The Wolf’s Trail – House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula

We’ve come to the part of the 1940s where the old monsters were beginning to run out of steam. With the real horrors of a world war to contend with, genteel gothic horror was looking like kid stuff, and the period settings and invocations of old superstition were out of place in a world driven by science and engineering. The atom age was coming, and soon horror would be dominated by mad science and extraterrestrial menace. At this point, Universal was trying to wring money out of its monsters without spending much. The success of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man showed the way forward: cram a bunch of monsters into a single movie. A “monster rally,” if you will. And so we come to this week’s double-feature, where Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, mad scientists, and hunchbacked assistants are all thrown in together, with diminishing returns. Two houses, both alike in dignity, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula!

 

The Wolf’s Trail – Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Welcome once again to The Wolf’s Trail, where we continue to follow the through-lines within werewolf cinema across the decades! We’re here on our new day for this feature, which is now going to be our regular Wednesday night thing, and this week we’re returning to the big man himself, Larry Talbot, in the groundbreaking crossover sequel Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man!