House of Horrors

Can I cheat and say all of Universal’s standalone Frankenstein films?

People mostly talk about Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein, and that’s understandable because they’re incredible, timeless films. They’re a large part of the foundation upon which cinematic horror has been constructed. They are horror canon - hell, they’re cinema canon - and deserve to be lauded.

But! Nobody ever talks about the other two films. Maybe because Karloff isn’t in them, maybe because they were building upon an established formula instead of establishing said formula; I don’t know why. But Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein are close to, if not outright, as good as their siblings, and feature many of the things that would become accepted parts of Frankenstein’s Monster in popular culture. They’re important too. Ever wonder why The Monster is depicted as walking with his arms lifted out in front of him in the Halloween episode of every cartoon you’ve ever watched? It’s because he gets blinded in one of the later Universal films and has to feel his way around when he walks.

Another great thing about the later sequels is that they feature the absolute best acting of Bela Lugosi’s career. That may sound a bit like sacrilege to some of you - “Nonsense! His best work was obviously Dracula!” - but go watch Son and Ghost and see if you still disagree with me. He was more polished as an actor, had gotten a much better grasp on the English language, and as Ygor (another pop culture Frankenstein staple established in these films!) was in a role that allowed him to be a lot more outwardly wicked and devious than he could when playing the enigmatic Count. Definitely one of my favorite horror portrayals.

“Mr. Winthrop, three-quarters of my family have fallen into madness, and in their madness have acquired a, a superhuman strength… so that it took the power of many to subdue them.”