Film
Coming Soon
Other titles called Coming Soon: the 1999 film.
A joyride through Universal's golden age of horror, hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis, using trailers and clips from *Frankenstein* through the early '80s. Director John Landis curates a love letter to the monsters that built Hollywood's horror legacy. It's pure nostalgia—glamorous, playful, and thrillingly aware of its own camp. For anyone who loves classic monsters, the artistry of old Hollywood, or just watching how movies used to sell themselves.
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Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein1948
The perfect companion piece: Abbott and Costello stumbling through Universal's monster catalog with genuine charm and laugh-out-loud timing. It shows these creatures were always entertainment first, terror second, which is exactly what *Coming Soon* celebrates.
But The comedy's gentler than modern standards and the plot is honestly paper-thin. Some of the slapstick hasn't aged quite as well as the monsters themselves.
Creature from the Black Lagoon1954
One of Universal's last great monsters, and the film that essentially invented the creature-feature template. Essential viewing that *Coming Soon* will make you want to seek out—a perfect blend of genuine suspense and B-movie beauty.
But The pacing drags in stretches and the scientific dialogue can feel dated. The female character exists mainly to be threatened, which is typical of its era but wearying.
The Invisible Man1933
James Whale's masterpiece shows what Universal's monster movies really were capable of: sly social satire, genuine menace, and visual ingenuity. The invisibility effects still astonish. A stunning argument for why these films deserve your reverence.
But It's almost a century old and makes no concessions to modern pacing. The ideological attitudes toward women are offensive, even by the standards of the '70s.
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Mad Monster Party?1967
Where *Coming Soon* celebrates Universal's monsters as cinema history, this film treats them as universal characters available for any story—a different kind of love letter, expressed through parody and affection rather than curation.
A stop-motion musical comedy that gathers every classic Universal monster for a Transylvanian party. It's deliberately, extravagantly silly and features actual songs. A wholly unexpected take that proves the monsters are endlessly adaptable vessels for whatever story you want to tell.
But The animation is deliberately stilted (stop-motion charm doesn't read as expensive) and the humor is aggressively campy. If you want reverence for the classics, this deconstructs them.
More like this (7)
Sinister2012
A modern horror film that openly reveres the aesthetic and pacing of classic horror before morphing into something genuinely unsettling. It's a love letter that also knows how to terrify. For someone energized by *Coming Soon*, a proof that the old language still works.
But The jump scares are aggressive and relentless. If you went in for *Coming Soon*'s nostalgic reverie, this will shatter that mood with brutal efficiency.
Bride of Frankenstein1935
James Whale's sequel is often ranked above the original: more confident, darkly funny, visually ravishing. It's camp before camp had a name, and it proves the monster movies were conscious of their own absurdity from the start.
But Slower than you might expect and genuinely sad in unexpected places. The pathos undercuts the fun if you're only there for thrills.
The Wolf Man1941
Lon Chaney Jr.'s definitive turn established the template for werewolf mythology. It's surprisingly elegant—Gothic in mood, genuinely melancholic. A cornerstone film that *Coming Soon* will make you want to understand more deeply.
But Talky by modern standards and the climax is brief after considerable setup. Some of the dialogue feels overwrought.
House of Dracula1945
Late-era Universal monster mash that throws Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's creature into one film with gleeful disregard for coherence. Pure fun—knowing, affectionate, and wonderfully self-aware about its own excess.
But The plot makes almost no sense and the film lacks the artistic control of the earlier classics. It's camp by accident as much as design.
The Mummy1932
Boris Karloff's restrained, tragic performance elevates what could have been a simple revenge tale into genuine pathos. The atmosphere is hypnotic and the film moves with rare grace. Karl Freund's direction is painterly.
But Very little happens in the second half and the pace is glacial by any standard. Karloff's immobility as an ancient curse can read as sleepy rather than eerie.
The Phantom of the Opera1925
Lon Chaney's silent performance is a masterclass in physical acting and the masked face-reveal scene remains genuinely shocking. A triumph of pure cinema that reminds you why these stories endured.
But Silent film demands patience; without dialogue or score, long stretches can feel inert. The title card acting conventions are very much of their time.
Videodrome1983
Both films are fascinated by monsters as product—what they represent, how they're marketed, what we project onto them. But where *Coming Soon* celebrates the elegance of the old monster-as-commodity, *Videodrome* suggests that same mechanism has become obscene and dangerous.
David Cronenberg's visceral nightmare about media consumption, corporate horror, and the body as a site of terror. It uses some of the vocabulary of Universal's monsters—the grotesque, the transformed—but weaponizes it into body horror so transgressive and strange it feels like an alternative universe.
But Genuinely difficult to watch: graphic, sexual, intentionally nauseating. It has no interest in being entertaining in the traditional sense. Cronenberg is asking you to be disturbed, not comforted.
People
Cast
Jamie Lee CurtisSelf - Host
Directing
- John LandisDirector
Writing
- John LandisWriter
- Mick GarrisWriter
Production
- Scott WarnerAssociate Producer
- John LandisProducer
- Mick GarrisProducer
- Robb IdelsProducer