Here's an interesting one. Universal considered a whole lot of movies to be "horror," not just the classic monsters. Let's take a look at the full list, and just the monsters broken out:

Universal Horror (full)

  1. Dracula (1931)
  2. Frankenstein (1931)
  3. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
  4. The Old Dark House (1932)
  5. The Mummy (1932)
  6. The Invisible Man (1933)
  7. The Black Cat (1934)
  8. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
  9. Werewolf of London (1935)
  10. The Raven (1935)
  11. The Invisible Ray (1936)
  12. Dracula's Daughter (1936)
  13. Night Key (1937)
  14. Son of Frankenstein (1939)
  15. Tower of London (1939)
  16. Invisible Man Returns (1940)
  17. Black Friday (1940)
  18. The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
  19. The Invisible Woman (1940)
  20. Man Made Monster (1941)
  21. Horror Island (1941)
  22. The Black Cat (1941)
  23. The Wolf Man (1941)
  24. Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man (1942)
  25. Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
  26. Invisible Agent (1942)
  27. The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)
  28. Night Monster (1942)
  29. Son of Dracula (1943)
  30. Captive Wild Woman (1943)
  31. Phantom of the Opera (1943)
  32. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)
  33. The Mad Ghoul (1943)
  34. Calling Dr. Death (1943)
  35. Weird Woman (1944)
  36. The Scarlet Claw (1944)
  37. The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)
  38. Jungle Woman (1944)
  39. The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)
  40. The Pearl of Death (1944)
  41. The Climax (1944)
  42. Dead Man’s Eyes (1944)
  43. House of Frankenstein (1944)
  44. The Mummy’s Curse (1944)
  45. The Frozen Ghost (1945)
  46. Strange Confession (1945)
  47. House of Dracula (1945)
  48. Pillow of Death (1945)
  49. House of Horrors (1946)
  50. She-Wolf of London (1946)
  51. The Brute Man (1946)
  52. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
  53. Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
  54. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
  55. The Strange Door (1951)
  56. The Black Castle (1952)
  57. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
  58. It Came from Outer Space (1953)
  59. Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
  60. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
  61. Revenge of the Creature (1955)
  62. This Island Earth (1955)
  63. Tarantula (1955)
  64. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
  65. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
  66. The Mole People (1956)
  67. The Deadly Mantis (1957)
  68. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
  69. The Land Unknown (1957)
  70. The Monolith Monsters (1957)
  71. Monster on the Campus (1958)
  72. The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)
  73. Curse of the Undead (1959)
  74. The Leech Woman (1960)

Now here's just the classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Wolf Man (and related), The Mummy, Phantom of the Opera. But I could see a good argument being made to include other "classic" monsters that don't have a singular figure as a representative, like witches, ghosts, aliens, mole people, shrinking men, giant insects, zombies, Edgar Allen Poe stories, etc. There's plenty of those that I just excised.

Universal Monsters

  1. Dracula (1931)
  2. Frankenstein (1931)
  3. The Mummy (1932)
  4. The Invisible Man (1933)
  5. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
  6. Werewolf of London (1935)
  7. Dracula's Daughter (1936)
  8. Son of Frankenstein (1939)
  9. Invisible Man Returns (1940)
  10. The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
  11. The Invisible Woman (1940)
  12. The Wolf Man (1941)
  13. Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man (1942)
  14. Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
  15. Invisible Agent (1942)
  16. The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)
  17. Son of Dracula (1943)Phantom of the Opera (1943)
  18. The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)
  19. House of Dracula (1945)
  20. She-Wolf of London (1946)
  21. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
  22. Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)
  23. Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
  24. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
  25. Revenge of the Creature (1955)
  26. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
  27. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

A bigger challenge would be to follow these classic characters through other studios, like Hammer, AIP, Lionsgate, etc. One obvious problem is when the monster is in the movie, but isn't in the title -- a cameo, or supporting character. Does it count? Eh, y'all decide.

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  • For what it's worth, here's my look at the Universal horror legacy collections.

  • I linked my bit on the internally connected Universal movies at a previous thread, but it occurs to me I also wrote a little about their Mummy films as well.

  • If you're going to include Abbott & \Costello, you've got to include Young Frankenstein.

    Limit the choices to b&w and stop there. 

  • Just one minor tweak - Ghost of Frankenstein preceded Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. As originally filmed Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman picked up directly from the events in Ghost with the monster blind and able to speak. The producers didn't care for Bela Lugosi's voice coming out of the monster so all footage referencing his vocal ability and blindness were cut. According to IMDB Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman was released in 1943.

  • Shouldn't the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame & the 1925 Phantom of the Opera be on the list?  After all, Lon Chaney looms large on most lists of Universal Monsters.

  • Yes. Can you provide details, not only of the first movies, but later ones in the "series"?

    I really think the silent (Lon Chaney Sr.) Phantom should be in any Universal collection, as it's the best version ever done. But the studio keeps shoving the 1943 version at us, which sucks in comparison.

    But whether Universal considers silent versions part of the "series" that we're doing here or not, we're going to do it. So lay on, MacDuff!

  • Actually, what I'd like to do is complete Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, Werewolf, Hunchback, Jekyll/Hyde, Invisible Man, etc., series, each one to its own post.

    Include everything. And then ... make sense of it all. For Fun. For Evil. For novel series. For whatever we can do.

    But step one is compiling the info.

    Jeff, the Universal series is just that, the Universal series, which tapered off in the '50s. Now, if you want to do a list that includes everything from James Whale's Frankenstein to Young Frankenstein ... well, that's exactly where I want to go.



    Jeff of Earth-J said:

    If you're going to include Abbott & \Costello, you've got to include Young Frankenstein.

    Limit the choices to b&w and stop there. 

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