'Dracula', 'The Mummy', 'Bride of Frankenstein', and more are shuffling their way to YouTube.

Over the next month, a total of nine classic movies from the Universal Monsters stable are going up on YouTube to stream for absolutely free.

1931's 'Dracula', starring Bela Lugosi, 1931's 'Frankenstein' and 1932's 'The Mummy', both starring Boris Karloff, and 1935's 'Bride of Frankenstein' starring Elsa Lanchester, are all being made available on YouTube for free for a week.

The free movies are available from next week, but as a primer, the YouTube channel's also uploaded an introduction for each movie with a little bit of history on them as well. Interestingly enough, 'Frankenstein' was banned in Ireland on its initial release, only to receive an appeal a month later. The censor at the time, James Montgomery, had this to say about it.

"I cannot issue a general certificate licensing this film for exhibition to audiences containing children - or nervous people," Montgomery wrote. "It is a 'horror', and notwithstanding its grotesque absurdity, its cruelty and brutality would have a demoralising effect on many. I reject the film as being unfit for exhibition even to an adult audience as it panders to the morbid and unhealthy minded."

'The Mummy' too was also banned initially "on account of semi-nudity of the girl at the end of reel 7 and in reel 8" before it was eventually accepted in 1933. Now you can watch them for absolutely free on your computer or phone 88 years later. Swings and roundabouts.

Here's the schedule. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel where they'll be made available here.

 

January 15, 2021 (8PM)

  • Dracula (1931)
  • The Mummy (1932)

January 16, 2021 (8PM)

  • Frankenstein (1931)
  • Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

January 17, 2021 (8PM)

  • The Invisible Man (1933)
  • The Wolf Man (1941)
  • Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)