More Sequels! - Horror films from 1943-45
We got through the next third of the 1940s in horror! The sequelitis I mentioned in the previous post? Yeah, it went crazy in this set of years. There were thirds, fourths, mashups, the whole nine yards. And generally...we didn't hate them.
1943
The Leopard Man: This was an RKO production that was generally uninteresting to me. BUT there was this really fucking amazing scene. A woman has to go under a pitch-black tunnel in order to go to the store to get some flour. She does so, but it's super tense. On her way back, she sees a leopard in the darkness and then takes off running. We then see the inside of the woman's family's house. We hear her banging on the door begging to be let in. The mom smirks, playfully laughing that it's always something. She tells her son to go unlock the door. But the lock is stuck. Then we hear ripping. We hear shredding. The screams reach a climax then stop. And blood pours under the door. It's such a gripping scene.
Captive Wild Woman: Sigh. Just sigh. The lesser known Universal Horror monster, and that's probably for a reason. It's racist. It's sexist. I think the animal handling was interesting. That's about it. Unfortunately, Universal wasn't done with it.
Carnival of Sinners: Sin had been excited for this film for some furry screenshots we saw. Despite that, it was not exactly sexy. Nor was it very horrific. Fun little French cult horror film, but nothing crazy interesting.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman: This was our first true "mashup" movie. It definitely had its issues. Mainly we don't get to see the monster doing stuff till the very end. It just wasn't a very well-done mix of the two. The monster was still blind, and still played by Lugosi. But it cut out his ability to speak, and it felt a lot less continuous than the previous films.
I Walked with a Zombie: This was such a unique zombie film for the time, coming out from RKO. It really tried to focus on creepiness with our main "antagonist" zombie. It is interesting to read through a disability theory lens, especially. Zombies as supernatural are pitted against zombies as the old-time concept of the human "vegetable." I'd genuinely recommend the movie as an essential zombie film.
Phantom of the Opera: OUR FIRST COLOR FILM! This Technicolor piece really changed the story of the Phantom of the Opera. Carlotta's character dies. Christine has two male love interests BESIDES the Phantom. The Phantom has a music backstory as opposed to a circus one. So, it really changed a lot of the story. I honestly didn't like it that much.
Return of the Vampire: This was a Bela Lugosi vampire film. It was done by a different studio, so they couldn't call him Dracula. Plus, it played with World War settings. Playing the vampire Armand, Lugosi made a fun vampire, and the story was one of revenge, so that was nice. Not a bad movie, but not exactly required watching.
Revenge of the Zombies: This is a remake of King of the Zombies. Even though it had the same comic relief actor, I just didn't like this one as much. I liked the idea of the one zombie fighting against the control and dragging her husband down into the quicksand as punishment. But it goes back to White Zombie: white people coming in, taking over POC magic, mastering it better than POCs. Very problematic.
Son of Dracula: I almost came watching Chaney, Jr. play Alucard. I almost came. He is very hot in this film, and we see a lot more transformations, closer to Stoker's book. And the plot was just SO beautifully complex. Once I thought I knew where it was going, it threw a new wrench in the gears. I loved this.
1944
The Uninvited: One of the first films to show ghosts as "real," this was pretty mediocre. I caught the Dark Shadows later element of the girl being possessed by ghosts to jump off a cliff. But that's all that was worth noting.
The Climax: The Technicolor sequel to the Phantom of the Opera from the year before. I liked this more, I think. Karloff plays a guy who got away with murdering (by strangulation) a soprano he loved years ago when she wouldn't quit singing just to be his little songbird. And now a new soprano is in town, and he hypnotizes her into only being able to sing when he allows it. It had its dark moments, more than its story predecessor, and I liked Karloff here. But it was still pretty dull.
Cry of the Werewolf: One of our first surviving she-werewolf stories. But having the "wolf form" acted by a German shepherd was just...no. Not a particularly exciting film either.
Curse of the Cat People: An RKO sequel that turned the film from horror into ghost fantasy. The ghost of the "Cat Woman" haunts her ex-husband's daughter and tries to be a friend to her. I'd read this as a sweet queer film. For every kid who didn't belong or fit in.
House of Frankenstein: This was a major mashup film. It had the Mad Scientist, the Hunchback, the Wolfman, Dracula, and the Monster. Generally, you could think of the story as being in chapters where each monster features prominently. But at the end, shit all goes down at once. I know it's cheesy, but I really liked this film. It was super fun! We get this dark moment too, where the Mad Scientist has bound two men who framed him and sent him to jail before the start of the film, and he tells the men that he's going to put their brains in the Wolfman and the Monster, despite their struggling. The next shot shows both of their brains in jars, labeled with their names.
Jungle Woman: Sequel to Captive Wild Woman. Sigh again. I mean...it's better than the original. But still. Sigh.
The Mummy's Ghost: The third film in the series. This time, the Mummy is focused on finding Ananka who's been reincarnated as a college student. Compared to the previous films, this one seemed a bit more tragic. Another quicksand ending, too. I kinda liked this one, though not as much as the previous two.
The Mummy's Curse: The finale of the main series. In this one, Ananka is free from the quicksand, and the Mummy comes after her again. Ananka's character gets more agency here, but by the end, she, the Mummy, and the Priest of Arkon are finished. Probably my least favorite of the series. It just didn't add anything to the series.
1945
The Body Snatcher: A generic Karloff film. Meh.
Dead of Night: Our first anthology film that's not Unheimlich Geschichten! We enjoyed this one. Framing device was cool. The evil ventriloquist's dummy was cool. All in all, a very good film.
House of Dracula: The sequel to House of Frankenstein. I thought they did the mashup elements a lot better this time around. Dracula is a bit more formidable. The mad scientist is focused a lot more on curing, so we get new scientific elements. He tries to cure Dracula of his vampirism and the Wolfman of his lycanthropy. The blood transfusions turn the scientist partially vampiric, and by the end the Wolfman is finally cured. I liked this, even though the ending still leaves room for the Monster to come back.
Jungle Captive: The sequel to Jungle Woman. Sighs for the millionth time. But also, people were really fascinated with brain transplants around this time.
Zombies on Broadway: Despite the name, it's basically a mix of King of the Zombies and I Walked with a Zombie. Another RKO zombie flick. Not too bad but very slapstick. Considering the title, I would have liked singing zombies. But oh well.
Catman of Paris: More or less the WolfMan but even simpler. I don't recommend.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wow, good use of color on this. They only colored the portrait when it appeared. Very grotesque and Clive Barker-y in art style. But it was definitely a slow burn film. I mean, it is a drama. Still kept its queerness from the book.
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So favorites? For me, I'd say Dead of Night, Son of Dracula, and House of Dracula. Close seconds are Curse of the Cat People and Picture of Dorian Gray. They don't make the cut because the former is more of a fantasy film and the latter was a bit too slow.
Sin's picks: "Out of everything, my top three favorites were Phantom of the Opera (absolute best just because I always loved that story; even though it was boring at parts, I still thought it was done well), House of Dracula (I liked because it had all the monsters; universe-packed monster goodness), and Dead of Night (just because toward the end it got really fucking crazy)."
Comment question of the day: do you have a favorite mashup film?
1943
The Leopard Man: This was an RKO production that was generally uninteresting to me. BUT there was this really fucking amazing scene. A woman has to go under a pitch-black tunnel in order to go to the store to get some flour. She does so, but it's super tense. On her way back, she sees a leopard in the darkness and then takes off running. We then see the inside of the woman's family's house. We hear her banging on the door begging to be let in. The mom smirks, playfully laughing that it's always something. She tells her son to go unlock the door. But the lock is stuck. Then we hear ripping. We hear shredding. The screams reach a climax then stop. And blood pours under the door. It's such a gripping scene.
Captive Wild Woman: Sigh. Just sigh. The lesser known Universal Horror monster, and that's probably for a reason. It's racist. It's sexist. I think the animal handling was interesting. That's about it. Unfortunately, Universal wasn't done with it.
Carnival of Sinners: Sin had been excited for this film for some furry screenshots we saw. Despite that, it was not exactly sexy. Nor was it very horrific. Fun little French cult horror film, but nothing crazy interesting.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman: This was our first true "mashup" movie. It definitely had its issues. Mainly we don't get to see the monster doing stuff till the very end. It just wasn't a very well-done mix of the two. The monster was still blind, and still played by Lugosi. But it cut out his ability to speak, and it felt a lot less continuous than the previous films.
I Walked with a Zombie: This was such a unique zombie film for the time, coming out from RKO. It really tried to focus on creepiness with our main "antagonist" zombie. It is interesting to read through a disability theory lens, especially. Zombies as supernatural are pitted against zombies as the old-time concept of the human "vegetable." I'd genuinely recommend the movie as an essential zombie film.
Phantom of the Opera: OUR FIRST COLOR FILM! This Technicolor piece really changed the story of the Phantom of the Opera. Carlotta's character dies. Christine has two male love interests BESIDES the Phantom. The Phantom has a music backstory as opposed to a circus one. So, it really changed a lot of the story. I honestly didn't like it that much.
Return of the Vampire: This was a Bela Lugosi vampire film. It was done by a different studio, so they couldn't call him Dracula. Plus, it played with World War settings. Playing the vampire Armand, Lugosi made a fun vampire, and the story was one of revenge, so that was nice. Not a bad movie, but not exactly required watching.
Revenge of the Zombies: This is a remake of King of the Zombies. Even though it had the same comic relief actor, I just didn't like this one as much. I liked the idea of the one zombie fighting against the control and dragging her husband down into the quicksand as punishment. But it goes back to White Zombie: white people coming in, taking over POC magic, mastering it better than POCs. Very problematic.
Son of Dracula: I almost came watching Chaney, Jr. play Alucard. I almost came. He is very hot in this film, and we see a lot more transformations, closer to Stoker's book. And the plot was just SO beautifully complex. Once I thought I knew where it was going, it threw a new wrench in the gears. I loved this.
1944
The Uninvited: One of the first films to show ghosts as "real," this was pretty mediocre. I caught the Dark Shadows later element of the girl being possessed by ghosts to jump off a cliff. But that's all that was worth noting.
The Climax: The Technicolor sequel to the Phantom of the Opera from the year before. I liked this more, I think. Karloff plays a guy who got away with murdering (by strangulation) a soprano he loved years ago when she wouldn't quit singing just to be his little songbird. And now a new soprano is in town, and he hypnotizes her into only being able to sing when he allows it. It had its dark moments, more than its story predecessor, and I liked Karloff here. But it was still pretty dull.
Cry of the Werewolf: One of our first surviving she-werewolf stories. But having the "wolf form" acted by a German shepherd was just...no. Not a particularly exciting film either.
Curse of the Cat People: An RKO sequel that turned the film from horror into ghost fantasy. The ghost of the "Cat Woman" haunts her ex-husband's daughter and tries to be a friend to her. I'd read this as a sweet queer film. For every kid who didn't belong or fit in.
House of Frankenstein: This was a major mashup film. It had the Mad Scientist, the Hunchback, the Wolfman, Dracula, and the Monster. Generally, you could think of the story as being in chapters where each monster features prominently. But at the end, shit all goes down at once. I know it's cheesy, but I really liked this film. It was super fun! We get this dark moment too, where the Mad Scientist has bound two men who framed him and sent him to jail before the start of the film, and he tells the men that he's going to put their brains in the Wolfman and the Monster, despite their struggling. The next shot shows both of their brains in jars, labeled with their names.
Jungle Woman: Sequel to Captive Wild Woman. Sigh again. I mean...it's better than the original. But still. Sigh.
The Mummy's Ghost: The third film in the series. This time, the Mummy is focused on finding Ananka who's been reincarnated as a college student. Compared to the previous films, this one seemed a bit more tragic. Another quicksand ending, too. I kinda liked this one, though not as much as the previous two.
The Mummy's Curse: The finale of the main series. In this one, Ananka is free from the quicksand, and the Mummy comes after her again. Ananka's character gets more agency here, but by the end, she, the Mummy, and the Priest of Arkon are finished. Probably my least favorite of the series. It just didn't add anything to the series.
1945
The Body Snatcher: A generic Karloff film. Meh.
Dead of Night: Our first anthology film that's not Unheimlich Geschichten! We enjoyed this one. Framing device was cool. The evil ventriloquist's dummy was cool. All in all, a very good film.
House of Dracula: The sequel to House of Frankenstein. I thought they did the mashup elements a lot better this time around. Dracula is a bit more formidable. The mad scientist is focused a lot more on curing, so we get new scientific elements. He tries to cure Dracula of his vampirism and the Wolfman of his lycanthropy. The blood transfusions turn the scientist partially vampiric, and by the end the Wolfman is finally cured. I liked this, even though the ending still leaves room for the Monster to come back.
Jungle Captive: The sequel to Jungle Woman. Sighs for the millionth time. But also, people were really fascinated with brain transplants around this time.
Zombies on Broadway: Despite the name, it's basically a mix of King of the Zombies and I Walked with a Zombie. Another RKO zombie flick. Not too bad but very slapstick. Considering the title, I would have liked singing zombies. But oh well.
Catman of Paris: More or less the WolfMan but even simpler. I don't recommend.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wow, good use of color on this. They only colored the portrait when it appeared. Very grotesque and Clive Barker-y in art style. But it was definitely a slow burn film. I mean, it is a drama. Still kept its queerness from the book.
---
So favorites? For me, I'd say Dead of Night, Son of Dracula, and House of Dracula. Close seconds are Curse of the Cat People and Picture of Dorian Gray. They don't make the cut because the former is more of a fantasy film and the latter was a bit too slow.
Sin's picks: "Out of everything, my top three favorites were Phantom of the Opera (absolute best just because I always loved that story; even though it was boring at parts, I still thought it was done well), House of Dracula (I liked because it had all the monsters; universe-packed monster goodness), and Dead of Night (just because toward the end it got really fucking crazy)."
Comment question of the day: do you have a favorite mashup film?
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