Classic Style Monster Movie Blogathon

I asked everyone to pick 2 of their favourite "classic universal style" monster movie, from any decade.


My choices are 1) Dracula  1931 with Bela Lugosi and
2) Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein from 1948


I don't think I could have done this without picking Dracula. It helped to put both the studio and Lugosi on the map.
I always found the scenes to be creepy and unsettling, which for the era it was created in is what horror was all about.
There is just something about the shadows and the soundtrack that send a slight chill up my spine.
The fact this film was done at the transitional point of movies going from silent to sound, with it's moments of  silence I think adds to the idea of doom being everywhere. 

And Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein... it was the first time I ever saw an Abbott and Costello film.  There is just something about  the transition of these larger then life scary monsters as comedic.
I think, it just goes to prove how much of an iconic element the classic creatures were, even at that point in society, that they would get the pop culture treatment
In a way, it took the fear out of what those classic monsters had represented up to that point. Helped to make many accept the ideas behind the monster films who might not have originally (there had been some controversy when Dracula was debuted with an original end scene stating vampires were real, and some religious groups were upset over it)
Another part of it's charm is it's just so over the top.


I actually had runner up films from the 1980's and 2000's. Monster Squad and Van Helsing for my second pick... but I just love the way the Universal Monsters look in black and white.