March Monster Madness
As spring creeps toward us, the opening of Universal Studios’ Epic Universe gets closer and closer. While exciting enough on its own, the theme park is set to have an entire section based around the Universal Monsters, simply named “Dark Universe.” Epic Universe has its grand opening on May 22nd, 2025. Once the park opens its gates, horror fans will be seeing content from the parks everywhere we turn. So, although I don’t have a Dark Universe vacation waiting for me, I still want to join in on the excitement. So I’ve created a March watchlist for the Universal Monsters.
I spent time perusing the Dark Universe webpage and immediately knew which two monsters would kick our list off. There are three eateries listed, Das Stakehaus, The Burning Blade Tavern, and DeLacey’s Cottage. Week one of March Monster Madness will be Dracula (1931), inspired by the vampiric atmosphere of Das Stakehaus. The second week will be none other than the iconic sci-fi horror, Frankenstein (1931.) DeLacey’s Cottage is located near Frankenstein Manor, so it instantly inspired week two. Of course, Frankenstein is an iconic work by a woman author who pioneered the science-fiction genre, so Frankenstein would inevitably make the list.
There’s good reason to suspect that every Universal Monster will somehow be involved in Dark Universe. I would be shocked if all of the movies did not at least get a picture in a restaurant or a themed bathroom. Despite that, this is a four movie list, with the attainable goal of one movie a week. So the next two movies should be ones that are sure to have a strong presence within Dark Universe.
With that in mind, I decided to read an article posted by Universal Studios about what to expect at the park. This article gave some interesting options for movies three and four. While watching all of these movies are on my bucket list, I decided that week three should be The Wolf Man (1941.) Not only is this monster a classic, but he has found himself back in popular culture with Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man. There is also going to be a ride centered around The Wolf Man, so diving into the film before watching videos on the ride will definitely help liven up the experience for me.
And last but certainly not least is week four. The fourth and final movie of March Monster Madness is The Mummy (1932.) It was hard to narrow down my monsters, especially as someone who loves The Creature From the Black Lagoon. But, The Mummy is iconic. That’s why the original franchise has five movies spanning across more than twenty years. After that, Stephen Sommers made 3 more movies from 1999 to 2008. With so many movies, this franchise has maintained cultural relevance across multiple generations. It would be a disservice to the Universal Monsters to not include The Mummy.
The Universal Monsters include many monsters and many movies, so you can make your very own March Monster Madness list, which might not look anything like mine. What Universal Monsters are you letting creep into your home this spring? Let me know on TikTok: @summer.spooks. You can also find me on Letterboxd: @summerspooks. Thanks for reading and happy hauntings!