Hollywood Trend: Monsters on the Silver Screen

Since the dawn of cinema, monsters in movies on the big silver screen have mesmerized moviegoers. The thrill of being scared by these larger than life figures has brought people out in hoards to see these films. The trend began in the 1920s by Universal Studios. The collection of movies from this era began the phenomenon of the love of movie monsters that has now spanned nearly 100 years, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame as the first notable film of its kind. Monster figures from this era continue to hold their place in mainstream culture, with numerous reproductions and spin-offs coming out of Hollywood each year. While the primitive horror movies from the 1920s may seem silly to us now, with our high definition screens and special effects, it is the success of these early films that have had a lasting impact on the horror genre.

Monsters in early films by Universal Studios, sometimes called Universal Monsters or Universal Horror, spanned several decades including the era called the Golden Age of film. The fact that these monster movies were still being made at a time of such popularity for the motion picture industry foreshadows the enduring success horror films would have. Mainstream culture is filled with references to these classic monsters that have often been reproduced and updated for our clearer colored pictures such as the depiction of the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame belongs to a series of films by Universal Studios that began in 1923 and lasted until the 1960s. Other classic films from this era include The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy. All of these titles have in some way been reproduced for entertainment purposes, from Broadway to television series and back to the big screen. Dracula, based on Bram Stoker’s novel, has experienced resurgence in the love of vampires. Television shows and book/ film series continue to draw on these early images of these monster types also known as the undead. Popular series include the Twilight Saga on the big screen, and Vampire Diaries and True Blood as popular television series all influenced by the original Dracula.

The end of the era of Universal Monsters like Dracula did not mean the end of the popularity of these films. The same methods of stark visuals and heightened film scores used in the early films to build suspense and scare people out of their seats are still used today. While it often takes more than a black and white picture of Frankenstein to scare us today in our much more psychologically-driven horror films, it can not be denied that Universal Monsters began an unending trend in Hollywood to create monsters that at times horrify us and at other times amuse us. In recent films like the Twilight Series, the monsters, in this case vampires, have become both the heroes and the villains of the story. It shouldn’t surprise us that this series also borrows from the popular werewolf theme that also began in the early movies created by Universal Studios.

It is interesting to evaluate all the ways that the early horror films and characterization of monster figures have found their way into modern day culture and filmmaking. The persistence of the popularity of these monster figures suggests there is something timeless about their appeal. Perhaps it is the fact that they’ve simply become engrained in pop culture references, or maybe there is a deeper psychological reason for their popularity. Many of the monsters that moviegoers have come to love or hate hold a quality of immortality, something that humans have always been fascinated with. If there is anything we can say for sure about monsters in movies, it is that the trend itself has become immortalized.