I have been a fan of Universal Horror films for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are of a local channel here in the Detroit area that used to show a different Universal horror film every afternoon in the week leading up to Halloween. And then there was local horror host Sir Graves Ghastly who played the old classics every Saturday afternoon from the late 60’s and into the early 80’s. The past 10 years have seen a big renewed interest in these classic horror films with so many being released on DVD and with toys, sculptures, and great new books such as this one from Ballantine/Del Rey books.
Monsters: A Celebration of the Classics from Universal Studios is a fantastic new hardcover book celebrating Universal’s classic horror films. The book doesn’t cover all of the Universal Horrors but does spotlight the major ones such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf man, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the silent version of The Phantom of the Opera. The book features essays on each of these films by either noted actors or directors as well as the family members of the horror film stars.
Sara Karloff and Bela Lugosi Jr., each take their turn writing about their famous fathers and the roles which made them stars. Ron Chaney discusses his great-grandfather Lon Chaney, Director John Landis provides an essay on the Wolfman, and actress Gloria Stuart talks about the Invisible Man, a film she co-starred in over 70 years ago! In addition, makeup master Rick Baker looks at the Universal Monster movie makeup and the legendary Jack Pierce, who designed the look of the Frankenstein Monster, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and many more terrors. There is also a look at the Abbott and Costello monster films, a Universal horror film chronology, and a detailed bibliography.
Now all of this would more than make the day of any fan of classic horror films but there is even more to be found in this fantastic book. Forrest J, Ackerman, Uncle Forry himself, longtime editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland provides the book’s Foreward and a better person could not have been chosen. After all, who else could make the claim to have seen Phantom of the Opera when it opened in 1925, not to mention being friends with Karloff, Lugosi, and Wolfman writer Curt Siodmak? Ackerman even owns one of the capes worn by Lugosi in Dracula.
But perhaps the greatest feature of the book is the photography. The photos are simply dazzling! I was surprised to find many photos that I had never seen before in previous books or horror magazines, such as Lugosi taking a break from filming and resting his foot on a stage light or the magnificently shadowed photo of Karloff sitting in his actor’s chair and reading his script from The Mummy. The photos are simply breathtaking!
Ballantine/Del Rey has produced a book that any fan of Universal’s Classic horrors will be rising out of their tombs to own!
– Tim Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
