The Universal Backlot: Horror’s Petri Dish

Homer: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute… Lisa honey, are you saying you are never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No!
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No!
Homer: Pork Chops!?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal!
Homer: Yeah right Lisa, a wonderful “magical” animal.

When I first saw the list of classic, iconic horror films that were filmed at Universal, I had the same reaction as Homer. “Right. All filmed by a wonderful, ‘magical’ studio.” But it’s true. An impressive and influential list of American horror films all came from that same wonderful, magical studio. As if that wasn’t enough, they were all filmed to varying degrees on Universal’s backlot.

Even a Man Who Is Pure of Heart Can Eat Some Cake: Lon Chaney Jr.’s Birthday

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Thanks to the fine folks at Movie Brain Rot, I found out that today is Lon Chaney Jr.’s birthday. As you’ve probably gathered from the billions of times I’ve mentioned it, I am a huge fan of The Wolf Man. And The Wolf Man wouldn’t be The Wolf Man without Lon Chaney, Jr. and his hang-dog expression. So here’s to you, Lon Chaney, Jr. Happy birthday, sir. Here are my three favorite non-wolf roles for Mr. Chaney since I’ve already poured my heart out about his best role.

Why I Buy the Movies I Buy

After enjoying a Spaced marathon a few days ago, I remarked to my friend, “That was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made”. And it’s true. I bought the entire series- two seasons of Daisy and Tim and Mike and Marsha and Brian and Twit… er, Twist- less than 12 months ago. I’ve already re-watched it twice. On top of that, I’ll be loaning it to a friend and fellow Edgar Wright fan within the next few months. I look forward to helping someone else turn on and tune in.

Hearing the comment come out of my mouth made me wonder just what exactly inspires me to buy the movies (and TV shows) that I buy?

100 Things I Love About the Movies

I passed a milestone recently here at TDYLF. Thanks to the help of the editors over at IMDB, I passed the 100,000 Hits milestone on Sunday (with a whopping 80,000+ of those hits coming just since September 30th). To celebrate, I’m beginning a brand new series called “100 Things I Love About the Movies”. To be sure, there a LOT more than 100 things that I love about the movies. As such, this has the potential to become a series- 100 Things I Love About Horror Movies, 100 Things I Love About Foreign Movies, and on and on. I present to you the first edition of “100 Things I Love About the Movies”.

The Wolf Man: Universal Pictures’ Alpha Dog

Each studio had their niche in the early days of Hollywood. For Universal Pictures, it was horror. Over a span of two decades, they banged out one horror icon after another- Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, and finally The Creature from the Black Lagoon. These creature features were smart, they were well written, they were horrific to 1930’s and 40’s movie-goers, they used excellent source material, and they had a heavy influence on later films (more on this later). They were all fantastic. But in an earlier entry, I referenced The Wolf Man as my favorite classic monster flick from Universal. Here’s why:

Eight Horror Films for October Viewing

I love October. Major League Baseball starts their playoffs, NCAA football is in full swing, the nights are crisp, Octoberfest beers populate the landscape, and 90+ degree days are as far away as they’ll ever be. And, most importantly, it’s the month for Halloween and, by proxy, a whole mess of horror films. Here are eight that I try to watch every year in October.