47 Universal Monster Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer

(Photo by Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)

The latest: Wolf Man is howling out now, the first take on the monster since 2010’s The Wolf Man with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. Director Leigh Whannell and production house Blumhouse are back at it again here, after the success of The Invisible Man in 2020.

Before your cinematic universes and extended galaxies and interconnected constellations, there were the Universal Classic Monster movies. A loose confederation of sequels and spinoffs, they were the biggest motion picture events in the early life of cinema. The 1920s kicked things off with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera before the franchise moved into its 1930s golden era. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man all released between 1931 and 1933, and they remain masterpiece staples of the horror genre.

In the 1940s, Universal ramped up production, frequently outpacing quality control. Among the sequels was the introduction of The Wolf Man in 1941, as well as Universal’s turn to self-parody with the arrival of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The comedy duo would Meet Frankenstein in 1948, carrying well into the mid-’50s. Creature from the Black Lagoon was the final hurrah for the original line of Universal monster movies.

In 1999, The Mummy was revived in the summer blockbuster era, bringing in enough fans young and old to encourage two sequels. Van Helsing and The Wolfman also arrived in the decade or so after the Mummy relaunch, though the lackluster returns on those meant Universal was ready to try something new (read: what Marvel was doing).

2014’s Dracula Untold was to be the start of a so-called Dark Universe of connected monster movies. After that movie failed to draw much blood out of the box office, 2017’s The Mummy was going to be the “new” new start of the Dark Universe. Until that movie also bombed spectacularly.

And so we arrive at 2020’s The Invisible Man, which reportedly cost 30 times less than The Mummy to make, and with no aspirations to be tied to any larger universe. In 2023, the studio released a comedic follow-up to Dracula with Renfield, all about the Count’s poor beleaguered aide. Then the studio took a few bites: First with The Last Voyage of the Demeter in 2023, based on a chapter from the Bram Stoker Dracula novel, and then in 2024 with Abigail, a loose re-imagining of Dracula’s Daughter. Now, we rank all Universal Monster movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo

#1

Adjusted Score: 108475%

Synopsis: After recovering from injuries sustained in the mob attack upon himself and his creation, Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) falls under…
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#2

Adjusted Score: 103060%

Synopsis: While researching a new drug, Dr. Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) stumbles on a potion that can make him invisible. When…
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#3

Adjusted Score: 107984%

Synopsis: This iconic horror film follows the obsessed scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to create life by assembling a…
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#4

Adjusted Score: 100970%

Synopsis: The dashing, mysterious Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), after hypnotizing a British soldier, Renfield (Dwight Frye), into his mindless slave, travels…
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#5

Adjusted Score: 116130%

Synopsis: After staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist uses his power to become invisible to stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend….
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#6

Adjusted Score: 97124%

Synopsis: When his brother dies, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney) returns to Wales and reconciles with his father (Claude Rains). While there,…
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#7

Adjusted Score: 97613%

Synopsis: Aspiring young opera singer Christine Daaé discovers that she has a mysterious admirer intent on helping her become a lead…
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#8

Adjusted Score: 96497%

Synopsis: A team of British archaeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) discover the mummified remains of the ancient Egyptian…
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#9

Adjusted Score: 97104%

Synopsis: After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to…
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#10

Adjusted Score: 85184%

Synopsis: Remnants of a mysterious animal have come to light in a remote jungle, and a group of scientists intends to…
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#11

Adjusted Score: 100275%

Synopsis: Soon after beginning work for Conde Dracula (Carlos Villarias), the clerk Renfield (Pablo Alvarez Rubio) learns that his employer is,…
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#12

Adjusted Score: 99524%

Synopsis: Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) is determined to prove the legitimacy of his father’s scientific work, thus rescuing the…
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#13

Adjusted Score: 96475%

Synopsis: In 15th-century Paris, Jehan (Brandon Hurst), the evil brother of the archdeacon, lusts after a Gypsy named Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth…
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#14

Adjusted Score: 93965%

Synopsis: In the first of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s horror vehicles for Universal Pictures, the inimitable comic duo star as…
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#15

Adjusted Score: 90737%

Synopsis: Wrongly accused of murdering his brother, Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is found guilty and sentenced to die. But when sympathetic…
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#16

Adjusted Score: 80805%

Synopsis: Two detective-school graduates (Bud Abbott, Lou Costello) help a framed boxer who can make himself disappear….
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#17

Adjusted Score: 80975%

Synopsis: While in Tibet researching a mysterious flower that purportedly takes its strength from the moon, botanist Wilfred Glendon (Henry Hull)…
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#18

Adjusted Score: 80499%

Synopsis: Talented Christine (Susanna Foster) is unaware that her singing lessons are being funded by a secret admirer, Enrique (Claude Rains),…
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#19

Adjusted Score: 73828%

Synopsis: Shepherd Ygor (Bela Lugosi) rescues the monster (Lon Chaney) from a sulfur pit and brings him to Dr. Frankenstein’s other…
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#20

Adjusted Score: 67457%

Synopsis: A screwy professor’s experiments with a gorgeous model attract the attentions of a gangster and a handsome millionaire….
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#21

Adjusted Score: 66834%

Synopsis: An Allied spy (Jon Hall) made invisible by chemistry outwits Axis agents with his blond-braided lover (Ilona Massey)….
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#22

Adjusted Score: 67901%

Synopsis: Although Count Dracula was destroyed by Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan), who is now being tried for his murder, Dracula’s…
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#23

Adjusted Score: 63165%

Synopsis: Policemen Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello) go to London and meet a doctor (Boris Karloff) and his evil…
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#24

Adjusted Score: 67047%

Synopsis: The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in…
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#25

Adjusted Score: 61247%

Synopsis: A man washes ashore in England after a shipwreck and is found by Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis). The man…
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#26

Adjusted Score: 60528%

Synopsis: In Cairo, archaeologist Steve Banning (Dick Foran) unearths a vase that he believes could lead him to the ancient tomb…
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#27

Adjusted Score: 75105%

Synopsis: In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men franchise) stars as Renfield,…
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#28

Adjusted Score: 58863%

Synopsis: Count Alucard (Lon Chaney) comes out of a lake in his coffin and makes a Southern belle (Louise Allbritton) his…
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#29

Adjusted Score: 56373%

Synopsis: This monster movie focuses on the iconic vampire, Count Dracula (John Carradine), and Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney), better known as…
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#30

Adjusted Score: 55679%

Synopsis: After escaping from prison, the evil Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff) and his hunchbacked assistant, Daniel (J. Carrol Naish), plot their…
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#31

Adjusted Score: 70262%

Synopsis: From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a…
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#32

Adjusted Score: 60999%

Synopsis: Based on a single chilling chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula, The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells the…
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#33

Adjusted Score: 50874%

Synopsis: Ten years after the events of the first film, Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) O’Connell are settled in…
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#34

Adjusted Score: 43204%

Synopsis: Scientists (Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason) capture the creature from the black lagoon and turn him into an air breather….
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#35

Adjusted Score: 40607%

Synopsis: Shipped to Louisiana, mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his princess (Virginia Christine) roam the bayou….
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#36

Adjusted Score: 32145%

Synopsis: A criminal (Jon Hall) haunts his enemies’ mansion after a mad scientist (John Carradine) makes him invisible….
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#37

Adjusted Score: 31824%

Synopsis: A 3000-year-old limping mummy (Lon Chaney) seeks his reincarnated princess (Ramsay Ames) in a Midwestern college town….
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#38

Adjusted Score: 40947%

Synopsis: Though absent from his ancestral home of Blackmoor for many years, aristocrat Lawrence Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) returns to find his…
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#39

Adjusted Score: 29165%

Synopsis: An old archaeologist (Dick Foran) recalls the mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney), now at large in New England….
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#40

Adjusted Score: 32054%

Synopsis: In 15th-century Transylvania, Vlad III (Luke Evans), prince of Wallachia, is known as a just ruler. With his beloved wife,…
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#41

Adjusted Score: 26454%

Synopsis: Lawrence Stewart Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) is plagued by a physical oddity that turns him into a crazed werewolf after…
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#42

Adjusted Score: 31573%

Synopsis: Famed monster slayer Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is dispatched to Transylvania to assist the last of the Valerious bloodline…
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#43

Adjusted Score: 18480%

Synopsis: Two guys (Bud Abbott, Lou Costello) stuck in Egypt follow a medallion to the crypt of Kharis….
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#44

Adjusted Score: 16888%

Synopsis: Grisly murders convince a turn-of-the-century Londoner that she is the latest in a long line of werewolves….
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#45

Adjusted Score: 32560%

Synopsis: Nick Morton is a soldier of fortune who plunders ancient sites for timeless artifacts and sells them to the highest…
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#46

Adjusted Score: 19852%

Synopsis: Cursed by a devious sorceress, China’s ruthless Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) and his vast army lie buried in clay for…
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#47

Adjusted Score: 13076%

Synopsis: Florida aquarium workers (John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield) communicate by cattle prod with a captured gill-man….
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