Explore cinema history with our Universal Monsters posters gallery!
Universal Pictures recently announced The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, would be part of a larger world called Dark Universe, including the upcoming film Bride of Frankenstein. To celebrate the franchise’s cinematic history, we’re taking you on a journey back through the heyday of horror with a gallery of Universal Monsters posters from the 1920s through the 1950s. Check it out in the gallery viewer below!
RELATED: Universal reveals Dark Universe logo, details for monster shared universe
The Mummy, directed by Alex Kurtzman, features a screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Christopher McQuarrie. From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy aims to brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills to its imaginative new take that will usher in the Dark Universe’s new world of gods and monsters.
Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her, is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.
RELATED: Mummy with a Why: Alex Kurtzman on the Universal Monsterverse
The Mummy cast also includes Annabelle Wallis (King Arthur, Peaky Blinders), Jake Johnson (Jurassic World), Courtney B. Vance (American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson) and, in the role of Dr. Jekyll, Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator).
What did you guys think about our walk through the history of the Universal Monsters posters? Do you have a favorite film from the gallery? Are you excited for The Mummy when it opens on June 9? Are you looking forward to more Dark Universe movies? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @ComingSoonnet.
Universal Monster Movies
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1923
Directed by Wallace Worsley and starring Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller and Norman Kerry
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The Phantom of the Opera - 1925
Directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry and Arthur Edmund Carewe
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The Cat and the Canary - 1927
Directed by Paul Leni and starring Laura La Plante, Forrest Stanley, Creighton Hale and Flora Finch
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The Man Who Laughs - 1928
Yet another one directed by Paul Leni
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The Last Warning - 1929
Directed by Paul Leni and starring Laura LaPlante
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Dracula - 1931
Starring Bela Lugosi. A Spanish language film starring Carlos Villarías came out the same year
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Frankenstein - 1931
This classic film starred Boris Karloff
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Murders In the Rue Morgue - 1932
Bela Lugosi came back for this film directed by Robert Florey
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The Mummy - 1932
The precursor to Universal's current film, beginning their Dark Universe. This one starred Boris Karloff
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The Invisible Man - 1933
Gloria Stuart and Claude Rains starred in this film
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The Black Cat - 1934
Two monster horror actors, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff joined forces in this film
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood - 1935
This film starring Claude Rains later became a Broadway musical
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Bride of Frankenstein - 1935
This poster features the tagline, "Warning! The monster demands a mate!"
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Werewolf of London - 1935
Starring Henry Hull, Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews and Spring Byington
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The Raven - 1935
Based on the famous Edgar Allen Poe poem, this film featured Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi
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Dracula's Daughter - 1936
The latest in a line of continuing stories about the famous vampire, starring Gloria Holden
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The Phantom Creeps - 1939
Directed by Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind
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Son of Frankenstein - 1939
Yet another team of for Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff
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Tower of London - 1939
Set in the famous London landmark, the site of many deaths
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The Invisible Man Returns - 1940
Vincent Price starred in this film directed by Joe May
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Black Friday - 1940
Karloff and Lugosi are at it again!
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The Invisible Woman - 1940
The latest in a line of films set around a different version of the same monster or disaster
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Horror Island 1941
Directed by George Waggner, who directed Man Made Monster the same year
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The Wolf Man - 1941
Directed by George Waggner, and starring Claude Rains and Bela Lugosi
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The Ghost of Frankenstein - 1942
A mashup of two monster themes, starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke
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The Mummy's Tomb - 1942
Directed by Harold Young and starring Lon Chaney Jr.
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Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man - 1943
Famous monsters meeting in a feature film directed by Roy William Neill
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Phantom of the Opera - 1943
Based on the classic pulp fiction tale, which has been made into a film in a number of decades
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Son of Dracula - 1943
Starring Lon Chaney Jr. and Louise Allbritton
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Jungle Woman - 1944
Starring Evelyn Ankers, J. Carrol Naish, Lois Collier, Milburn Stone, Douglass Dumbrille and Acquanetta
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The Mummy's Ghost - 1944
Another monster mashup, directed by Reginald Le Borg
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The Mummy's Curse - 1944
Lon Chaney Jr. in yet another Mummy film
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House of Dracula - 1945
A call back to 1944's House of Frankenstein, both starring Lon Chaney Jr.
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Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein - 1948
The first of a number of films with monsters and the classic comedy duo
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It Came From Outer Space - 1953
The monster genre heads into space!
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Creature From the Black Lagoon - 1954
Directed by Jack Arnold, who also directed the next year's Revenge of the Creature
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The Mole People - 1956
The science fiction film takes on the hollow earth theory
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The Incredible Shrinking Man - 1957
Before Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and the rest of the franchise, we had this film
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The Thing That Couldn't Die - 1958
Starring William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Carolyn Kearney and Jeffrey Stone
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The Curse of the Undead - 1959
Directed by Edward Dein and starring Eric Fleming, Kathleen Crowley and Michael Pate
