living Dead count or are you talking about silent films?

Well I was more meaning the monster movies from Universal Studios such as Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, etc.

However, I can open this up to other movies probably seen as classics just for further discussion. So yes, discuss Night of the Linving Dead, Psycho, and other great older horror films!

That Frankenstein scene is pretty disturbing! I love Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula and Creature from the Black Lagoon. My favorite is probably Phantom of the Opera, which is the first Universal Monsters film I ever saw. (monsters + black and white + silent = film gold)

I have never seen The Wolf Man or London After Midnight (even though it isn't a Universal film), both of which have been on my list for a long time. :(

These old movies are my crack. Anything with Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi I will eat right up.

I'm not sure if I've seen any of those, unless The Blob is a Universal film. I actually really liked it, even though there wasn't anything especially horrifying about it. It was just really campy and enjoyable. I'd like to see more of those though, preferably reading the books before delving into them (assuming they were based off books, of course).

Speaking of Bela Lugosi though, you know that one movie, Ed Wood? It's really good. Maybe I'm just a softie, but the scene with Martin Landau re-doing Bela Lugosi's "I have no home" speech really hit me. I've forgotten what movie that scene was originally from, and it was certainly not a Universal film, but does anyone happen to know what it was? I mean, it had Bela Lugosi in it, so it should be well-known.

Ed Wood is so great! The original scene is from Bride of the Monster, and it is indeed Bela Lugosi who performs it. I like that they included it Ed Wood as a sort of homage cameo (I don't know what else to call it) to Lugosi.

The Blob is not a universal film, though, it was made by Paramount.

I know at least Frankenstien and Dracula are "based on the books", but they are very loosely related, really.

Even though it's not old, I'm pretty sure American Werewolf in London is a Universal movie and I love it to death.

I'll have to look up Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon one of these days.

Among my favorite classic horror films is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Psycho.

I like a lot of b movie horror films too because I like when horror films are also funny. All the Creature from the Black Lagoon films are funny to me. I'm not sure if these constitute as classics, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Army of Darkness are my favorite funny horror movies.

Because Shorty brought up Bela Lugosi, I must mention that there's a music video in existence that he's in and it is literally the most dire thing I have ever seen him do. My horror movie class professor showed it to us, but I don't think it's been distributed anywhere. I will have to get it some how and show it because it really is worth watching.