by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Wolf Man | 2025
The Universal Monster series was essentially the first cinematic Universe. Beginning with Dracula in 1931, the overlapping series ran until 1948 with the Abbott and Costello parody, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Of course, Creature from the Black Lagoon would come along in 1954, but it never shared the same space as the core five - Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and the Wolf Man.
In 1931, F.W. Murnau made his final film, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, on the island of Bora Bora. It was partly inspired by Robert Flaherty's 1926 documentary, Moana (no relation to the Disney film). Tabu would ultimately be Murnau's final film, he died in a car crash before the film was released. Both Tabu and Moana were examples of ethnographic films that sought to bring exotic locales to life for audiences of the silent era. I found myself thinking about both of these films as I watched Miguel Gomes' latest film, Grand Tour.