My Review of The Mummy (1959)

 

Written by Jimmy Sangster

Directed by Terence Fisher

John Banning: "Seems I've spent the better part of my life amongst the dead."

Yesterday I was looking for a different version but I'll find that one next week. Anyways this version was in the Hammer Horror side of things and why, it did feature both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

The movie started with a trip to Egypt in the 19th century where John Banning (Peter Cushing), his father Stephen (Felix Aylmer) and his uncle Joseph Whemple (Raymond Huntley) are looking into the tomb of Princess Ananka (Yvonne Furneaux). She was the high priestess of Kharis (Christopher Lee). She was also his lover too.

Of course, John injured himself so he wasn't there to disturb the tomb itself or to ignore the warning of Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) about a curse for those who'd desecrate such an ancient tomb. Then again, when did anyone actually heed such a warning?

Anyways, some years had passed and back in England, a rather traumatised Stephen tried to warn his son about the curse and in particular, the dangers of Kharis. Yes, they brought the mummified Kharis to England and it didn't take long for Kharis to come to life and prove that it wasn't a good idea to disturb a mummy's tomb.

On top of that, John's wife Isobel also happened to look exactly like Princess Ananka and the Mummy noticed this himself. Isobel's resemblance to his dead lover was the thing that also broke Mehemet's control over Kharis, though it didn't entirely keep Isobel out of danger. 

Isobel very nearly ended up being buried in quicksand with Kharis and the scrolls that activated the curse. By the end of the movie, Isobel managed to just about survive while the Mummy got a rather slow second death.

- This movie aired in double bills with either The Bat (1959) or Curse Of The Undead (1959).

- Elements from the 1932 version's sequels were incorporated into the movie.

- Karnak is a city, not a God and eyes are open rather than closed for the dead.

- Chronology: 1895 Egypt as well as 1898 England. There was flashbacks to Ancient Egypt to provide backstory for Kharis and Ananka's relationship.

The Mummy (1959) certainly fused elements of past attempts rather well and as usual, there's a nice reliability in both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. They give very good performances throughout this particular adaptation. 

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

 

Written by Harry Essex And Arthur Ross And Maurice Zimm

Directed by Jack Arnold 

Captain Lucas: "I can tell you something about this place. The boys around here call it "The Black Lagoon" - a paradise. Only they say nobody has ever come back to prove it."

So far I've been looking at the more familiar of Universal Monsters creatures that I hadn't thought about the depths below. Yup, it was time to take a trip to the Amazon for a more subterranean threat.

Let's meet the Gill-Man (Ricou Browning/Ben Chapman). What exactly was he? Something left over from another time? A link between land and sea animals? Yup, it seemed to be the latter. Nevertheless his presence caused quite a stir.

Cue to an exploration team mostly made up of men such as Dr. Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) and his two assistants, Luis (Rod Redwing) and Tomas (Perry Lopez). Add in Dr David Reed (Richard Carlson), Dr Mark Williams (Richard Denning) and David's girlfriend, Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams). Now you've got an expedition team.

It's a very male heavy movie, including Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva) while Kay's role was being the unwilling attraction piece. The Gill-Man took more than an interest in her during their interactions, even to the point of bringing her to an underwater cave.

Kay's role in this whole film was mostly a thankless part as aside from being the only woman in the movie, there's not much for her to do. The men when they weren't fighting among themselves seemed more intent on capturing or killing the Gill-Man himself, somewhat succeeding in the latter eventually.

As for the Gill-Man himself, he's portrayed as more tragic than anything else. At the end of the day, it was that expedition team that disturbed him and for the most, he was just minding his own business. Being obsessed with Kay probably didn't help. The underwater scenes looked really good as well.

- There are two sequels - Revenge Of The Creature (1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). A remake hasn't happened though many attempts have been made.

- There's a colourised version of this movie in existence but it's better watching this in black and white.

- Ricou Browning played Gill-Man in water while Ben Chapman played the role on land.

- Chronology: Set in the Amazon rainforest. The Gill-Man seems to be left over from the Devonian period.

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954) did make for a more science fiction focused film. The human characters are generally fine but it's the Gill-Man who held the interest. A great design brought to life.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

 

Written by Lester K. Cole And Joe May And Curt Siodmak And Cedric Belfrage

Directed by Joe May

Willie: "What kinda ghosts sneeze?"

Geoffrey: "It's cold in the other world, so cold!"

Sequel time. Turns out that being a part of the Universal Monsters World meant getting a sequel and after the success of the first movie, our often unseen antagonist warranted a return.

Of course there was the problem of Jack Griffin being dead and in this movie, he's still dead. His successor for the serum would be the falsely accused Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price). He was working with Griffin's brother, Frank (John Sutton) and his fiancé Helen Manson (Nan Grey) in case he was found guilty of his brother's death.

The first movie made it clear that the serum used to make a man invisible can also drive them to madness. Geoffrey fell victim to this as well. This was in spite of the fact that Geoffrey made it clear to both Frank and Helen to stop him if he succumbed to madness.

Geoffrey's actions for the most part are more sympathetic than Jack's in the first movie. Geoffrey simply wanted to clear his name and avoid Detective Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) from arresting him. He's actually closer to an antihero than villain in this movie.

Of course when Frank and Helen tried to stop Geoffrey from being corrupted by the serum, it inevitably backfired. Geoffrey terrorised the bejesus out of Willie Spears (Alan Napier) and found out that his cousin, Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) was the killer instead.

The differences between how the locals were between Jack and Geoffrey also made for an interesting last act. With Jack, they were only too happy to burn him alive but with Geoffrey, they're actually willing to donate blood to keep him alive, and it worked too.

- Vincent Price and Alan Napier would both appear in the 1960s Batman TV show together.

- There's a rather striking scene where Geoffrey borrows the clothing from a scarecrow before getting his blood transfusion.

- Much to my surprise, this movie was the first time that Vincent Price entered the world of horror. It certainly wouldn't be his last time.

- Chronology: A while since the events of The Invisible Man (1933).

The Invisible Man Returns to me was a far better sequel than I had anticipated. It didn't repeat the same format as the first movie but managed something different enough to stand out. I genuinely enjoyed this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Life Of Chuck (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Mike Flanagan 

Chuck: "I will live my life until my life runs out."

Fresh from his Netflix era and prior to a few major upcoming projects, it was time for another theatrical release from the very talented Mike Flanagan. Low and behold, it's an adaptation of a Stephen King story. 

I snark but to Flanagan's credit, it's a recent story and it's a first time live action take. It's also more fantasy drama rather than horror and a nice examination into one seemingly ordinary man who died young and his story was told out of order.

Split into three acts, the third one was centred on the death of an accountant named Charles "Chuck" Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Chuck had died from a brain tumour with his wife Ginny (Q'orianka Kilcher) and son Brian (Antonio Raul Corbo) by his side. 

Of course there was a bigger issue than Chuck's death. The universe was ending and the third chapter focused on teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his inattentive class. There was also his need to reconnect with ex-wife, Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan) and interactions with other characters, such as mortician Sam Yarborough (Carl Lumbly) and little girl, Iris (Violet McGraw). Then the universe ended.

Getting into the second act, there was an actual focus on the title character himself. Chuck's love of dance reared it's head when he took on the recently dumped Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso) as a dance partner in the street. There was a busker (Taylor Gordon / The Pocket Queen) to provide a nice beat for the dancing duo. It's a nice middle act but had the least screentime.

The first act of course provided the main context. We spent a lot with the child (Cody Flanagan/Benjamin Pajak) and teenage (Jacob Tremblay) versions of Chuck. We saw his love of dance come from his grandmother (Mia Sara) as well as his grandfather (Mark Hamill) being afraid of what a room. We saw two of his teachers - Miss Richards (Kate Siegel) and Miss Rohrbacher (Samantha Sloyan) encourage him and even his crush on Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss) during his formative years.

What I liked about the movie was that Chuck did feel like an ordinary guy who went on to live a pretty ordinary life, even if it was cut short. Did his death cause the universe to actually end or was it just a coincidence? I'm not really sure but the last shot was a powerful way of ending this movie.

- The Acts themselves are Thanks, Chuck (3), Buskers Forever (2) and I Contain Multitudes (1).

- Other Flanagan alumni that appeared in this movie were Rahul Kohli, David Dastmalchian, Matthew Lilliard, Molly C. Quinn, Michael Trucco, Carla Gugino, Hamish Linklater, Elan Gale, Sauriyan Sapkota, Matt Biedel and Heather Langenkamp. Mike even appears himself during a funeral scene.

- Nick Offerman provided the narration for the movie and Lauren LaVera had a voice role.

- The movie had a dedication to Scott Wampler, who passed after the film finished filming. 

- Standout music: Steve Winwood's Gimme Some Lovin.

- Chronology: Chuck Krantz died at the age of thirty nine and the universe died along with him.

I genuinely think if this movie had gotten a spring or autumn release, The Life Of Chuck wouldn't have gone under the radar. Releasing it during the summer was madness. It's a lovely movie, great performances and played easily into Mike Flanagan's strengths and known tropes. I very much enjoyed it.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of After The Hunt (2025)

 

Written by Nora Garrett

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Maggie: "I don't feel comfortable having this conversation with you anymore."

Alma: "Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable, Maggie. Not everything is supposed to be a lukewarm bath for you to sink into until you fall asleep and drown."

Taking a mild breather from horror stuff, I thought I'd venture into at least one potential award contender this week. Except this might already be out of the running. Luca Guadagnino, what is happening with you?

With Queer (2024) getting frozen out, there was potential for After The Hunt to be an award vehicle for Julia Roberts but in spite of her best efforts, this film sadly might be a lost cause. There's a good idea but it's so horribly muddled with the results on offer here.

You've got five characters. First there's Julia Roberts as philosophy professor, Alma Imhoff. She's in a crappy marriage to Frederik (Michael Stulbarg) and she's caught in a "he said, she said" dilemma between colleague Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) and promising student, Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri).

Maggie claimed that Hank sexually assaulted her and Hank claimed that she plagiarized an assignment and was accusing him of rape in revenge. While Hank turned out to be right about the latter, it's somewhat muddled as to whether or not he actually raped Maggie.

Alma's the one caught in the middle of the two as her dynamics with both Maggie and Hank are on display. At one point, Alma absolutely tore into Maggie's character and got slapped by her. A lot of what Alma said about Maggie did seem to be true even if it bordered on cruelty with the way she said it.

Then there was her marriage to Frederik. The latter was mostly a dick to her but did step during the times in which Alma's health took a turn for the worst. Alma's dynamic with Hank had all the toxic unresolved sexual tension that culminated in a moment that definitely made me think Hank might have been guilty of attacking Maggie after all.

There's a supporting role for Chloe Sevigny as university liaison, Dr Kim Sayers. Her character's very unprofessional and outright unhelpful and to be honest, I think Alma had every right to snap at her. Kim's not even the worst behaved character in this movie but she's also someone you wouldn't want to go to for advice.

- Maggie was established to be a lesbian and was dating Alex (Lio Mehiel). By the end of the movie, Maggie was dating an older woman when her and Alma cleared the air with each other.

- Luca Guadagnino and Andrew Garfield are currently working on Artificial and hopefully it'll be a better fit with the pair.

- I'm pretty sure this movie implied that despite Hank's obsession with Alma, he was also sleeping with Frederik and both female and male students. Hank got a job working for a Democrat.

- Chronology: Present day American setting, though it was filmed in London and Cambridge.

After The Hunt needed to be a good thirty minutes shorter and a lot more concise in its messaging. It does drag as a movie and despite it's leading cast, none of them are enough to raise this movie out of the mess it fell into.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

 

Written by Curt Siodmak 

Directed by Roy William Neill

Maleva (re the Wolf Man): "He is not insane. He simply wants to die."

For one of these characters, it's their first sequel and for the other, it's a fourth in this particular continuity. Yup, these two characters just to meet with one another.

However, there was the issue that the last time both characters appeared, they died. However in the Universal Monsters World, death doesn't really mean anything. Also despite the name order in the movie title, one had more screentime than the other.

The Wolf Man aka, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) turned out not to be dead. He also didn't waste time in killing a local police officer or finding out that a lot of time has passed since being killed off in his own movie.

In a lot of ways, this movie felt more like a Wolf Man sequel with a side order of Frankenstein (Bela Lugosi). Larry wanted to die and found himself reunited with Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who still couldn't give him the release he wanted.

Not that it matter because Larry managed to uncover Frankenstein's body and teamed up with Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey) and  Dr. Frank Mannering (Patric Knowles). However they were more interested in resurrecting Frankenstein than helping the Wolf Man himself.

Where this film somewhat doesn't stick the landing was the actual meeting of the two monsters themselves. It happened way too late into the movie and it ended on a frustrating cliffhanger where both of their respective fates were left unknown.

- Bela Lugosi really went from Dracula to Frankenstein monster in the manner of twelve years.

- Larry's father died of grief in between movies. There wee also plans to have Lon Chaney Jr play both roles before Bela Lugosi was cast as Frankenstein's monster.

- These two would clash again in House Of Frankenstein (1944) and House Of Dracula (1945) along with other monsters.

- Chronology: Four years since the events since The Wolf Man (1941) and The Ghost Of Frankenstein (1942). Set in Cardiff and the village of Vasaria.

I admire the fact that Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man got the ball rolling for these crossover events but it's a disappointing start with not enough interaction between both monsters. I'll catch up with the other ones soon.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Wolf Man (1941)

Written by Curt Siodmak

Directed by George Wagner

Larry Talbot: "It isn't a wolf... it's a werewolf!"

Earlier this year I reviewed and didn't much care for Wolf Man (2025). Of course I had to go and find the original version to watch. I'm also on an Universal Monsters binge.

Our titular character happened to be Larry Talbot (Lou Chaney Jr). He's of a generation of Talbot men who returned home to be with his father, Sir John (Claude Rains). However, Larry's attention was drawn to his telescope.

Larry's attention was also drawn to Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) and he went about wooing her in the weirdest way possible. He also bought a cane with a silver wolf on top and both him, Gwen and the latter's friend, Jenny Williams (Fay Helm) took a visit to get their fortune told by gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi). For all their sake, they should've stayed at home that night

It turned out that Bela was a werewolf and he attacked and killed Jenny. Larry's attempts to save Jenny resulted in Bela's death and a grim warning from gypsy elder Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya). One werewolf died and another was activated in his place.

The other werewolf was of course, Larry. Larry of course was in denial about what happened to him until he had to face up to his reality. There's a love triangle of sorts between Larry, Gwen and the latter's fiancé, Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles) but it's not as fleshed out as it could've been.

A lot of time was spent in the last act with the likes of Captain Paul Montford (Ralph Bellamy), Dr Lloyd (Warren William) and the villagers trying to catch the Wolf Man. By the end of the movie, things ended rather badly for poor Larry Talbot.

- Mythos that were discussed included wolfsbane and the pentagram symbol. There's a gorgeous trippy moment where Larry transformed into the Wolf Man.

- Bela Lugosi (Bela) previously played Dracula (1931) and Claude Rains was The Invisible Man (1933).

- There's a few sequels and remakes/reboots that I will get to watching and reviewing.

- Chronology: Set in Llanwelly, Wales. Larry returned home because his brother died.

The Wolf Man (1941) definitely hit the right spot for a horror classic. The practical effects for the titular character look great, the night scenes are beautifully shot. There's a tragic love triangle, even if it's not fully explored and that tragic ending.

Rating: 8 out of 10