Monsters from the Vault: The Universal Horror Tapes Any True Fan Should Rent
Monsters from the Vault
When Minions & Monsters hits theatres, the originals are already on our shelf
Minions & Monsters opens this weekend, and if you have even a passing fondness for the Universal creatures it brings back, this is your invitation to come in and meet the originals. Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We have most of them on tape, and a few of those tapes are very good indeed.
Universal's classic horror catalogue came to VHS in waves through the 1980s and into the 1990s, and those releases matter. The mastering is imperfect by current standards, there is some tape hiss, and the transfers were done with the technology available at the time. But there is also something right about watching a 1931 film on a format that carries a little of its own age.
Dracula from 1931 is the obvious starting point, and it remains genuinely eerie. Bela Lugosi moves through the frame with a deliberateness that no later performance has quite replicated. The film is slow by modern standards, but the slowness is part of what it is doing.
Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein work best as a pair. James Whale directed both and they share a sensibility that is equal parts horror and strange dark comedy. Boris Karloff's monster is sympathetic in a way that catches first-time viewers off guard. The Bride is the superior film, which is saying something, and both are in stock.
What to Pull from the Shelf
These tapes are the source material that made those creatures household names
The Wolf Man from 1941 introduced Lon Chaney Jr. to the series, and his Larry Talbot is genuinely pitiable. A man cursed and ashamed, a monster who does not want to be what he is. If you want to understand why these creatures have endured so long in popular imagination, that film is a clearer answer than most academic essays on the subject.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein from 1948 is essential. Universal leaned into the comedy potential of its own monsters, and the result treats the creatures with just enough seriousness that the jokes land. It is a template for exactly what Minions & Monsters is attempting this weekend, which makes this the right week to revisit it.
We have a full shelf of these, including some of the less heralded entries that are worth your time. The Mummy runs deep and strange in ways people do not expect. Creature from the Black Lagoon has one of the most iconic creature designs in film history, and the underwater photography holds up beautifully on a television set.
There is a specific pleasure in pulling one of these black sleeves from the shelf. The stills on the back, the chapter warnings, the short paragraphs of plot summary that were written by someone who clearly loved these films. They are physical artefacts as much as they are films, and that quality is part of why we keep them in the rotation.
If you come in this weekend with a child who has just discovered these monsters through the new film, we will set you up properly. Start with Frankenstein, move to The Bride, and if attention holds, close with Abbott and Costello. That is a Saturday afternoon that will lodge itself. The Creature tape is there if you need a Sunday.
The Universal Monsters have outlasted every era that tried to update or parody them, including several of their own studio's attempts. Each new film that sends an audience back to the originals is welcome, whatever form it takes. Come in, ask for the horror shelf, and we will take it from there. The tapes are ready.
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