Universal Classic Monsters Collection | $42 | Amazon
Starting back in the 1930s, Universal Pictures’ monster movies have had an outsized place in film culture, and while the company has tried to recapture that since the excellent The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser, it has failed over and over. The studio even tried to make an actual monster cinematic universe with 2017's The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, failing to understand that the one missing ingredient all this time was Brendan Fraser. So, while Universal licks its wounds, it has offered up for sale this 4K re-release of four of its original classics. Normally $80, this 8-disc set is currently on sale for $42. In addition to the original films, the set also has extras like alternate scores, a completely different, contemporaneously-filmed Spanish language version of Dracula (called Drácula), making of featurettes, short films, old gags like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and more.
It’s a pretty comprehensive set, and Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, who seems to know a heck of a lot more about cinema and these movies in particular, thought it was a great set, despite not including The Mummy or The Creature. As a person whose entire understanding of these films comes almost entirely from the endless pop culture references to them, it seems to me this might be the ideal way to finally get to know some of the biggest influences on modern cinema, once and for all. For anyone who grew with and idolizes them, these are almost certainly a great trip down memory lane.