Universal horror

Universal Pictures was at the forefront of horror cinema in the first half of the twentieth century and had a formative influence on the subsequent shape of screen horror. The series of films made by Universal from the silent era to the Cold War helped establish a generic template in terms of narrative, visual style and soundscape. Universal also introduced iconic actors such as Béla Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. alongside a gallery of archetypal monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Werewolf and the Creature (a.k.a Gill-Man). This essay considers the extent to which the Universal Monsters are embedded in their historical and cultural contexts.