House of Dracula is the last "serious" Universal
Monster Mash film. It is from the year 1945.
After the events of
House of Frankenstein, the yet again revived
Wolf Man Larry Talbot is still seeking release from his condition. He ends up in Dr. Edelmann's place for treatment and accidentally finds
Frankenstein's Monster in the caves under the house. Count
Dracula is also there to find a cure for vampirism, but it is only a ruse to get near the nurse Morella, upon whom he has set his sights.
This film is also notable for having a female hunchback assistant, though she is treated as a sympathetic and kind character.
Next up, comedy duo
Abbott and Costello stumble upon the Monster Mash.
Witness the tropes which pile the horror upon horror!
- Bungled Suicide: Larry decides that one more transformation to a werewolf is too much and attempts to kill himself by leaping off a cliff. He survives and ends up in cave where the Monster is.
- Bit of Fridge Logic as well, because at this point in the series Larry should be well aware of how hard it is to kill him. Even a silver bullet only puts him down until some jackass exposes the corpse to moonlight.
- Contrived Coincidence: The quicksand where the Monster drowned in House of Frankenstein conveniently leads to the underground caves of Dr. Edelmann's place.
- The Corruption: Courtesy of the blood of Dracula, Doctor Edelman is changed from a noble, devout, and compassionate scientist into a mad killer.
- Doing in the Wizard
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Dr. Edelmann's cat.
- For Science!: When finding the Monster, Dr. Edelmann attempts to power up the Monster. Nina talks him out of it, reminding him that the Monster is too dangerous to be revived.
- Glamour Failure: Dracula casts no reflection to a mirror, nor does the evilized Dr. Edelmann.
- Hope Spot: Out of five movies, this is the only one that ends well for poor Lawrence Talbot (yes, by Talbot standards being forced to shoot the man who cured your nightmarish curse to prevent him from suffering the same fate constitutes ending well). He's cured, and he has a love interest. By the sequel though, he's relapsed, and she's nowhere to be found. Probably dead.
- Hospital Hottie: And in truly subversive and original twist, one of them is The Igor! Okay, well, technically, she's Dr. Edelmann's hunchbacked original assistant. But she's still a rather lovely and compassionate woman.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Edelmann's evil side.
- Nightmare Dreams
- The Power of Blood: Dracula's blood can apparently turn normal people completely amoral.
- Screaming Woman
- Talking to Himself: Well, it's more a case of Arguing With Himself In A Nightmare, but after he gets nailed with Dracula's blood, Doctor Niemann has a dream in which his good and evil selves quarrel over the idea of turning the Frankenstein's Monster loose on the villagers.
- Torches and Pitchforks
- Torture Cellar: An old one is under the Edelmann's house.
- Transformation Sequence
- Unexplained Recovery: No attempt is made to explain how Dracula and Talbot survived their onscreen deaths in House of Frankenstein.
- The X of Y
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