This week NECA has Toony Terrors Series 4, Toony Classic Bill & Ted, and the Guillermo del Toro Signature Collection Old Faun shipping to retailers.
Comedy and horror can be tricky. Comedy has to hit you as a surprise. Horror is often the result of surprise. Typically comedies and horror films have difficulty “holding up” over the years. Taste in comedy and horror is typically a contemporary affair and adapts to the times that surround it.
So how, oh, how has Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein held up after all these years?
Was it the cast? This is one of the few appearances of Bela Lugosi as Dracula for Universal (he was often passed over for various reasons) despite being the iconic figure for the character. The incredible Lon Chaney Jr. is here as the classic Larry Talbot Wolf Man. Even Glenn Strange does an admirable job in the boots that Boris Karloff first made famous as Frankenstein.
It is the comedy? Bud Abbott and Lou Costello typically recreated old vaudeville routines on the screen, but this movie is lighter than air. No set routines, but plenty of the wheezy fear takes of Costello shouting for “Chick!” to point at something that inevitably went away by the time Abbott returns.
Is it the horror elements? I remember as a child being mesmerized by the classic transformation of the Wolf Man with Jack Pierce’s iconic makeup design. I was also impressed with the transformation of Dracula into a bat animated by Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz. The hypnotic scenes of Dracula with his victims are chilling and the destructive feats of strength by Frankenstein are thrilling.
Is it nostalgia? Perhaps. Certainly references to the Lucky Strike ad campaign (So round. So firm. So fully packed.) are not landing as jokes in 2020 as they did in mid-century America. But there is something disarming with the mix of wordplay, slapstick bumbling and a straight on classic Universal horror film. While Abbott and Costello play for laughs, the rest of the cast were playing things absolutely straight; sometimes ignoring things no human could ever truly ignore in service of the film.
I think this combination is what brings us one of the greatest Halloween movies of all time. It was actually banned in some territories upon original release and still could scare an uninitiated child and illicit laughs even after you’ve seen every sequence and know every line of dialogue.
Today in the crypt we chat with writer & director of The Mortuary Collection, Ryan Spindell.
Red Headed Revolution in association with Shackle Island Studios and Dunn & Dunn Productions are kicking off the Halloween season with a new horror anthology film!
On this episode of Inside The Steel Cage we chat with Ring Of Honor star “The Horror King” Vinny Marseglia.
On this episode of OWC Life, contributor Adam Holtzapfel chats with Zak Bellante the man behind Death Comes Lifting.
May 3-5, 2019 | Dallas, Texas | Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
Tickets & Info: www.texasfrightmareweekend.com
Texas Frightmare Weekend is pleased to announce the addition of author and musician JEREMY WAGNER to its already stacked list of guest appearances. Author JEREMY WAGNER – who will appear at the event on May 4 – is an award-nominated novelist who has also written hundreds of lyrics and songs spanning several albums with his internationally-recognized death-metal band, BROKEN HOPE.
As part of the new Otherworldly Culture launch, we have a new program called Film Feast. What is film feast you might ask? It’s a monthly program hosted by Adam “Taco King” Holtzapfel where he pairs a meal with a film to give viewers a dinner and a movie idea.