Universal Monsters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Universal Horror DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. Elsa Lanchester from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Claude Rains from The Invisible Man (1933), Bela Lugosi from Dracula (1931), Claude Rains from Phantom of the Opera (1943), "The Creature" from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Boris Karloff from Frankenstein (1931), Lon Chaney Jr. from The Wolf Man (1941) and Boris Karloff from The Mummy (1932)
Universal Horror DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. Elsa Lanchester from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Claude Rains from The Invisible Man (1933), Bela Lugosi from Dracula (1931), Claude Rains from Phantom of the Opera (1943), "The Creature" from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Boris Karloff from Frankenstein (1931), Lon Chaney Jr. from The Wolf Man (1941) and Boris Karloff from The Mummy (1932)

Universal Monsters are part of a fictional universe created by Universal Studios in a number of famous horror films. It started with the 1925 film version of The Phantom of the Opera, and continued to encompass such movies as Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Contents

Long after the films were made, even well after their premiere broadcasting on U.S. television, many knicknacks were offered for sale with the features of these characters on them. Universal particularly held to the copyrighting of their depiction of Frankenstein's monster.

The first significant merchandising of these characters was the 1961 introduction of the plastic model kit of Frankensein's monster by the now-defunct Aurora company. In the next few years there followed models of Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon before the series switched to generic or characters from other firms, though there was a Bride of Frankenstein model in 1965. These hollow statues were quite popular among American boys, it being well before there were any "action figurines" (dolls for boys) at all.

Later, fully assembled figurines and caricatures were offered by Universal more directly.

Universal Monsters, such as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Hunchback, The Metaluna Mutant, the Bride of Frankenstein, and the Mummy, in the game Monsterville.

In 1999, ten videos were released of the most famous films.

In England, The Black Cat, The Mummy and The Raven were rated 15 and the rest PG. This contradicts all The Bride of Frankenstein DVD ratings that are 15. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera and The Wolf Man were digitally remastered.

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.