Death Battle Predictions: Universal Monsters Battle Royale

 

Count Dracula, nocturnal terror of Transylvania.

The Monster, reborn through the genius and madness of Dr. Frankenstein.

The Wolf Man, ferocious and shunned.

Imhotep, The Mummy returned from the dead.

The horror genre has bred hundreds of frightful creatures throughout the years, but the fame of these four stands above the crowd. They’ve been adapted many times, whether faithful or innovative, fun or otherwise. But today, we’re looking at the classic depictions that started it all. We’re bringing you fear without reprieve on this All Hallow’s Eve, as we ask ourselves one question: which terror will survive the night?

Before We Start…

This analysis will be focusing on the original stories for each monster.

For Dracula, this means the Bram Stoker novel, as well as its original 1931 adaptation and its sequels, Dracula’s Daughter and Son of Dracula; no Christopher Lee, Castlevania, or Hotel Transylvania today. Also worth mentioning is that it’s weirdly unclear whether Count Alucard from Son of Dracula is supposed to be Dracula’s son or just Dracula himself. The character Katherine says that Count Alucard’s real name is Count Dracula and refers to him as Dracula from then on. Her love interest Frank interprets this to mean that he is the original Dracula, and Katherine does not correct him. It’s therefore unclear whether Alucard is supposed to be the original Dracula (implied by the dialogue) or his son with the same name (implied by the fact that the movie is called… well, “Son of Dracula”). Neither is explicitly stated, but ultimately it does not matter for the purposes of this blog. We will be operating under the interpretation that Alucard is Dracula himself, but regardless, the Count should be able to do all the same things Alucard can, even if they aren’t the same person.

For Frankenstein’s Monster, this means the Mary Shelley novel, as well as the 1931 movie and its sequels: The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, and The Ghost of Frankenstein.

For the Wolf Man, this means the 1941 movie; surprisingly, the Wolf Man has no stand-alone sequels. However, he also appears in several crossover films in which Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster also appear alongside him. Those will also be included.

Finally, for the Mummy, we will be focusing on Imhotep, which means the 1932 movie only. The four sequels made afterward focus on an entirely different Mummy named Kharis, but these films are not connected to the first movie in any way (aside from the first sequel using footage from the first movie). Kharis has a different story, personality, and set of abilities compared to Imhotep, so there’s no reasonable way to composite the two or scale Imhotep to Kharis. Even if Kharis’ feats and abilities were applied to Imhotep, they wouldn’t really affect anything, since Kharis has no abilities beyond being physically strong. Rest assured, we are using Imhotep because we believe he is the one who stands a better chance in the fight. That said, we did fully research Kharis to decide how to approach him, and as such, we may throw in a nod to him in the verdict, with a brief explanation about where we think he’d place.

Also, in case it wasn’t obvious enough, the Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon (or any of the other Universal Classic Monsters, for that matter) aren’t participating in this monster mash. We’re just sticking to these four terrors only.

Background

Count Dracula

“Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.” 

Centuries ago, Count Dracula was once Vlad Țepeș, the Voivode of Wallachia commonly known today as Vlad the Impaler. He was infamous due to his violent actions as ruler of Wallachia during his battles with the Ottomans and the Turks. While there’s no information on how exactly Vlad became the vampire Count Dracula, Van Helsing’s friend Arminius from Buda-Pesth University developed a record on Dracula’s history. Dracula lived his life as a soldier, statesman, and an alchemist. For his time, alchemy was considered the greatest scientific knowledge that could be achieved. Described as a great and noble race, his family was stated to have had dealings with Satan. Considered the cleverest, most cunning, and bravest of his family, Dracula attended Scholomance, where he learned secrets from the Devil. According to folklore, Scholomance is a school of black magic located in Romania, especially Transylvania, run by the Devil. At the school, there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.

At some point, Dracula made Castle Dracula his home in the Carpathian Mountains, where the superstitious people of Transylvania lived in fear of him. During this time, he also formed an immense wealth, possessing gold of all kinds; Roman, British, Austrian, Hungarian, Greek, and Turkish money. As an immortal vampire, Dracula has lived for centuries, specifically 500 years. He studied new languages, new environments, politics, law, finance, science, and the cultures and people of new lands. At some point, Dracula met three women and turned each of them into his vampire thralls. While not much detail is shown about his relationship with the three women, Dracula is their superior and would give them young children to feed on.

Wanting to expand his territory to London, England, Dracula engaged in real estate transactions with a businessman named Peter Hawkins to purchase property in the city. Hawkins’ employee Jonathan Harker was called to Castle Dracula to act as a real estate agent and provide legal support to Dracula. During his stay at the castle, Jonathan found himself a prisoner of the Count. Dracula, despite showing hospitality, kept Jonathan alive inside his castle to make sure that the legal transaction was complete and to learn more about England. Eventually, Dracula left his castle for London and abandoned Jonathan at the mercy of the vampire sisters. The Count boarded the Russian ship The Demeter, transporting his 50 coffins of Transylvanian soil and feeding on the ship’s crew members.

Once in London, Dracula started his killing spree. He killed Lucy Westenra by draining her blood, transforming the young woman into a vampire. However, Lucy’s suitors (John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood) called upon Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who deduced Lucy’s terrible condition was the result of a vampire attack. Meanwhile, Dracula took control over insane asylum inmate Renfield. Seward, Morris, Holmwood, and Van Helsing found the now-vampiric Lucy and killed her, purifying her soul. The group was joined by Mina Harker and her husband Jonathan, who returned from escaping Transylvania. With their notes together, the party figured out that Dracula was the cause of Lucy’s transformation.

Count Dracula intended to scatter his coffins all over London, but the group managed to track down their locations. By sealing the coffins with a sacramental wafer inside them, the party prevented the Count from finding safety in those boxes during the day. As an act of revenge, Dracula killed Renfield and bit Mina, then forced her to drink his blood to ensure she became a vampire as well. The group saved Mina and sterilized nearly all of the coffins. With no other choice, Dracula took his last coffin and retreated back to Transylvania.

However, thanks to the vampirism given to Mina, the party was able to track Dracula’s location in Transylvania, and they split up. Mina and Van Helsing found Castle Dracula, and the latter killed the three vampire sisters. Meanwhile, the rest of the party followed the Romani men transporting Dracula in his last coffin. After a battle with the bodyguards, Jonathan Harker decapitated Dracula with his kukri knife while Quincey Morris stabbed his heart with a Bowie knife. Count Dracula’s reign of terror ended with the vampire finally at peace. In the universal film continuity, however, which followed a (mostly) similar story, the Count did not stay dead. Instead, he would return to continue terrorizing the night in the sequels that came after, before finally being slain by the light of the Sun.

Frankenstein’s Monster

"It's alive! It's aliiiive!!" 

Man was not meant to play God. The ability to create life wasn't one we were meant to possess. But that wouldn't stop one brilliant mind, who sought to create life in his own image. His name? Dr. Victor Frankenstein. …Or Henry in the movie, for some reason. Nothing would stop him from creating his masterpiece, but what he created instead was a monster: Frankenstein's Monster (or just Frankenstein for a number of people). Victor was an incredibly intelligent man, far ahead of any of his peers. But he was also a man with few moral scruples, willing to rob graves and steal to achieve his goal of creating life. His shady dealings paid off though, for when lightning struck, his creation came to life. It was alive! Alive!

But Dr. Frankenstein's eagerness and dubious methods would come back to haunt him, as the brain his assistant acquired was that of a criminal, one who led a violent and murderous life. The degeneration of this brain would allow those violent inclinations to continue in the Monster, which eventually grew too curious to be contained and escaped from its creator's shackles. Despite his flawed brain and imperfect appearance, the Monster was curious at heart, not truly understanding the world around him. But this curiosity and lack of understanding would seemingly spell his end when, after accidentally drowning a little girl, he was hunted down by a mob and sentenced to a fiery death in a windmill.

…Or so it would seem, for it turns out the Monster survived, and that would be the case for many of the sequels starring the Monster. In his next story, the Monster would be given a bride by Doctor Frankenstein and Doctor Septimus Pretorius. Sadly for the Monster, his bride rejected him upon their first meeting, and in despair, he would destroy the tower with him, the bride, and Pretorius in it. When the Monster emerged alive once again, he would go on a series of murders under the command of Ygor. However, the Monster would meet his apparent demise at the hands of Doctor Frankenstein’s son, Baron Wolf von Frankenstein. But once again, the Monster didn’t actually die, and he would go on more adventures that included having Ygor’s brain be placed into his body and even meeting the Wolf Man.

In the original Frankenstein novel though, the battle between Victor Frankenstein and his creation culminated in the Monster murdering Victor’s wife Elizabeth on the couple’s wedding night, and the scientist chasing after the Monster all the way to the North Pole. Despite his persistence, Victor collapsed from exhaustion and hypothermia, nearly freezing to death. His body was found by a ship led by Captain Robert Walton, and Victor told the captain the story about him and his creation. Even though he was adamant to kill his creation, Victor died on the ship, but not before telling Captain Walton to seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition.

The Monster, having gotten aboard the ship, mourned the death of his creator and even admitted to Captain Walton that he couldn’t find peace from it. Becoming more miserable than ever from the crimes he committed, the Monster vowed to kill himself so the world would never know of his existence. He drifted away in the icy waters, never to be seen again.

The Wolf Man

“I killed Bela. I killed Richardson. If I stay here any longer, you can't tell who'll be next.” 

Larry Talbot was once an American businessman like anyone else at the time. Though one day, he got a call from his father John Talbot informing him that his brother died in a hunting accident. With this call, Larry went back home to mourn the death with his father. After some familial bonding, Larry looked through his father's telescope and saw a beautiful lady named Gwen Conliffe working in an antique store. So naturally, after coming home to say goodbye to his dead brother, he decided to shoot his shot and tried to flirt with the girl who, spoiler alert, was engaged. After hitting on her for a bit and buying a silver-headed cane, he ultimately failed to get a date. However, Larry is a persistent fellow, and thus waited for her after her job… Yeah, he’s kind of a creep. 

Despite this, he finally got his way and, with Gwen and a friend of hers named Jenny, went to a fortune teller, with whom Jenny did a solo talk to get her fortune told. So naturally, Larry took another shot at romance and hit on Gwen again (at least he’s determined?). Though his determination was strong, it was put to a stop when Gwen finally said she's engaged… and they were interrupted by sounds of a girl screaming and a wolf howling. Larry went to investigate and saw a wolf munching on Jenny. The wolf then went after Larry and managed to bite him before he killed it with his cane. This scuffle caused Larry to pass out, and he would not wake up until he found himself in his room the next day. 

After that night, the village found two dead bodies: Jenny and the fortune teller. They also found Larry’s cane at the scene of the crime, so they went to question the young man. Larry didn’t remember much of the night before, other than killing a wolf, though the wolf bite he received was miraculously gone, and so people thought that he was unwell. They told him to go to sleep, but he didn’t, instead going to check on Gwen. Later that day, he went to a festival where he saw Gwen and her fiancé, Frank Andrews. After playing some games, Larry excused himself and walked around, not feeling well. After a while, he met Maleva, another fortune teller, and after sitting Larry down, Maleva told Larry that he had a curse on him, because the wolf Larry had killed the night before was her son, who bore the curse of a werewolf. Because Larry was bitten and survived the attack, that curse was passed on to him. Maleva gave him a charm that would help Larry, but thinking he still had a shot with Gwen, he decided to give it to her to make sure she was safe. Unfortunately for him, this was a big mistake, for later that night, Larry finally transformed into The Wolf Man.

When he woke up the next day, he didn’t remember anything from the night before, but came to learn that another victim was found at the graveyard. Remembering what Maleva had said to him, Larry finally accepted that he really had become a wolf (man), and that he was the one who had killed them. He tried to keep it a secret, but with the village on edge and forming a hunting party for the beast, Larry tried to tell his father about his situation, to no avail. He then transformed into the Wolf Man again that night, and soon enough, the hunting party was after him. After running around for a bit, he encountered his father, and John unknowingly killed his son with the silver head of Larry’s cane. A tragic end to a tragic story.

That is, until four years later, when some grave robbers would dig up his coffin under a full moon, inadvertently resurrecting Larry. Unfortunately, Larry was still afflicted with the Wolf Man’s curse, transforming under the full moon and killing people in his feral state. Seeking a cure for his curse, Larry learned about Doctor Frankenstein, and opted to search for the late doctor’s notes at his castle to permanently end his own life through scientific means. After another night as a werewolf, Larry found the Monster’s frozen body and thawed him out. Pretending to be a buyer for Frankenstein Castle, he found Baroness Elsa Frankenstein with the hope she would know the location of her grandfather’s notes.

While the Baroness initially declined, the Monster’s rampage quickly convinced Elsa to change her mind. Doctor Frankenstein’s notes revealed a method that would drain all life from the Wolf Man and the Monster. Doctor Mannering, who was at first skeptical about Larry’s claims of being a werewolf, altered the operation to fully revive the Monster, as he wanted to see it at full strength. But due to the operation taking place under a full moon, Larry transformed and battled the Monster. However, their fight was cut short, as the two monsters were swept away by a flood caused by the innkeeper Vazec blowing up a dam.

Of course, that wouldn’t be the end of Larry Talbot, as he would continue to make more appearances in the Universal timeline, still seeking either a cure for his curse or a way to end his life for good. While he did find love once again in House of Frankenstein, his werewolf form killed the woman he fell in love with, after which he was shot with a silver bullet. However, Larry would still (somehow) return in both House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In the latter film, he battled Count Dracula to the death, a fight that ended with the two monsters falling to their demise. Since that was his final film appearance in the Universal timeline, perhaps Larry Talbot can finally rest in peace as he wanted.

The Mummy

“I knelt by the bed of death. My father’s last farewell. I knew the Scroll of Thoth could bring thee back to life. I dared the god’s anger and stole it” 

3,700 years ago, Imhotep, son of Pharaoh Amenophis III and high priest of the Temple of the Sun at Karnak, was in love with the Princess Ankh-esen-amun. After her death, he tried to bring her back to life using the Scroll of Thoth, but got caught in the middle of a ritual doing so. As punishment from the Pharaoh, he was mummified and buried alive in a remote area of Egypt, his viscera kept intact, in an unnamed sarcophagus with the sacred spells engraved within chipped off so that his soul wouldn’t be protected in its journey to the underworld. The Scroll of Thoth would also be buried alongside him to ensure no one else would try to resurrect their dead loved ones.

Thousands of years later, in 1921, Imhotep’s sarcophagus and the Scroll were discovered and unearthed by Sir Joseph Whemple and his expedition team. After he, his friend Dr. Muller, and his assistant Ralph Norton examined the mummified body and the casket containing the Scroll of Thoth, Ralph opened the casket despite the curse etched on it, and translated the hieroglyphs in the Scroll, inadvertently reviving Imhotep, who stole the Scroll of Thoth while Ralph went mad with laughter. Imhotep then slowly assimilated into the then-present day Egyptian society under the name “Ardeth Bey”.

A decade later, Ardeth Bay would make an attempt to bring his love Princess Ankh-esen-amun back to life by recruiting Sir Joseph’s son Frank and Professor Pearson as part of his new team of archeologists. Not only did Imhotep locate the tomb of his dead love, but he also met Helen Grosvenor, who closely resembles Ankh-esen-amun due to being her reincarnation. Falling in love, Imhotep planned on killing Helen and mummifying her to make her his bride. However, his secret would be found out as Joseph tried to destroy the Scroll of Thoth, though the Mummy killed him before he could.

After turning someone into his new slave, Imhotep hypnotized Helen and revealed to her the details of his death, which was made a punishment of sacrilege. Before he could go forward with his plans, he was interrupted by Frank and Dr. Muller. Though the men were stopped, Helen remembered her ancestral past and prayed to the Egyptian goddess Isis for help. The goddess’ statue then burned the Scroll of Thoth, ending Imhotep’s immortality and causing him to crumble to death. This would be the end of Imhotep, as a new mummy named Kharis would star in the Mummy sequels. Perhaps in death, at least, he may finally have been reunited with his love.

Equipment

Count Dracula

Coffin

It’s common knowledge that Count Dracula sleeps in a coffin. This is because Dracula is at his weakest between sunrise and sunset, so he seeks safety within it. In the novel, Dracula ordered 50 coffins to be brought to London, each filled with Transylvanian soil, as he needs to sleep on the earth of his homeland, since it once was holy. Sterilizing a coffin with sacramental wafer and sealing it shut will prevent Dracula from taking refuge in it.

Frankenstein’s Monster

Firearms

A bunch of pistols and a gun the Monster obtains near the end of the original novel, though we never see him use them.

The Wolf Man

Silver Cane

Purchased from Gwen Conliffe in her antique shop, Larry’s cane has a silver grip in the shape of a wolf’s head, and emblazoned with a pentagram, the sign of the werewolf. Because it is heavy and composed of silver, the cane’s grip is an effective tool against werewolves, inflicting damage that cannot be easily recovered through their healing factor. It is with this cane that Larry bludgeoned the previous Wolf Man to death, and with which Larry himself was killed by his father at the end of the movie (oh, the tragic irony).

Rifle

Though he doesn’t usually carry one around with him, especially not as the Wolf Man, Larry has shown to be an accurate shot with a rifle whilst in his human form, striking targets accurately from a short distance away.

Spell-Breaking Charm

Given to him by a Romani sorceress, this pendant is said to be capable of breaking the spell of the werewolf, preventing Larry from transforming so long as he always wears it over his heart. Despite this, Larry gave it away to Gwen immediately after receiving it, believing that it would protect her from him if he gave it to her. Spoiler alert, that’s not how it works. Should’ve just kept it, stupid.

The Mummy

Scroll of Thoth

An ancient scroll used by Isis to revive Osiris thousands of years ago, and later used accidentally by Ralph Norton to revive Imhotep thousands of years later. After coming back to life, the Mummy stole the Scroll before integrating himself into the then-modern world as Ardeth Bey. With this Scroll, the Mummy can control people’s minds, though he would later use that spell without its assistance. However, should the Scroll of Thoth be destroyed, the Mummy will instantly die, turning into a pile of bones and ash.

Ceremonial Dagger

A small stone dagger that Imhotep acquires near the end of the movie, which he nearly used to kill Helen Grosvenor as part of a ritual to resurrect his dead lover, Princess Ankh-esen-amun.

Abilities

Count Dracula

Vampire/Undead Physiology

As a vampire, Dracula is classified as an unholy, undead creature of the night, or a Nosferatu. The Count possesses an immortal body and therefore can live for centuries without having to worry about dying of old age. In addition, vampires are physically superior to humans. For instance, Professor Abraham Van Helsing states that Dracula has the strength of 20 men at his hand, allowing him to easily crush human body parts. He can even scale walls like a lizard thanks to his long, sharp nails. Dracula cannot cast a shadow from his body, and his reflection cannot be seen in a mirror. Vampires possess various supernatural abilities, elaborated on below.

When humans die as prey of a vampire, they become vampires themselves and feast on other humans. Once a human gets bit, they slowly get infected with vampirism. If the vampire continues to drink blood from their victim, the person will eventually die and come back as a vampire themselves. However, the infection will stop if the vampire who causes it dies, allowing the victim to be healed of the vampirism and wounds. By killing Dracula, Mina Harker was saved from becoming a vampire. The movie Dracula’s Daughter supports the idea that a victim can become a vampire if their veins are infused with a vampire’s tainted blood (41:16). A person’s body will heal once they become a vampire. In the original Dracula novel, Lucy’s body was described to have the beauty of life restored to it after she died of blood loss. In Son of Dracula, Katherine’s bullet wound healed itself after she became a vampire, demonstrating their regenerative capabilities.

Blood-Sucking

A vampiric staple. Dracula usually sucks the blood from his victims by biting into their neck and, well, sucking the blood out of their veins via his fangs. Continuous blood consumption will make Dracula more youthful in his appearance. However, his diet can only consist of blood and nothing else, and he cannot flourish without blood.

Blood Infusion & Mental Enslavement

Furious that Jonathan Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, and Lucy’s former suitors had been interfering against him, Dracula punished the group by going after Mina Harker, as she was aiding in their efforts but was left alone. He drank her blood on multiple occasions and eventually forced her to drink his blood, for he explained that this would turn Mina into a vampire and force her to do his bidding. Van Helsing referred to this act as “Vampire baptism”. In preparation to slay Dracula, both Van Helsing and Mina stated that Dracula could compel the young woman to obey his commands. In addition, Van Helsing has stated that Dracula has control over any undead vampire he created.

Shapeshifting

Another classic ability that’s become standard to virtually all future iterations of the Count. As you might expect, this lets Dracula turn from man to bat in a matter of a few seconds, but in the original novel, this version of him can also turn into mist, vapor, elemental specks of dust, and even a werewolf (and you thought it was only the other guy that could do that). However, unless Dracula is on ground attuned to him, he can only shapeshift at sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Hypnosis

One of Dracula's most used abilities, and arguably one of his most iconic. With but a glance from his piercing eyes, Dracula can hypnotize any poor soul who locks eyes with him. Even those with strong wills like Van Helsing were at least momentarily under his sway before breaking free. Lesser vampires like Lucy are capable of putting a hypnotic spell on potential victims. In addition, a vampire’s hypnosis can erase a person’s memory and leave them in a catatonic state for hours (11:40). Dracula can also stun his opponents by locking eyes with them and can do so even while sleeping.

Phasing

Near the beginning of the 1931 Dracula film, Dracula passes through a thick cobweb without disturbing or breaking it at all, while Renfield had to tear a hole through it to get through. In the novel, a crew member of the Russian ship The Demeter tries to attack Dracula, but his knife goes through the Count as if he was thin air. In the movie Son of Dracula, the Count’s phasing allows bullets to go right through him (28:40).

Telepathic Communication

Dracula has demonstrated the ability to communicate telepathically with others, though always with people whom he had previously infused with his blood. He notably does this with Renfield, as well as Mina later on, and can telepathically communicate over long distances (3:30). However, his telepathic link with Mina works both ways, and Van Helsing was able to exploit that.

Mist Manipulation

At one point, Renfield mentioned Dracula possessing a telekinetic control over a “red mist” even outside of his shapeshifting powers, causing it to spread across a lawn.

Weather Manipulation

Within his range, Dracula can direct the elements, including storms, fog, and thunder. Before The Demeter arrived in London, Dracula created a massive storm that came out of nowhere to cover his entrance with high winds, lightning, and fog. It was described as “one of the greatest and suddenest storms on record”. At night, he can summon fog, storms, and snow, even while standing on the water. Later in the novel, Dracula creates a thick fog to stall the Czarina Catherine. To speed up the progress of the ship carrying him in his last coffin, Dracula creates powerful winds that pushes the ship and uses fog to blind the crew members so they would land where he wants (pictured above).

It should be noted that there is no proof that the energy applied via weather manipulation scales to his physical stats, nor can it be directly applied offensively in combat.

Moonlight Travel

During his stay at Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker witnessed tiny specks of dust traveling within the moonlight (pictured above). However, he noticed the specks moving in the moonlight rays and beginning to take shape, materializing into the three vampire sisters. After ordering a wolf to break through Lucy’s bedroom window and kill her mother, Dracula entered the room by traveling on moonbeams as specks of dust. Van Helsing confirmed that since the vampire sisters could travel on moonlight rays, Dracula can do the same as well.

Animal Control

Van Helsing stated that Dracula has command over rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes, and wolves. As shown at the beginning of the novel, Dracula has command over wolves. In fact, he can summon his wolves to aid him if he needs. When Van Helsing and his group entered one of Dracula’s lairs to sterilize his coffins, the Count called upon a swarm of rats to attack them in numbers that reached thousands. Renfield also recounted how Dracula would send him flies and moths and had once brought with him millions of rats, as well as dogs and cats.

Death Infliction

In the movie Son of Dracula, Dracula (named Alucard in the movie) travels into the home of the old fortune teller Queen Zimba, who falls dead after seeing the appearance of his bat form. It was later stated that Queen Zimba died of a heart attack brought about through “occult matters”, strongly implying that it was a supernatural occurrence caused by the Count, and not just her being very scared of bats for some reason. Compounding this, it is implied that he killed Colonel Caldwell in the same movie, who likewise was said to have died of heart failure.

Levitation

In Son of Dracula, he is shown to be able to levitate, doing so across a pond to meet with his lover Katherine.

Healing Factor

In Son of Dracula, Katherine Caldwell was accidentally shot (28:40) by her ex-boyfriend Frank Stanley in his attempt to kill Dracula. However, she was later shown to be alive and well (38:25) after being turned into a vampire by the Count, healing her bullet wound in the process. As a fellow vampire himself, it’s reasonable to assume Dracula should have a similar healing factor of his own.

Frankenstein’s Monster

Physiology

Frankenstein’s Monster is a stitched-together mishmash of body parts that the doctor and his assistant stole from various corpses, whether taken from graves or the gallows. Because of this, he is much larger and stronger than any normal person, allegedly having the strength of ten men and being capable of easily overpowering grown men, on top of many more superhuman feats. He is fast enough to move at subsonic speeds, and resilient enough to survive collapsing buildings, being cocooned in sulfur, and having two bullets lodged in his heart for an extended period of time without treatment. According to Ygor, the Monster is outright unkillable through the means available within the context of the story.

Additionally, his brain was a sample specimen stolen from a university, which had scarce convolutions on the frontal lobe, as well as a degenerated middle frontal lobe. These traits are said to be characteristic of a brain that is inclined toward brutality, violence, and murder, which explains the Monster’s homicidal tendencies. He also possesses two exterior electrodes built into his neck, which were the means by which Dr. Frankenstein inducted vital energy into his body. It is a common misconception that the Monster was brought to life via normal lightning; in actuality, Frankenstein sought to harness a new ray of light from the lightning, which he believed to be a higher color in the electromagnetic spectrum than UV light, and which he described as “the great ray that first brought life into this world”.

However, later studies performed by Frankenstein’s son in the Son of Frankenstein revealed that the Monster’s physiology is much more complex than it seems. He is hypopituitary, meaning that he has a short supply of hormones controlling his growth, accounting for his immense size. His heart is superhumanly powerful, pumping blood at a rate of 250 BPM and resulting in a blood pressure three times higher than a normal person’s. Moreover, the blood he produces is structured completely differently than that of a normal human being; in fact, every last part of the Monster’s being down to the cellular level is dissimilar from that of a human. Contrary to the doctor’s original belief, the rays used to bring him to life were cosmic in nature, resulting in a creature entirely unearthly.

In the original novel, the Monster, standing about 8 feet tall, was designed to be physically far superior and more pulchritudinous than normal humans (kinda ironic on that latter part, isn’t it?), being able to traverse the harshness of nature, whether it be sweltering hot or freezing cold, without so much as a concern. His body could also last much longer without food, water, or rest, as well as having an entirely different digestive system, being able to survive on just wild berries and acorns.

Intelligence

Even though Frankenstein’s Monster is usually portrayed as a somewhat brain-dead creature with limited speech capabilities in popular culture, this wasn’t the case in the original novel. In it, the Monster was able to learn words and even speak just by eavesdropping on conversions and general observation (as seen in the picture above) and learned how to read soon after by using the same tactic, eventually managing to read some classic books a few months later, even faster than normal people. He also managed to decipher some notes from Victor Frankenstein and even find the doctor by himself using said notes and very few hints. In the movies, he was smart enough to feign unconsciousness until Dr. Waldman - who was about to dissect him - was in arm’s reach, at which point he strangled him.

The Monster also used his observation skills to learn about the struggles of living in poverty and even make fire after enjoying its warmth (which is ironic, considering his fear of it in the movies). He also used quick thinking to frame a woman of murder and escape the crime scene, and later on, his intelligence allowed him to recognize and adapt to the advantages of his opponents, such as when he decided to acquire some huskies and a sled after seeing his creator doing the same and realizing he was losing ground, running away in the North Pole.

Stealth Mastery

Spending essentially his whole life hiding from humans, there’s no surprise that the Monster’s adept in stealth, being good enough to hide on a ship and somehow disappear when Victor boarded the same ship, being able to stalk Victor all the way from Switzerland to Scotland all without Victor seeing him, sneaking onto Captain Robert Walton's ship without anyone noticing, and being unnoticed by a girl even as she ran toward the spot he was hidden at.

Adaptation & Sedative Resistance

Over time, the Monster has developed a resistance to sedatives. Shortly after he was injected with a sedative intended to keep him down while he was dissected, he woke up and strangled the doctor working on him.

Electrical Empowerment

In The Ghost of Frankenstein, the Monster was able to tank a hit from a bolt of lightning (which charged him with around 5 megavolts of energy), after which Ygor claimed it was good for it, as it made the Monster stronger (despite the fact that getting struck by lightning put the Monster in a months-long coma in Son of Frankenstein, but don’t worry about it). Later, when Ygor was in the Monster’s body via a brain transplant, he claimed to have the strength of 100 men while charged with electricity.

The Wolf Man

Werewolf Transformation & Physiology

The Wolf Man’s main dealio. After getting bit by the previous Wolf Man, Larry Talbot got inflicted with a curse that turns him into a werewolf, although it initially only happened during autumn nights… which just so happened to be every subsequent night in the original movie after he got bit. It wouldn’t be until he got resurrected in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man where the whole “transforms under a full moon” schtick would first be seen, after some grave robbers dug up and opened Larry’s coffin under a full moon.

Infectious Lycanthropy

Representing the good and evil in every man’s soul, those whom the Wolf Man bites are infected with the Wolf Man’s curse, becoming werewolves of their own. When Larry was first bitten, he immediately gained the Wolf Man’s healing factor, allowing him to recover from the bite overnight without needing to transform. His actual transformation into the Wolf Man, however, took longer than this.

Invulnerability & Regeneration

The Wolf Man is established to be unkillable through conventional weaponry, at least in the context of the story. He takes two rifle bullets head-on, and according to the Romani sorceress Maleva, silver is necessary to kill a werewolf, whether it be a silver bullet, knife, or Larry’s own silver-tipped cane. This requirement is likely due to the Wolf Man’s healing factor, which allowed him to heal from the previous Wolf Man’s bite overnight and recover from getting his leg caught in a bear trap, walking it off with nothing more than a temporary limp.

The Mummy

Immortality

Being a mummy resurrected back to life, Imhotep is an undead being. With his now ageless body, he doesn’t eat, sleep, breathe, or bleed, which would make him nigh-impossible to kill by a mortal man via “ancient arts”. Only the burning of the Scroll of Thoth was able to defeat him for good by breaking the curse and making him age rapidly, turning him into a pile of ash and bones.

Clairvoyance

By looking into the well in his secret hideout, Imhotep can reveal images of both distant past and immediate present. Perfect for spying and exposition.

Death Infliction

Imhotep’s power is so immense, he can simply will undesirable people to die, even from a distance away. Death comes from natural causes, such as shock or heart failure, meaning no living creature is safe. Casting the spell does however seem to take a physical toll on Imhotep. Early in the movie, he kills a museum guard via shock relatively instantly, though heart failure seems to take longer, allowing the victim time to act while they are dying.

Hypnosis

Only one look into Imhotep’s deathly cold gaze is enough to hypnotize you and bend you to his will, as shown when he turned Dr. Whemple’s Nubian servant into his own, called on Helen and put her in a trance from even a great distance away on several occasions, and prevented people from attacking him as well as being able to suppress fear. 

Some dialogue in the movie indicates that this is more effective on people of Egyptian blood, but it is not exclusively effective on such targets. He is able to use it on Dr. Muller (who is not Egyptian) to prevent him from attacking him, and also begins to attempt to hypnotize a non-Egyptian target at another point and is interrupted, strongly implying that he is capable of doing so.

Feats

Count Dracula

Overall

• Voivode of Wallachia three times

• Massacred tens of thousands as Vlad the Impaler

• Attended Scholomance

• Has three vampire brides (and therefore three more bitches than you)

• Killed the crew members of The Demeter, Lucy Westenra and her mother, and Renfield in the original novel

• Has been alive and murdering for 500 years

• Essentially kickstarted the Universal Monsters series of films

Strength

• Stated to have the strength of 20 men

• Abraham Van Helsing stated that their necks and windpipes are breakable and crushable for Dracula (above)

• Has a grip of steel

• Hurled away one of the vampire sisters

• Physically superior to Abraham Van Helsing, who threw Arthur Holmwood across a room

• In his wolf form, broke and twisted the rails of a wolf’s cage

• Easily lifted his heavy coffins of earth

• Beat Renfield badly enough to break his back/neck and give him a severe skull fracture

• Renfield fought off Dr. Seward (who described himself as not a lightweight) and two burley men at once and manhandled them as if they were kittens

• In the 1931 film, Renfield received superhuman strength from Dracula and was able to twist and break iron bars as though they were cheese 

• Created a massive storm out of nowhere stated as “one of the greatest and suddenest on record”

Speed

• Dodged a knife swing from Jonathan Harker (above)

• Dodged another knife swing from Jonathan Harker despite being weakened by holy items

• Dodged a bullet shot from Quincey Morris’ bullet in his bat form (debatable)

• Presumably as fast as a vampire bat, which can fly up to 25 miles per hour, in his bat form

• Presumably as fast as a wolf, which can run 36 to 40 miles per hour, in his wolf form

Durability

• Van Helsing states that humans cannot physically harm Dracula and bullets cannot harm him either (1:05:55)

• Got hit in the head with a shovel

• Hit the ground unharmed after jumping out a window (above)

Frankenstein’s Monster

Overall

• Learned how to read, speak, and make fire from observations alone

• Escaped from his creator all the way to the North Pole

• Befriended a blind hermit and learned how to speak from him

• Pushed through cold, hunger and fatigue through the sheer resentment of his creator alone 

• Is actually somewhat good-looking in the novel

Strength

• Stated to have the strength of 10 men normally, and 100 while charged with lightning 

• Wrestled and briefly overpowered his creator even after being stabbed with a hypodermic needle 

• Moved a large pillar with just one hand (1:03:25)

• Ripped apart metal chains (31:47)

• Pushed a large boulder (28:42)

• Ripped himself out of being chained to a chair 

• Ripped a door off its hinges and tore apart a wooden door (32:10)

• Strangled both Henry Clerval and Elizabeth to death 

• Made to be far superior to his creator, Dr. Frankenstein

• Destroyed objects that obstructed him while running through a forest 

• Rescued a girl by swimming against a rapid stream (ironic, considering what happened in the movie)

• Accidentally snapped William Frankenstein's neck

• Could have destroyed a cottage if he wanted to

• Could have torn Felix limb from limb if he wanted to

 

Speed

• Quickly scaled the overhanging sides of Mont Salève to its summit 

• Able to run through rough, icy terrain at superhuman speeds

• Stated to be much more agile than humans

• Able to run with "stag-like swiftness" 

• Evaded gunfire and ran with the "swiftness of lightning"

• Eluded Dr. Frankenstein's grasp 

• Able to descend a mountain "greater than the flight of an eagle" (Average speed of a German white-tailed eagle is roughly 43 miles per hour)

Durability

• Survives a large wooden beam falling onto him 

• Survived two bullets to the heart (39:40)

• Tanked a lightning bolt 

• Survived the burning windmill collapsing in on him (8:40)

• Survived the collapse of Frankenstein’s tower laboratory (1:13:15)

• Could survive in the North Pole 

• Survived being pelted at by inhabitants of a village

• Tanked a beating from Felix with a stick

• Survived harsh weather & climate with no shelter 

• Endured getting shot in the shoulder

• Stated to be able to live in ice-caves and hide in ridges of inaccessible precipice

• Survived jumping from a boat window down onto a ice-raft

 

The Wolf Man

Overall

• Killed Bela, the previous Wolf Man

• Murdered a grave digger

• Survived an encounter with a group of armed officers

• Skilled marksman with a rifle

• Fixed a telescope with precision work that he learned from an optical company in California

• Worked at Mt. Wilson Observatory

• Had the same actor throughout the other movies

• Somehow seduced a woman via telling her that he spied on her through her window with a telescope

• This would definitely work in real life!

Strength

• As just a human:

• Wrestled the previous Wolf Man and held back his jaws to an extent 

• Larry’s father would later wrestle Larry himself while the latter was the Wolf Man, adding consistency to this feat

• Crushed the previous Wolf Man’s skull by beating him with a silver cane 

• As the Wolf Man:

• Strangled Gwen to the point where she fell briefly unconscious 

• Was able to climb up a building offscreen 

• Severed a man’s jugular with his bite; the previous Wolf Man killed a woman the same way 

• Destroyed a wooden door

Speed

• Presumably as fast as a wolf, which can run 36 to 40 miles per hour 

Durability

• In the context of the story, could only be killed with silver

• Survived two bullets head-on, though it is unclear if this was via durability or regeneration

• Survived the bite of the previous Wolf Man, healing from it overnight

• Survived having his foot caught in a bear trap, though passed out from it shortly afterward

The Mummy

Overall

• Returned to life via the Scroll of Thoth

• Drove Ralph Norton insane from just the sight of him, causing him to laugh hysterically for the rest of his life

• Assimilated into modern society under the alias Ardeth Bay

• Placed Helen Grosvenor and the Nubian servant under his mind control

• Killed Sir Joseph Whemple and a museum night guard

• Nearly killed Frank Whemple

• Almost successfully killed Helen Grosvenor to resurrect Princess Ankh-esen-amun

Strength

• Smashed a coffin open with just his hand (as seen above)

• Extinguished a candle with just the wave of his hand 

Speed

• Quickly subdued a museum guard

Durability

• Is stated to be too powerful to be harmed by a normal person

Weaknesses

Count Dracula

Crucifixes (and holy items in general) are a common way to ward off Dracula. He and any under his thrall are naturally averse to them, and recoil in fear when one is brought out, for they can burn their skin upon touch, make them sickly, and cause wounds to reopen. The plant wolfsbane has a similar effect, and can also be used to ward Dracula off. While most normal means of attack will hardly phase the bloodsucker, a stake to the heart is a surefire way to kill him. In the novel, not only must a stake be driven into Dracula’s heart (or instead, the heart must be burned), but his head must be cut off as well.

He’s also warded off by garlic (a classic vampire weakness) and, while he doesn’t instantly die in the presence of sunlight, he’s effectively a mortal human being from sunrise to sunset, unable to use his powers during that period of time. In addition, according to the original novel, placing a branch of a wild rose will prevent Dracula from leaving his coffin, and shooting a sacred bullet into said coffin with Dracula in it will permanently kill him. The Count also can only pass running water at the slack or flood of the tide. Lastly, he cannot enter new places unless he’s invited. Afterward, he can enter whenever he wants (an odd weakness, but at least he’s a gentleman in that regard).

Frankenstein’s Monster

In the movies, the Monster is quite opposed to fire, as both Dr. Frankenstein's assistant and later the doctor himself used fire to repel and subdue the creature. And while he did get better at handling such a thing, he was still quite afraid when a mob set the windmill he was hiding in on fire (but then again, who wouldn't be terrified while stuck in a burning building?)

As for Mary Shelley’s version of the Monster, while he doesn’t have any big specific weakness and isn’t afraid of fire, it is noted that he does require food, water, rest, and warmth like all other living beings, although he has shown to push through all that for several days through just the sheer resentment of Victor Frankenstein. In spite of that, it’s debatable whether he can do this in a normal fight, considering it originally happened due to almost two years of built-up hatred that never explicitly happens again in the novel. However, it's worth mentioning that in the movies, that resentment and built-up hatred is something he just kind of has all the time (bro kind of just hates life), meaning it’s theoretically possible to some degree that this adrenaline-rushed-like state can occur.

The Wolf Man

While he’s transformed, Larry is basically a wild animal, not being able to control himself as the Wolf Man. Even then, Larry can still be put down thanks to silver bullets and silver knives… and silver sticks– Basically anything silver will be able to put the Wolf Man down. And he happens to carry a silver cane on him anyway, so… yeah.

Also, Larry can only transform into the Wolf Man in the first place when it’s a night with a full moon out. Otherwise, he’s just a regular human.

The Mummy

The iconography of Isis, Goddess of healing and life, seems to prevent Imhotep from using his power on whoever possesses such a charm, for he has challenged and angered the Gods with his unnatural rituals and meddlings in the affairs of life and death.

Imhotep will also reduce to a pile of bones and die should the Scroll of Thoth itself be destroyed. Makes sense, considering the thing brought him back to life, after all.

Summary

Count Dracula

“To die, truely die, that must be glorious. There are far worse things awaiting man than death.” 

Advantages:

• Physically stronger than the Wolf Man and the Mummy

• Faster than the Wolf Man and the Mummy

• Smarter than Frankenstein’s Monster or the Wolf Man, and comparably smart to Imhotep

• Can prevent lightning empowerment for Frankenstein’s Monster via weather manipulation

• Can potentially stun or turn his opponents to his side with hypnosis

• Versatile with shapeshifting

• Flight advantage in his bat form

• Numbers advantage with control over animals

• Can take control of the Wolf Man via his command over wolves

• Can one-shot his living opponents by inducing heart attacks

• Can avoid any physical attacks with phasing, negating anything Frankenstein’s Monster or the Wolf Man could do to him while it is active

• Can drain blood from his living opponents

• Possesses a healing factor

• None of the other monsters carry holy items or garlic with them

• Won the relevancy battle

• He shapeshifts into mist and bones Winona Ryder

Disadvantages:

• Physically weaker and slower than Frankenstein’s Monster

• Can’t use his powers during the day, for he is a mortal man during that time

• Has overall the most weaknesses out of any of the monsters, though most of them are hyper-specific and hard to take advantage of, especially without prior knowledge

• If he does not realize quickly that lightning can empower Frankenstein's Monster, his weather manipulation could become a hindrance

• Got bodied by the Belmonts, Vlad the Impaler, and Scooby-Doo

• Haha Jonathan is banging his daughter

• Dull Machete recipient

Frankenstein’s Monster

“I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred!” 

Advantages:

• Physically the strongest monster

• Becomes even stronger (by up to ten times) when empowered by electricity

• Surprisingly the fastest of the four monsters, both in traveling speed and in general

• Given his willpower, could debatably resist Dracula’s hypnosis in the same manner that Van Helsing resisted it; blindness in later movies may also prevent eye contact

• Superhuman heart and blood flow are (mostly) a boon against Dracula’s blood sucking, since it means his body will replenish lost blood at a much faster rate, making it harder to drain him entirely

• Superhuman heart and blood flow could also debatably protect him from death via heart failure

• Since his blood is also cellularly different from normal blood, it is additionally debatable whether Dracula could consume it in the same manner to begin with

• Incredible survivability could allow him to outlast less resilient opponents

• The only monster who lacks a specific weakness

• Could potentially take advantage of the others’ weaknesses

• Smarter than the Wolf Man

• Arguably the best at stealth

• Larger and heavier than any of the other monsters

• This scene

• Got turned into a cute girl by the Fate series

• Hates being alive, so he wins either way tbh

Disadvantages:

• Least versatile of the four

• Despite his heart and blood flow, may still be vulnerable to a forced heart attack

• Increased blood flow will result in a greater quantity of blood for Dracula to consume

• Reliance on physical attacks would be completely shut down by Dracula’s phasing

• Dracula’s weather manipulation can deny him from getting a power boost from lightning

• Though smarter than most realize, is still less strategic and intelligent compared to Dracula and Imhotep

• The only monster who gets no bitches (the bride created for him immediately hated him and then died, sucks to suck buddy)

• Nobody knows his name

• Daddy issues

The Wolf Man

“It isn’t a wolf…it's a werewolf!” 

Advantages:

• Physically stronger and faster than Imhotep

• Still as strong as his werewolf self in his human state and retains his healing factor in it, ironically allowing him to stand a better chance than with his wolf form

• Golden Chainsaw recipient

• Is actually a kind of decent person when he's not a werewolf

• He…

• He um…

• …

• Yeah tbh he really doesn’t have much going for him

Disadvantages:

• Still royally fucked in his human state

• Physically weaker and slower than Dracula or Frankenstein’s Monster

• Though he can only be killed by silver in the context of his story, he has been harmed by other things (such as the bear trap), and lacks the durability or regen feats to suggest that he could survive what Dracula or Frankenstein’s Monster are capable of

• Can only transform on nights with a full moon

• Is feral and lacks any self-control or intellect in his werewolf state

• Has no resistances to some of Dracula or the Mummy’s supernatural abilities

• Reliance on physical attacks is completely shut down by Dracula’s phasing

• Is vulnerable to Dracula’s command over wolves when transformed

• His own silver cane can and has been used against him

• Infectious lycanthropy would do little against the other monsters

• Pendant was enchanted via Romani sorcery and is not inherently holy; as such, it would have no effect on Dracula

• Has no stand-alone sequels to his original movie

• Is about to get Volnutted

The Mummy

“You have studied our ancient arts and you know that you cannot harm me. You also know that you must return that scroll to me or die.” 

Advantages:

• Smarter than Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man, and comparably smart to Dracula

• Can one-shot his living opponents by inflicting death on them

• Can potentially stun or turn his opponents to his side with hypnosis

• Depending on interpretation, the fact that he is too powerful to be killed by any normal person could mean that the Wolf Man (who is not far beyond that) would have some trouble killing him

• Is overall the more dangerous Mummy when compared to his successor, Kharis

• Banged a princess

Disadvantages:

• Physically weaker and slower than the rest; no real feats of speed or durability

• Ability to induce death via shock or heart failure would likely be ineffective against Dracula, who is undead

• Can be instantly killed via the Scroll of Thoth’s destruction

• Death infliction spell is physically taxing

• Crusty-looking simp

• Only had one movie like a loser

• Not the one who fought Brendan Fraiser

Verdicts

Because of the battle royale nature of this graveyard smash, we’ll naturally be ranking these Universal Monsters’ placements based on our findings gathered in this blog. Without further ado, let’s start with the obvious…

4th Place – Wolf Man

(art by Bee🌸🌸)

Probably surprising nobody, the good boy Larry Talbot unfortunately gets last place. He doesn't have a lot going for him compared to the other monsters, so let's go down the list and see why the only decent person in this battle royale cannot contend with the competition. 

Let’s start with Frankenstein’s Monster. Now, both the crossover movies and the Frankenstein novel shows Victor’s creation is far stronger. The best strength feat the Wolf Man has is when he destroyed a whole wooden door, but that is nothing compared to the Monster pushing boulders and moving pillars with just one hand. So the Wolf Man is already at a disadvantage in strength, but that is not all. Larry in his werewolf form is just a wild animal, and has shown to be incapable of complex thought. For instance, as a werewolf, he was unable to free himself from the bear trap, despite easily prying it off upon returning to his human state.

Now why is this important? Well, remember that the Frankenstein novel has shown that the Monster is pretty smart, so against a wolf, he would definitely not go in guns blazing. Additionally, Frankenstein is pretty good at being stealthy, which could certainly allow him to get the upper hand on the Wolf Man. And as for Larry’s human state? The Monster can easily rip him apart, given that it was said to have the strength of 10 men, while Larry was matched in power by his pops, even whilst transformed.

Onto Wolf Man’s next problem, Imhotep. When it comes to the Mummy, Wolf Man is also outclassed, mostly in abilities. With his abilities, the Mummy can just take one look at Larry and take control of him with hypnosis, which Larry has shown no resistance to. Also, there’s nothing stopping Imhotep from just using his death infliction on Larry and causing the Wolf Man to die on the spot. Now, Larry isn’t totally outclassed here, for he has better overall feats compared to Imhotep, like speed for example. However, while this is an advantage for the Wolf Man, it doesn’t really help in the long run, given Imhotep’s inherent undead survivability, and more straightforward means of ending the fight. But what about Larry’s Wolf Man curse; would that help at all? Well… not really. The curse can possibly affect Imhotep, but it's not instant. When Larry himself got bitten, he didn’t instantly turn, instead becoming sick; he did not fully transform until well afterward. So while Larry can spread the curse, it wouldn’t really do anything in this fight.

As for the last monster, Count Dracula, like the other two monsters, he simply outclasses the Wolf Man. Let's start with stats, beginning with strength. Again, Dracula’s feats outmatch the Wolf Man, like the statement that he possesses the strength of 20 men, or the fact that he exceeds other vampires like Renfield, who can break iron bars. That’s way stronger than Larry’s door-breaking feat. As for speed, the Wolf Man could take it depending on the circumstance. Dracula’s bat form can fly up to 25 miles per hour, while Larry can go up to speeds of 36-40 miles per hour as a werewolf. That said, since the Count can transform into a wolf as well, he should be able to match Larry’s wolf-like speed with his own transformation. With stats out the way, let's head over to abilities, which Dracula solidly takes. In addition to having every power that Larry has, the Count has several additional abilities, like shapeshifting, hypnosis, phasing, and death infliction, to name a few. With these, the Wolf Man would have difficulty fighting Dracula at all. With hypnosis, he can take control of Larry, as a human or as a wolf. With his ability to cause heart attacks, he has the means to kill the Wolf Man immediately. And nothing Larry has can harm Dracula while he is intangible.

Overall, Larry is largely outclassed in stats against The Monster and Dracula, and can not compare with the abilities that Drac and Imhotep bring to the table. All three have ways of killing Larry by just overpowering him or overwhelming him with their abilities. Though Larry has some very sparse advantages, it's not enough to change anything. Howl unfortunate, for The Wolf Man can’t even hope to take silver.

Bonus: 3.5th Place – Kharis

Even though we’re mainly analyzing Imhotep, we’ve also gone through the sequels to The Mummy to see what Kharis brings to the table… which turns out to be not a whole lot.

He’s strong enough to smash through wooden (12:05) fences (38:26), and durable enough to tank shotgun shells from point-blank range without damage (47:26), putting him above what the Wolf Man is capable of physically, and intelligence-wise he’s a… normal-ish human who can at least think competently enough. But beyond that? He lacks any special abilities beyond being physically strong, he’s slower than even normal humans, and he spends all four of his movies strangling every single one of his victims to death. He lacks the strength or speed to contend with Frankenstein’s Monster, and has no counter to getting mind haxed by Dracula or Imhotep.

Moreover, it’s established that his heart still beats normally due to the magic keeping him alive throughout the centuries, so he’s not truly undead, he’s just been alive in his coffin for all that time. This means that forcibly stopping his heart or drinking his blood would still be effective tactics against him. And since all his attacks are physical in nature, he has no means of getting past Dracula’s phasing. Imhotep’s magic is much more dangerous than anything Kharis brings to the table, so despite trading off strength and durability for hax, Imhotep still stands a much better chance in this match than Kharis does.

That being said…

3rd Place – The Mummy

Now this is where things get interesting, because for a while, we were expecting Imhotep to get second place. However, both Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster ultimately have the advantages needed to put the Mummy back in the ground.

To begin with, Imhotep clearly has nothing on Dracula. The Mummy brings three things to this fight for the most part: his hypnosis, his ability to induce death, and his calculating intellect. However, these are three things that Dracula also has. Dracula’s hypnosis is just as powerful and versatile as Imhotep’s, and has all the same feats like taking control of people, putting them to sleep, or erasing their memory. Dracula’s ability to induce heart attacks is more immediate than Imhotep’s, takes no physical toll on him, and Dracula should be able to resist these abilities in turn, being undead. And though both are intelligent schemers, Dracula has been alive and active for hundreds of years since his death and has a much higher kill count, so his experience dwarfs Imhotep’s, who was only resurrected more recently. Beyond that, Drac has actual superhuman stats beyond anything Imhotep has demonstrated, he has several abilities like vampirism and phasing that Imhotep has no answer to, and most of his weaknesses are more hyper-specific and harder to take advantage of, compared to simply destroying the Scroll of Thoth.

Imhotep VS Frankenstein’s Monster is a bit closer due to the creature’s lack of magical abilities beyond sheer physical might, but even without his novel, the Monster still has clear advantages over Imhotep. While he has shown numerous feats of strength, the original Mummy… hasn’t. Unlike Kharis, Imhotep relies more on his hax than brute force, with his only real strength feat being the time he smashed Princess Ankh-esen-amun’s sarcophagus open with just his hand. While somewhat impressive compared to normal humans, the Monster’s naturally 10 times stronger than a normal man (as stated by Doctor Frankenstein himself), and he’s shown to break chains, push a large pillar one-handed, and push a boulder, feats which are far more impressive than Imhotep smashing open a coffin. Even if we were to give Imhotep all of Kharis’ physical feats for… some reason, they would still pale in comparison.

“But that doesn’t matter if Imhotep could just mind control him or give him a heart attack, right?”

Perhaps. In some situations, it’s possible that Imhotep could successfully use one or both of these abilities to take the Monster down, but for the most part it’s unlikely. The Mummy’s best speed feat is just outspeeding a normal human security guard, killing him with his powers faster than the man could subdue him. On the other hand, Frankenstein’s Monster in his novel is stated multiple times to be faster than an eagle in flight. Considering the species of eagles indigenous to the story’s setting, this would put his movement speed over 43 miles per hour, 3 times greater than the humans Imhotep has outsped. The Monster is also capable of eluding gunfire and has a hyperbolic statement about being as fast as lightning. With this in mind, coupled with his much greater strength and the fact that he’s been known to kill people in one hit with casual blows, it’s likely the Monster would bulldoze Imhotep faster than he could use his powers. Coupled with the Monster’s impressive survivability and Imhotep’s relative frailness, it is much more likely that the Monster will survive longer than Imhotep in this fight, in the event that the two do not end up fighting each other.

On that note, it does not help that this is a battle royale scenario, where Imhotep is going to be forced to divide his attention between multiple targets at once. Generally speaking, his hypnosis and ability to induce death are only used on one person at a time, so if he is focusing his attention on one of the other monsters, he’ll be left open to attack from the other two. Also, his ability to induce death via shock and heart failure takes a clear physical toll on him, so even if he does successfully use it on one of his opponents, that will also leave him open. While inducing shock can kill a target instantly, his heart attacks are less immediate, allowing the target time to act, as shown when Frank Whemple was able to protect himself from it by grabbing a protective charm after his heart attack had begun. Given that even the Wolf Man is stronger and faster than Imhotep is, and the other two are by a much greater degree, any moment of weakness could prove fatal.

With this being said, Imhotep does likely beat the Wolf Man for the most part. Larry’s physical advantages are not as great as those of Frankenstein’s Monster, and he is just as vulnerable to hypnosis or heart attack. His mindlessness as the Wolf Man makes him easy pickings for the more strategic Imhotep, and his stats are not so far above a normal human that Imhotep surviving his attacks is impossible. Likewise, since he has actual win-cons over Frankenstein’s Monster and can match several of Dracula’s abilities, Imhotep does better in this fight than Kharis for the most part.

2nd Place – Frankenstein’s Monster

And coming in second place, we have the Monster, who everyone thinks is just named Frankenstein (for some reason). It's probably quite shocking to see him this high up, but the Doctor's greatest creation has what it takes to put the Wolf Man down and send Imhotep (and Kharis) crying to their Mummy. And… honestly he stands a pretty good chance against Dracula too? We spent most of this process expecting him to take a solid third place, and for nobody to stand a chance against Drac, but Frank has a surprising amount of advantages and counters in this fight.

That said, before we get to the main event, let’s start with good old Larry Talbot. Both our research and the actual Universal canon squarely place this in the Monster’s court. As the novel shows, the Monster possesses a surprising amount of intelligence in that criminal's brain, which allows him to out-think the feral Wolf Man. Not to mention that the Monster having the strength of 10 men outshines Larry, who got matched by one man and whose best strength feat is breaking a wooden door. All in all, the Monster holds most of the advantages over Larry in both his Wolf Man and especially in his human form. Although the Wolf Man can only be killed with silver in his own story, he’s been harmed by other things, and has never held up against anything as strong as the Monster, nor regenerated from getting ripped limb from limb or having his skull caved in.

Now, let's wrap up how he fairs against the Mummy. As discussed previously, the Monster holds the advantage over Imhotep. While some of the abilities Imhotep has are pretty impressive, like his hypnosis and death infliction, his stats utterly pale in comparison to the Monster's. Let's not beat around the bush; Imhotep has very little in the way of speed and strength. This means that the Monster's rather impressive feats would allow him to strike down the Mummy before he can use any of his abilities, and some (mainly his death infliction) take a toll on Imhotep anyway.

Finally, let's get to the fun part: The Monster VS Dracula, which is surprisingly what this battle royale boils down to.

This is an interesting one; in terms of speed, the Monster surprisingly takes it, for having speed comparable to an eagle is more impressive than any speed Dracula could reach as a bat or wolf. His strength also dwarfs that of the Count, both through direct feats and through the crossover movies, where Dracula has more trouble against the Wolf Man physically than the Monster does.

Additionally, though Dracula's hypnosis may be a game changer against the other two monsters, it's established in the first movie that it can be resisted with a strong enough will, as demonstrated by Van Helsing. With his strong will and resentment allowing him to survive incredibly inhospitable conditions, you could argue that the Monster's will is strong enough to resist Dracula's hypnosis. Even if it couldn’t, the Monster is blind by the end of the movies’ timeline, so Dracula’s hypnosis, which requires eye contact, may not be an option in the first place.

The unique make-up of the Monster's body, however, is where the real interesting stuff comes in. His blood has a different cellular make-up, and his heart produces blood much faster than a normal human. His blood pressure is also extremely high, 3x greater than a normal person, yet the Monster’s body is able to handle this without issues. While yes, this would give Dracula more blood to drink, it also means the Monster can replenish any drained blood easier. It also brings us to the crux of this debate: can Dracula kill the Monster by giving him a heart attack?

If you’re doubting the idea that this is the million dollar question, let’s recap. Dracula is weaker and slower than the Monster, and cannot hypnotize him nor kill him via blood sucking. The Monster’s survivability is too great for Dracula to kill him by beating him to death, and unlike the other three monsters, he has no specific weaknesses that could be exploited. While the Monster lacks a way to harm Drac while he is intangible, Dracula would need to solidify in order to attack physically, leaving him open. And if worst comes to worst, and it ends up a stalemate with both unable to harm the other, only Dracula is working with a time limit, since he needs to finish the fight before the Sun comes up. As such, Dracula’s victory is riding on the notion that the heart attack will work, since it’s his only reliable option for killing the Monster quickly.

So… would it work? The Monster’s superhuman cardiovascular system has allowed him to survive for decades with blood pressure several times greater than normal. His blood circulates through his body and replenishes at a much greater rate compared to a normal person, so it could be argued that his blood vessels are much more durable than a normal person, to be able to accommodate this. Heart attacks occur when a person’s blood flow is partially or completely cut off to a part of the heart, usually caused by plaques forming in the arteries. When a plaque ruptures, this can cause blood clots which restrict blood flow. It’s unclear exactly how Dracula’s heart attacks work, since he just… well, does them, and the movies don’t go into detail on what he’s actually doing to the person’s arteries. But it’s entirely possible, given the Monster’s physiology, that his blood vessels are just too durable to rupture from such things, or that his blood pumps too quickly and powerfully for any obstruction to stop it for long. On the other hand, one could also argue that his higher blood pressure could make these obstructions more harmful, since they would cause blood to build up more quickly if obstructed. On the other-other hand, he’s also survived multiple bullets to the heart without dying, and left them in there for years with no treatment, so whether stopping his heart would kill him in the first place is questionable.

Unfortunately, this came up very late in this blog’s creation, so our members are still split on the answer, but the majority still sides with Drac. Ultimately, Dracula has many abilities and advantages going for him that we'll get into in the Count's verdict, and from the limited amount of heart research and discussion we’ve done, most of us feel that the heart attack working is still the safer bet. Still, Frankenstein’s Monster made this a lot closer than any of us ever really expected of him, and that’s pretty cool. And hey, at least he’ll finally get the death he wanted for so long.

In the end, the Monster can put down the Wolf Man like a dog, and can leave Imhotep in sore need of some bandages, he comes up short (not literally, the man is very tall) against the fuckmothering vampire that is Count Dracula.

1st Place – Count Dracula

In the end, this battle royale came down to Count Dracula VS Frankenstein’s Monster. We were all surprised by the impressive feats and potential counters that the Monster brings to the table, but overall, it wasn’t enough for Victor’s creation to overcome the king of the vampires. However, before we get into that, let’s recap why Dracula overwhelms the Wolf Man and Imhotep first.

While Dracula and the Wolf Man did fight each other in a crossover film, and Larry surprisingly did pretty well, Dracula did not use any of his special abilities in that fight, it was purely physical combat. Additionally, this blog includes information from the original Dracula novel alongside the movies. In the novel, one of the various powers Dracula has at his disposal is his control over different types of animals, particularly wolves. Larry Talbot is a werewolf, a person who changes for periods of time into a wolf, typically when there is a full moon. The name itself descends from the Old English word “werewulf”, which translates to “man-wolf”. In other words, Dracula’s control over wolves should be effective against the Wolf Man. The werewolf has also shown no feats of resisting mind control in any of the movies he’s been in. In addition, the Wolf Man acts as a feral animal in his transformed state, so Dracula can easily outsmart the beast and avoid any lethal hits by becoming intangible or turning into mist. Even if Larry fights as a human, he’s still screwed. Not only can Dracula still use his classic hypnosis, but Larry is also a living being. Therefore, the vampire king can either drain Larry of his blood or induce a heart attack.

Now, compared to the Wolf Man, Imhotep will be harder to put down, but only by a bit. Both Dracula and Imhotep’s hypnotism cancel each other out, and neither of their abilities to inflict death will work on the other since they’re both undead, though it should be noted that the mummification process leaves the heart inside the mummy’s body instead of taking it out, and Imhotep himself didn’t have his organs removed due to his punishment of being buried alive. With that being said, Imhotep’s death affliction takes a physical toll on his body, while the same cannot be said for Dracula. And that’s when the tide turns decisively in the vampire’s favor. The Count possesses more supernatural abilities than Imhotep, who wouldn’t be able to counter any of them: phasing, shapeshifting, levitation, animal control, etc. In contrast, Imhotep has nothing else in return, not even a healing factor like Dracula or the Wolf Man. Not only that, but Dracula has the advantage in stats, for Imhotep has shown very few impressive physical feats.

Even if feats from his successor Kharis were included, they add very little to Imhotep’s chances. The best thing Kharis ever did was break through several wooden fences as if he had a personal grudge against them. As for Dracula, he has a natural strength of 20 men and is physically superior to Renfield, who can break metal as if they were cheese. Lastly, Imhotep has a more exploitable weakness compared to Dracula. The Mummy’s Scroll of Thoth does not just contain spells for him to cast, it is also his greatest weakness, and will permanently kill him if it ever gets destroyed. Meanwhile, Dracula’s own weaknesses are very specific and require preparation or luck to exploit.

And now for the main event, Count Dracula VS Frankenstein’s Monster for the victory in this monster mash battle royale. Let’s start with stats. Between the two, Frankenstein’s Monster is surprisingly faster than Dracula. The speed of Victor’s creation is compared to being faster than an eagle. Since the story takes place in Germany, the eagle used in this blog for comparison was the White-Tailed Eagle, which can reach speeds at an average of 43 mph. Meanwhile, Dracula should be faster than a normal bat in his bat form. For comparison, we used a vampire bat for obvious reasons. This species of bat can fly at 25 mph, making the Monster roughly 1.72 times faster than the Count (he’s also slightly faster than Drac’s wolf form, which can only run at speeds up to 40 mph). And in terms of durability, Frankenstein’s Monster has shown more impressive feats as well.

When it comes to strength, Frankenstein’s Monster is physically the strongest. While Dracula still has a strength equivalent of 20 men, Victor’s creation has shown more direct feats in the Universal films. In the movie Ghost of Frankenstein, a lightning bolt strike can even give Frankenstein’s Monster a 10x strength boost. Dracula’s ability to manipulate the weather could be a help or a hindrance, depending on how smart he plays things - he could unknowingly give the Monster a boost with lightning, but he could also eliminate any chance of lightning occurring during the fight. Given Dracula’s intellect, it’s likely that he would play things cautiously, and at absolute worst, he certainly won’t be making any mistakes more than once. Moreover, rather than lightning storms, he can instead call for wind, mist, or snow if he so chooses.

In the original Frankenstein novel, Frankenstein’s Monster is very intelligent, to the point that he’s able to outsmart his creator Victor, so it should be possible for the Monster to catch on in a flash and figure out Dracula’s weaknesses. However, the Monster isn’t well equipped to exploit the majority of the vampire’s weaknesses. Since he generally doesn’t carry garlic or holy items with him, the best thing he could do is either stab Dracula’s heart with something pointy (or burn it) and cut off his head, or just wait until sunrise so the Count would lose his powers. Unfortunately for Victor’s creation, it’s likely that Dracula’s supernatural abilities will make those options unavailable.

For one thing, Dracula’s phasing and ability to shapeshift into mist render any physical attacks useless. Even bullets from the Monster’s guns are ineffective since they’re not sacred, and obviously could be phased through regardless. Dracula’s healing factor is also superior to the Monster’s; Katherine’s bullet wound healed overnight, while it took several weeks for the Monster to recover from his bullet wound.

It should be acknowledged though that the effectiveness of Dracula’s hypnosis on Frankenstein’s Monster is debatable. In his original novel, the Monster was able to traverse through the harsh environments of nature. While that was only because of an adrenaline rush built up over the course of two years, Frankenstein’s Monster in the Universal films has that resentment and built-up hatred all the time. He hates living, and a lot of things he does is an attempt to escape the constant misery of his existence. Abraham Van Helsing, an above-average human being, was able to resist Dracula’s hypnosis thanks to his strong will. However, what makes this aspect debatable is even though Van Helsing resisted Dracula’s hypnosis, he was momentarily affected at the beginning. Even then, the Count can still stun his opponents through eye contact alone, though the Monster’s blindness could make that an issue, if we choose to take him at that point (though it should be noted that obviously, not being able to see carries its own disadvantages).

However, the thing that will prove most instrumental to the Monster’s downfall is his own physiology. Despite being made up of dead body parts stitched together, the Monster was reanimated with life. As previously covered, it’s confirmed that the Monster has a beating heart pumping blood within his body, even if it’s abnormal compared to the structure of a regular human’s heart. As such, the Count is very capable of draining the blood from the Monster. Because the Monster’s heart pumps blood at 250 BPM with a blood pressure 3x higher than a normal human, he will have a greater quantity of blood for Dracula to consume, even if the Monster can replenish any lost blood, preventing the Count’s blood sucking from ending the fight. Luckily, Dracula’s death affliction can allow him to give the Monster a heart attack. Despite the last minute arguments that came up about how its cardiovascular system functions, most of us feel that there is not concrete evidence for Frankenstein’s Monster resisting this particular ability. As such, its use would end this battle royale and make Count Dracula the victor.

Beyond specific counters against his opponents, Dracula still has a few more advantages he can use in the fight. One such advantage is that his bat transformation naturally gives him flight, allowing him to stay out of range of the other combatants. In Son of Dracula, the Count is able to perform his death affliction even as a bat, meaning that he could reasonably just fly out of range and then pick them all off from afar. He also has some miscellaneous advantages due to his animal control. While we have already talked about how Dracula can take control of the Wolf Man, he can also use this ability to call upon animal allies to fight on his behalf, like a pack of wolves or millions of rats, giving him the numbers advantage as well.

Overall, despite possessing many specific weaknesses, the vampire’s many supernatural abilities, tactical talents, and impressive stats allow him to overcome the odds and overwhelm his opponents. At the end of the Classic Horror Battle Royale, Dracula is shown to be the true monster in this bloodbath, while everyone else is nothing more than miserable piles of secrets, left down for the Count.

Final Tally

Team Dracula (4) - VampyreNVRmore, Purple_Bizarre, AwesomeEthan48, eXoRy

Team Frankenstein’s Monster (3) - Hi Hi, Rina Antiqua, Bee🌸🌸

Team Mummy (0) - 😂💀😂

Team Wolf Man (0) - 😂🐺😂

NOTE: The vote was actually 4-4 in the end after being an 8-0 sweep until the last minute, but one of our members chose to abstain from voting so that there would be a winner.

Happy Halloween, folks!

(vote for Cole VS Alex in the membership poll)

#ColexSweep