Universal Monsters

[Matt Mortem]

Not to be pedantic, but if the passing of Sir Christopher Lee as an inspiration to buy horror movies , shouldn't the collection concerned be HAMMER movies, not Universal?

The HAMMER movies are awesome.

I'd love an awesome Hammer horror blu ray set. Have they made one?

 

[Brian Braddock]

The Universal Horror films were the first horror films i watched, i have yet to watch Hammer horror films, what were the best ones? Was it like Universal where quality droped more and more after their first monsters started getting too many sequels?

Yeah, thats pretty much what happened. Towards the end, Hammer horrors were more renowned for T&A than for horror. The classics though, are awesome - for me the likes of Dracula, Horror of Dracula, Legend of the Werewolf and Curse of the Werewolf are seminal. Theatre of Blood is no classic, but worth a watch if only for Vincent Price and the inventive kills.

I'd love an awesome Hammer horror blu ray set. Have they made one?

No idea, tbh. I'd assume so. Surely?

 

[Peyton Westlake]

That's the other question thats been mulling around in my mind in regards to the iconic horror characters. Doesn't Universal own the rights to them/ But then, as mentioned above Hammer Films made their own Dracula movies and now I see this November 2015 , FOX has a Victor Frankemstein movie coming out with James McAvoy & Daniel Radcliffe. SO if any studio can film any one of those characters at their leisure, its just going to get extremely confusing for a Universal horror shared universe.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah, it's sort of like how there are 28 different Robin Hood movies in production.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Seems like overkill. You would think they would stay away from it knowing another has plans to make one.

 

[Warhammer]

Yeah, with the monsters all being public domain and all, I don't see how the shared universe would have been feasible. Though I would love to see which Universal monster was alluded to in Dracula Untold.

 

[C. Lee]

Universal owns the rights to particular "looks" of certain characters. Doctor Frankenstein and the Frankenstein monster can appear in any movie....but if you want to have the monster look like Boris Karloff, you have to deal with Universal. When THE MONSTER SQUAD was made back in the 80's, the original intent was to have the monsters look like the Universal ones, but they were denied permission, and had to create original makeups for them.

 

[Rowsdower!]

But most of the monsters in The Monster Squad looked the like Universal versions. Or at least, they were close enough that you knew who everyone was.

I love that movie. It probably has my favorite version of Dracula. He looked like the Bela Legosi version, but was f***ing TERRIFYING.

Whoa, just looked up the actor and learned that he was also the guy who played Zorro in the 1990s TV series. Never knew that!

 

[C. Lee]

They wanted them to be exact matches (at least as close as you can come) but they had to make changes because of the Universal rights. There were several articles about it back then in STARLOG...but I don't have them anymore.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Ah, I see.

 

[Matt Mortem]

If I were making a new Bride of Frankenstein right now I'd absolutely cast Nina Hoss as the Bride. I've never seen an actress emote so much with her eyes. I saw her in a film called Phoenix last week and she's phenomenal.

 

[C. Lee]

Here is a link to the article (except it was in FANGORIA not STARLOG.....I used to read them both, guess I got them mixed up) - http://brandedinthe80s.com/13524/fangoria-interviews-the-monster-squad/fan66036

 

[Matt Mortem]

Didn't Universal at one point lose the Karloff likeness and had to switch over to the Glenn Strange Monster? Think I read that once.

 

[C. Lee]

No, they didn't lose the rights to it...but for reasons I haven't heard (and don't know if they ever said) they started using the Glenn Strange visuals in their promotional materials.

 

[Evil Twin]

Yeah, thats pretty much what happened. Towards the end, Hammer horrors were more renowned for T&A than for horror. The classics though, are awesome - for me the likes of Dracula, Horror of Dracula, Legend of the Werewolf and Curse of the Werewolf are seminal. Theatre of Blood is no classic, but worth a watch if only for Vincent Price and the inventive kills.

No offense but around half the movies you listed aren't Hammer films.

Hammer went downhill after Anthony Hinds quit the studio and after Terence Fisher got hit by a car post- Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Later Fisher films The Devil Rides Out, Frankenstein Created Woman, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed are among the studio's best.

The Devil Rides Out might have Christopher Lee’s best performance.

 

[Jochimus]

Didn't Universal at one point lose the Karloff likeness and had to switch over to the Glenn Strange Monster? Think I read that once.

I don't know anything about that myself, but the Monster's appearance did change slightly with each successive actor. It even changed with Karloff himself; in the first movie you'll notice a dark, puckered area in one cheek where Karloff had taken a bridge out of this teeth to make the monster look more gaunt. It's less pronounced in BRIDE since there the Monster had to talk; it looks about the same in SON even though the Monster doesn't talk in that one for whatever reason. His hair's grown back by that point, though, after getting burned off at the end of the first one. By the time Chaney and Lugosi were playing the Monster, though, that puckered cheek was reduced to a mole.

 

[Brian Braddock]

No offense but around half the movies you listed aren't Hammer films.

Hammer went downhill after Anthony Hinds quit the studio and after Terence Fisher got hit by a car post- Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Later Fisher films The Devil Rides Out, Frankenstein Created Woman, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed are among the studio's best.

The Devil Rides Out might have Christopher Lee’s best performance.

No offense taken - totally my mistake, always thought Legend of the Werewolf was Hammer growing up; must have been because of Cushing. Same with Theatre of Blood and Price. Just kind of assumed.

As far as I can tell though, the other movies I listed are HAMMER movies. Dracula/Horror of Dracula definitely is, as is Curse of the Werewolf. Agree on Devil Rides Out, its just that Dracula is my favourite. Hell, even Countess Dracula and Twins of Evil hold a special place in my heart, and they sure aren't great critically speaking. Lol.

 

[Brian Braddock]

They wanted them to be exact matches (at least as close as you can come) but they had to make changes because of the Universal rights. There were several articles about it back then in STARLOG...but I don't have them anymore.

Hence 'Gill-Man' as opposed to the Creature from the Black Lagoon; different yet very similar.

 

[Mogwai]

He was the one with the most drastic change, imo.

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

Universal owns the rights to particular "looks" of certain characters. Doctor Frankenstein and the Frankenstein monster can appear in any movie....but if you want to have the monster look like Boris Karloff, you have to deal with Universal. When THE MONSTER SQUAD was made back in the 80's, the original intent was to have the monsters look like the Universal ones, but they were denied permission, and had to create original makeups for them.

i knew about that, with the subtle homages but i always wondered how they got so close with the gillman wasn't he basically a universal original

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Well if the ever get this shared universe off the ground, I would start Dracula as they seemed to do. And only add Frankenstein, Wolfman & the Mummy. Not sure any others would fit or even excite me. The only other choices they have are Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible man, Phantom of the Opera, maybe Jekyll/Hyde. Of all those I think the Phantom would be the only other i would be ok with.

 

[Lord]

I liked one suggestion that was made in another Universal Horror thread which said they should first start with the less known stuff such as Phantom of the Opera, Mummy, Cat creeps, etc. with high quality "one-shot films", then once they have built a strong fan base, they slowly go into the more popular ones, like Dracula and Frankenstein, would build an interest in the public, as it would make them curious to see how this successful relaunch would reinvent the likes of Dracula. Jumping right into that just leads into "Oh, another Dracula film..."

 

[Doctor Jones]

I think given Jurassic World's success along with Fast and the Furious and their Despicable Me/Minion they may not have an immediate need to have their own universe. If their success has taught them anything it's that you can do their own thing and not need to depend on a "shared universe" to succeed. They're doing their own thing and it's working for them. That's great. Keep doing that.

 

[Matt Mortem]

I'd love to see a new version of The Black Cat.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

I liked one suggestion that was made in another Universal Horror thread which said they should first start with the less known stuff such as Phantom of the Opera, Mummy, Cat creeps, etc. with high quality "one-shot films", then once they have built a strong fan base, they slowly go into the more popular ones, like Dracula and Frankenstein, would build an interest in the public, as it would make them curious to see how this successful relaunch would reinvent the likes of Dracula. Jumping right into that just leads into "Oh, another Dracula film..."

Thats a good point . Since Dracula is finished & done, maybe Phantom & Mummy are the way to go together perhaps. Then lead to the others as you said.