A Month of Universal Horror: Monster Legacy

I could honestly write an entire book dedicated to the storied history of Universal Studio's famous monsters of filmland, and there are many who already have.* It brings shivers to think that those celluloid creeps who slumber in their silver-plated canister coffins still offer us chills and thrills even today. Culling together the modern metaphors and fables of literary merit, Universal's collection of monstrosities run the entire horror genre gambit from fishman to Frankenstein, each with their own horrific (and ultimately tragic) story to tell.

That's why I am so excited for the theatrical release of the new Wolfman on February 12, 2009. From my horror roots as an adolescent, I've never been too fond of the whole stalk n' slash motif, with great exception to the more monstrous villains such as Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger. There just something more mysterious and hauntingly poignant about a monster that we can all identify within our darker selves.

As a fitting dedication to these awkward horrors of Hollywood, Universal has created a wonderfully immersive online experience it calls Monster Legacy. More or less a fancy Flash timeline, the site tracks Univeral's horror roots from its first breaths in 1923 with legendary Lon Chaney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame to 1956's The Creature Walks Among Us. Full of poster stills, image galleries, and fright-filled film clips the site even has a kick ass soundtrack with selected scores from each film.

A quintessential tribute to these movie monsters of yesteryear, the site is a fitting way to kick off this month's countdown.

*For a phantasmagorical read on the early history of the horror genre, check out David Skal's The Monster Show: A cultural history of horror.

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