I want to say the air is starting to feel like fall, but I won’t lie to you like that. The leaves are still green, and we’re over halfway through September. I’m still waiting for any kind of chill to make me feel like fall is on the way, but here we are. It doesn’t mean we can’t prepare for the glorious month of October!

I firmly believe that Halloween is more than a holiday; it is a state of mind or lifestyle. All throughout the year, I wear my horror shirts and will watch any horror movie at any time. However, one group of franchises will always be near and dear to my heart.

The original Universal Monsters.

Most people would think the classic era of the monster franchises included Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and The Creature From the Black Lagoon, but there were earlier films that sometimes aren’t viewed as part of the Universal heyday. The early era films go back to 1913’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and conclude with 1925’s Phantom of the Opera. These are excellent films, but none spawned sequels like those in the classic era films.

The classic era launched with Bela Lugosi frightening audiences as Count Dracula. After a five-year gap, Universal returned to the horror genre with Dracula in the spring of 1931. Frankenstein quickly followed in the fall of 1931. Two new monsters joined the line-up over the next two years. The Mummy was released in 1932, followed by The Invisible Man in 1933. People may not realize that the Wolf Man and Creature would come much later and were not part of the first wave of pictures in the classic era. In fact, it took almost a decade for The Wolf Man to be released in 1941 and another thirteen years from then for The Creature From the Black Lagoon to hit theaters in 1954.

The classic era is also responsible for how monsters are depicted in pop culture. Think about the early Ben Cooper Halloween costumes or the many decorations hanging from doors and windows during the Halloween season. Who does Frankenstein look like? Boris Karloff is the iconic image we have seen for over seventy years, and the main take on Dracula is usually Bela Lugosi. The Universal versions of the characters are how we think about the monsters.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

These films are a part of my childhood and adulthood. They will always be a part of my horror DNA and heavily influence me and my fiction. Some of the sequels became cheesy and ended rather lackluster with the Abbott and Costello crossover films. Yeah, they have a silly charm and are worth a watch, but yeah. Don’t get me wrong, some of the later sequels to the franchises are low-budget and can be silly. After a long reign, interest waned, and the monsters went into hibernation.

But, do not fear my friends; a good monster never dies. The Universal Monsters never went away. These films are on my viewing list all year round, and I’m about to start watching them again. This year, I’m going to do something different. Instead of the six main films, I will watch all six main films plus the twenty-eight total sequels on my Legacy Collection DVDs.

How many will you watch?

Okay, I’ve got to go and work on the next book and prepare for AuthorCon St. Louis in a couple of weeks. This will be my last convention for the foreseeable future. I hope to see some of you there!

What I’m watching: Universal Monster flicks…duh.

What I’m reading: Bram Stoker’s Lair of the White Worm

What I’m listening to: The Lost Tracks of Danzig CD set.

Until next time,

Brent