🎃 31 Days of Halloween – Day 5 🎃
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) ★★★ · Watched Oct 5, 2025
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) is less a grand crossover and more The Wolf Man 2 with Frankenstein grafted in—sort of like how Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was really Man of Steel 2 with Batman worked into the story. Larry Talbot is the protagonist, and the movie picks up directly from where his story left off. It’s also the moment Universal kicked off the first cinematic universe: the “Monster Rally” films, where all the studio’s horror icons bump into each other.
Bela Lugosi steps in as the Monster, and this wasn’t just because Lon Chaney Jr. had his hands full playing the Wolf Man. It actually ties back to Ghost of Frankenstein, where Ygor’s brain was transplanted into the Monster’s body. Originally, Lugosi even had dialogue as Ygor-in-the-Monster, linking the continuity together. But test audiences, who only remembered the Monster as a mute brute from Karloff’s 1931 performance, were confused. Universal panicked, cut the lines, and that footage is now lost—along with the chance for this movie to be something much more interesting.
Still, traces of that cut remain. The Monster here is blind, a direct carryover from the end of Ghost of Frankenstein, since Ygor’s blood type wasn’t compatible with the Monster’s body. That’s why Lugosi staggers around with arms outstretched, eyes half-shut. And just like that, an accident of editing and continuity gave us the iconic “Frankenstein walk” that still lingers in pop culture today.
It’s a moderately entertaining movie, but fascinating as a turning point—the Wolf Man gets his sequel, another key bit of Frankenstein lore is introduced (that, like most Frankenstein lore, has no basis in the novel), and Universal stumbles into inventing the crossover film.
One last terror-tip, boils and ghouls: if you give Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man a watch this October, keep an eye out for the gorgeous Ilona Massey as Baroness Elsa Frankenstein, whom several characters call the “Frankenstein Girl.” Did her good looks inspire the title of electropunk band Mindless Self Indulgence’s breakout album?
