Is there anyone who doesn't know these famous movie monsters? From the 1920s to the end of the 50s, Universal horrified audiences with films like Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London, The Mummy or Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Hollywood studio specialized in horror cinema, launching the careers of actors like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. by putting them in Frankenstein's skin or transforming them into vampires, werewolves and other spawn of Satan. They created a legion of black and white movie icons that remain engraved in contemporary collective memory.

Starting in the 40s, Universal began a slow but steady asphyxiation of the genre by continuously developing more and more variations of the same theme, like for instance Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and other such spin-offs, taking a definite turn away from the Golden Age of terror toward horror comedies. The 1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein combines Abbott & Costello's stand-up routine with original monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man (not to mention a cameo by special guest The Invisible Man). Judging by the series of insipid sketches that feature this funny pair confronting yet another monster prototype fresh from the Universal catalogue, the fright factor of these once genuinely horrifying creatures had clearly reached new lows. The role of the big studio was over. Then came the 60s, a new era in which independent directors (Hershell Gordon Lewis, Roger Corman, George A. Romero) gave birth to horror in exotic castle ruins or Victorian graveyards – and infiltrated the backyards of America yuppiedom. More recently, classic monsters have made occasional comebacks in films like Van Helsing, a flop from 2004. We prefer the lovely homage Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps) pays to Universal studios monsters in his 1987 The Monster Squad. In the film cinema’s most famous monsters wander through a very 80s-era décor and even ride a plane! The film's power lies in the fact that Dekker, despite the comedic screenplay, takes the monsters seriously and presents them (using makeup and special effects by the grand master Stan Winston) as they were intended to be presented: as terrifying and dangerous predators.