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Stars: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Barrymore, Carroll Borland, Jean Hersholt, Lionel Atwill, Elizabeth Allan | Written by Guy Endore, Bernard Schubert | Directed by Tod Browning

Tod Browning’s 1935 film Mark of the Vampire is a compelling entry in early sound-era horror cinema, blending gothic atmosphere with an intriguing twist on vampire mythology. Renowned for its haunting visuals and surprising narrative, the film stands as both a tribute to and a playful critique of traditional horror tropes.

The film begins with a classic setup: a remote European village shrouded in superstition, a mysterious death with puncture wounds on the victim’s neck, and whispers of vampiric activity. Count Mora (Bela Lugosi) and his ghostly daughter Luna (Carroll Borland) are at the centre of the villagers’ fears. As the story unfolds, Browning masterfully subverts audience expectations, delivering a twist that shifts the narrative from supernatural horror to a detective story steeped in theatrical deception.

Mark of the Vampire

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1935 / 1.33: 1 / 60 Min.

Starring Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi

Written by Guy Endore, Bernard Schubert

Directed by Tod Browning

Tod Browning died in 1962, living long enough to see his work enjoy a resurgence on late night’s Shock Theater, a syndicated TV package featuring Universal’s classic horror films. Browning’s Dracula was one of the crown jewels of that series but if you wanted to see more of the director’s work it probably wouldn’t be on television—his most infamous films were too lurid even for the midnight hour: potboilers populated by deformed and deranged circus performers, bloodthirsty magicians, and cross-dressing ventriloquists.

1932’s Freaks was the ne plus ultra of the Browning shockers, a sawdust soap opera pitting a beautiful prima donna against unorthodox carny performers—”unorthodox” because these folks were, on the surface, strange figures whose physical abberations made them outcasts everywhere except the circus.

The Mummy’s Curse

Written by Bernard Schubert, Leon Abrams, and Dwight V. Babcock

Directed by Leslie Goodwins

USA, 1944

“The devil’s alive and he’s dancing with the mummy.”

Universal’s mummy series plateaus with 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse. Set in the 1990s, men on an irrigation project working in the swamps of the Louisiana bayou help unearth mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) and his Princess Ananka (Virigina Christine). Knowing this, the film’s High Priest, Dr. Izor Zandaab (Peter Coe) follows his supposed boss Dr. Halsey (Dennis Moore) to retrieve the mummies. What ensues is mostly a chase film and blatant repetition of The Mummy, The Mummy’s Hand, and even The Mummy’s Ghost.

Part of the repetition comes when Zandaab tells Kharis and Ananka’s story. Stock footage from the previous films is used to explain how Kharis’s attempt to bring Ananka back to...

Did you somehow miss this amazing sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man? Who could ever forget The Wolf Man vs. Dracula, the Technicolor square-off between Bela Lugosi’s villainous vampire and Lon Chaney, Jr.’s, hirsute antihero? You don’t remember it? Of course not, because it never existed. But, it almost did!

Welcome to “An Alternate History for Classic Film Monsters,” a wonderful series of previously unpublished screenplays from the Universal Monsters era. Curated by Philip J. Riley (Count Dracula Society Award winner and inductee into the Universal Horror Hall of Fame), this collection of newly dug up scripts offers any devoted monster fan who’s “seen ‘em all” a special opportunity indeed of seeing some classic chiller movies that might have been.

Published in the same style as Riley’s earlier screenplays of the ‘30s thriller greats put out by MagicImage, these BearManor Media volumes include a...