"A Beautiful Dream"

Greetings Night Creatures 

I had a beautiful dream last night. I was at Universal Studios theme   park and there was a grand ride/attraction centered on our beloved   monsters. The attraction itself was called 'THE HOUSE OF   FRANKENSTEIN' and was an Omni-mover rider-through like Disney's Haunted Mansion. The ride was housed in a gigantic re-creation of Dr. Neiman's old place with details right down to the old sign in front of the gate.... 

"No Trespassing- Dr. Gustav Nieman" 

As I waited in line, I noticed a high window in the tower periodically opening revealing old Ygor playing his horn....mournfully eerie.... 

The ride begins in darkness and with a blast of cool air we are   transported to different parts of the world of classic monsters. 

Each one presented in a Cortland Hull type of detail, with Audio   Animatronics technology employed to bring them to life!!  

We begin in the catacombs under the Paris Opera House. Organ music wafts though 5 cellars below ground and we sail over the black still lake, we are in the Phantom's lair suddenly with the famous unmasking scene re-created in front of our horrified eyes... 

As we leave, we are transported past another display of a Parisian "Monster". Surrounded by a red sky with angry clouds, with sound effects of the cruel jeering mob...spinning on his wheel of pain, Quasimodo watches us (looking for all the world like that famous James Bama artwork on the box front of the Aurora model. 

Suddenly blackness again, and the strains of Swan Lake drift overhead...the cellars underneath Castle Dracula come in view and we pass directly into and through them. To our left, Dracula's wives glide silently towards us...on our right, just up ahead...the King of Vampires himself stands on the steps gazing down at us.... candle flickering. The soundtracks of the movies themselves add to the atmosphere..."I am Dracula.... 

The howl of a wolf pierces the night, and Hans J. Salter's music fills our ears. We exit Dracula's crypt through a tunnel opening and are suddenly out on the moors. Fog blankets the ground and we see a lonely gypsy woman (Could it be Maleva?) on her wagon in the distance.... The music builds as we travel through the dark forest...we hear screams...and dialogue..."Find something?? Animal  

Tracks..."Whomever is bitten by a werewolf and lives, becomes a werewolf himself..." Growls and the familiar music grows and swells until we round a bank of trees and there, lit eerily from below, behind the branches of a tree is the snarling, hideous  WOLFMAN. 

The trees grow more thick and dense and we realize that we have entered somehow into a tributary of the upper Amazon. The sounds of jungle animals are thick and we pass by the edge of a deep BLACK LAGOON. With a sudden quickness, the water surface is broken as The Creature from the Black Lagoon quickly pops up out of the water, with the famous creature roar...  

The ride moves up a steep incline (possibly a mountain?) and along the way, we catch glimpses of dark figures and glowing eyes. We reach the top and are plunges into darkness...suddenly a steep drop, and we are in a graveyard. The classic Universal Graveyard of Frankenstein meets the Wolfman. The omnimover takes us around the resting place of the dead...there by that crypt...it's George Zucco (pronounced Zoo-Co) and The Mad Ghoul...over there...two grave robbers are making a classic error climbing up into a crypt marked TALBOT.... and we see the classic death statue standing before an open grave. By the grave is a lantern, a couple of coats, and from within the hole, unseen by us, we can hear two people digging..."down down you fool! The moon's rising...we've no time to lose....(clunk) BE CAREFUL!" 

The car turns us into a VERY large crypt and we enter the opening to smell incense and see dim candlelight. There in the moody semi-dark, a strange ceremony is taking place...a high priest of Karnak is leaning over an open sarcophagus "go now, Kharis...destroy those who dared to enter the tomb of your beloved princess...." and from the Egyptian coffin rises the huge powerful shape of Kharis the Living Mummy, the gaze from his one eye falling on us with fury. 

We leave this place (thankfully) and start to ascend again...up a steep incline and into the opening of a familiar watchtower. Through the windows we see flashes of lightning and sparks and we know what's coming. We travel up the long circular steps...and we enter the world of Kenneth Strickfaden. The scene is played out before our eyes, in a beautiful re-creation set and with the huge inert form rising up up up as the Baron and Fritz watch from below.  

Loud machinery and sparks, with the classic sampled dialogue "It's  
alive! It's moving...It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!!!! 

The creation scene fades behind us and we encounter a tableau of various characters. A one armed inspector leading a crowd of angry villagers, a macabre meeting in a dark corner between the sinister Dr. Pretorious and a huge hulking being hidden in shadows...we hear "woman...friend, WIFE.... and then see the grotesque results. The Bride of Frankenstein...hissing and screaming...before turning the corner into a full on confrontation with the Karloff Monster!!!! The animatronic is incredible...he moves and snarls, his eyes...move back and forth and his arms sway...finally, we go back down down down. (We hear the mobbing villagers again and explosions).... and into a section of the castle being destroyed by a raging fire...boards and bricks fall, we hear the crackle of the inferno, and feel the intense heat...before the massive double doors open to release us back into the bright sunny   Universal Studios Theme Park atmosphere.  

That was my dream. Universal Studios Theme Park actually DOING something with their monsters throughout the year. I personally think an attraction along these dreamy sketches would bring people in droves. Do they just not realize it? 

Until they do, I can always visit THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in my  dreams. 

Rest in peace 

Prof. Griffin