Final Destination series

This article was originally published on 12ft.dwende.com on 12 August 2011. Sometimes you don’t need a guy in a hockey mask or the ghost of a murderer to haunt your dreams. Sometimes things like a mask of human skin and a chainsaw or an endless knowledge of slasher film trivia are just overkill. Sometimes all … Continue reading

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) – While the “Golden Age” of the Universal Monster movies began in 1931 with Dracula, Universal Studios was not a total stranger to the horror genre. They had some big hits starring Leonidas Frank Chaney, known as the Man of a Thousand Faces: Lon Chaney. Chaney was rightfully celebrated … Continue reading

The Wolf Man (1941)

The Wolf Man (1941) – Creighton Chaney decided to follow in the footsteps of his father Lon Chaney, the legendary “man of a thousand faces” famous for such films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. The studio rechristened Creighton as Lon Chaney, Jr. and he often, as in The … Continue reading

The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy (1932) – Two reviews into my retrospective of the Universal Monster films, I haven’t yet mentioned one of the people largely responsible for their classic iconography: Jack Pierce. Well, third time’s the charm. Jack Pierce was the leading make-up guy at Universal after Lon Chaney (Sr.) walked off the set of The Man … Continue reading