Let’s move on to something a little more lighthearted, shall we?

First, a lesson in film history: Back in the 1930s and ’40s, individual movie studios tended to specialize more in particular genres than they do now, and Universal had established itself as the “house of horror” with several monster — forgive the pun — hits that are still considered iconic, if not definitive films today, particularly the 1931 versions of Dracula and Frankenstein, and 1941’s The Wolf Man. Universal execs naturally sought to maximize their earnings on these beloved characters by churning out several sequels for each — proving that nothing ever changes all that much in Hollywood — and finally culminating in two “monster rally” crossover films that featured all three characters: House of Frankenstein in 1944 and House of Dracula in ’45. By the late ’40s, however, the monster craze was waning, and several “Abbott and Costello Meet…” films reduced the legendary monsters of movieland to mere punchlines. Which meant poor Larry Talbot — a.k.a. the Wolf Man — never got his own “House of” movie.

Until now.

It seems an independent filmmaker named Eben McGarr has created a retro-tastic new flick called House of the Wolf Man. It’s filmed in glorious black-and-white, shot in the period-appropriate “academy” aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (which we now call “full-screen” on the backs of our DVDs), and generally looks as if it’s a long-lost treasure that’s recently been discovered in Universal’s vaults. Here’s the trailer:

I don’t know about you, but I think that looks a lot cooler than the upcoming Wolf Man remake with Benecio Del Toro (and that actually looks pretty good to me, as remakes go). I haven’t heard anything about how or when this is going to be released, but I intend to be watching for it.

I found this via Michael May, who linked back to Undead Backbrain, where you can find more details about the film and a whole mess of photos. (Is it just me, or does this guy look a whole lot like Indy’s treacherous buddy Mac from Crystal Skull?)

There’s a Facebook page too, of course…