I am more than thrilled to be able to announce that Universal Studios has added more titles to their upcoming ‘Dark Universe’ collection. Through my life I have always been drawn to the truly tragic characters in horror…the monsters who were almost forced to become that way due to their situation – or were simply misunderstood. The top three on my monster/villain list are Frankenstein’s Monster, Quasimodo, and The Phantom of the Opera. In fact, I drew so many pictures and read so many stories about these three tragic characters that my parents legitimately started to worry.
We already know that Javier Barden will be playing Frankenstein’s Monster, but I cannot hide my excitement at the announcement of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ being added to the ground-breaking collection of redone horror films. Both have been played to perfection by the legendary Lon Chaney and his silent performances will be tough to beat, but I am eager nonetheless.
I am normally not a big fan of remakes, but I love the fact that Universal Studios if presenting these timeless villains to s new generation. I will always love the black and white films from decades past, but it is very exciting to have this resurgence of classic horror.
‘The Mummy’, ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘The Wolf Man’, and others have already been announced. But now the heinously disfigured phantom and hunchback will join the ranks. Hopefully the Phantom is actually scary and deformed (unlike the fairly recent Broadway film) and I am praying to whoever will listen that they keep the original ending of Victor Hugo’s novel.
