My Life and Code

Synopsis A guy returns home and runs afoul of a local werewolf. Review My first exposure to Lon Chaney Jr. (credited here simply as Lon Chaney , not to be confused with his father) as The Wolf Man was in The House of Frankenstein . I haven't been watching these Universal Monster films in order, and that was the first one I'd seen with The Wolf Man. I was immediately impressed with Chaney's performance, his talent as an actor really standing out. I was curious as to how his character's story began, and this film doesn't disappoint. The story is well thought out and Chaney is exceptional as Larry Talbot, a guy who has an unfortunate chance encounter with a werewolf. Bela Lugosi also appears, playing a character named "Bela" (go figure). This one's a classic. Each Halloween season I check out a few more of these Universal Monster films, watching ones I haven't watched yet, but I think next season I'll give this one another go even before I...

Synopsis After finding a fossilized hand with webbed fingers, scientists go searching for the rest of the skeleton. And, as luck would have it, there's a living specimen roaming around, and he starts killing members of the group. Review The first time I saw this film was about 2 weeks ago, but that creature always freaked me out as a kid. The costume is well done, and from a technical perspective the film is impressive, not only for the creature costume but for the fact that it's worn underwater for swimming scenes as well. There's a lot of underwater footage here, all very well done, and I can only imagine how difficult it must've been to do it. As for the plot/story, it's not bad, though they could've named this one "Creature from the Lagoon of Bad Decisions". The lead character continues to want to go easy on the creature, despite it continuing  to kill members of the expedition. There is  a member of the group who just wants to shoot it, but ...

Synopsis A real estate agent travels to Count Dracula's castle in Transylvania to have him sign a lease on an abbey in London. Seriously. That's how this starts. Then we travel to London and vampire stuff happens. Review You probably have a good idea about the story behind this one even if you haven't seen it. And so did I...except for the lease part. But this was an entertaining film which runs a little longer than most of the other Universal Monster movies I've watched (this one was 85 minutes, but most of the others I've watched have been 70 minutes or so). It's all here: Dracula turning into a bat, sucking blood, crucifixes, stakes, leases, the whole nine yards. This is one I'll probably watch again sooner rather than later just to pick up on the things I missed (I was a little distracted at the time). Lives up to its reputation.

Synopsis A mysterious stranger arrives at an Inn, freaks everyone out, throws a guy down a flight of stairs, and then begins a reign of terror. Review I hated this movie, for the simple fact that I hated  the villain. In that aspect, the film succeeds in providing a detestable antagonist, but I loathed him so much that the film just made me angry. I don't usually get like that...and actually, I'm trying to think of another movie with a character I despised and I'm drawing a blank. This film is considered a classic and is based on a novel by H.G. Wells. From a technical standpoint, the film does a great job with the invisibility illusion, such as when the main character removes some of his bandages, revealing nothing but emptiness underneath. When it comes to these classic Universal Monster movies, sometimes I find I dislike the original film but more enjoy the lesser-known sequels, so I have to wonder if that will be the case with the Invisible Man series of films as ...