Stubs - The Mummy's Hand

The Mummy’s Hand (1940) starring Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, Wallace Ford, Cecil Kellaway Directed by Christy Cabanne. Screenplay by Griffin Jay, Maxwell Shane. Produced by Ben Pivar Run time: 67 minutes. Black and White. USA Horror

When is a film the second in a series, but not a sequel and doesn’t tell a story related to the original? See The Mummy’s Hand, released by Universal in 1940, eight years after the original. Following the success of Son of Frankenstein, which revived the Frankenstein franchise, and The Invisible Man Returns, which revived that franchise, the studio decided to try that with The Mummy. Only this time there was no Boris Karloff, and no James Whale involved.

Rather, the film was produced by Ben Pivar, who director Reginald LeBorg described as the epitome artless, noncreative studio executive who was often crude and occasionally seemed illiterate. The director, Christy Cabanne, a former silent film actor, had a reputation for efficiency and for being able to make films very quickly.

Budgeted at $80,000, the film started filming in late May 1940. Cost cutting measures included using stock shots taken from The Mummy, leftover sets from James Whale's film Green Hell, and musical scores almost entirely lifted from Son of Frankenstein. Production continued into mid-June, which led to overtime hours for everyone. According to Peggy Moran, the female lead, she had to be on set at 6am to do hair and makeup and filming began at 8am and would occasionally work as late as 4am the next day. Over budget by $4000, editing was done by the end of June. The film opened on September 20, 1940.

Stubs - The Invisible Man Returns

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) starring Vincent Price, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nan Grey. Directed by Joe May. Screenplay by Curt Siodmak and Lester Cole. Suggested by the novel The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (London, 1897). Associate Producer: Ken Goldsmith. Run time: 82 minutes. Black and White. USA. Horror.

As an actor, Vincent Price is best remembered for his roles in horror films. One of his earliest roles in such a film came in The Invisible Man Returns, a sequel to The Invisible Man, which had come out seven years prior.

Following the commercial success of Son of Frankenstein, Universal Studios announced the development of The Invisible Man Returns in March 1939. The film went through a few screenwriters, including W.P. Lipscomb, and directors, including Rowland V. Lee, before choosing Lester K. Cole and Curt Siodmak to write the script and Joe May to direct.

The production, which got underway on October 19, 1939, was apparently plagued from the start. By the second week, it was already behind schedule. The $243,750 budget and the 27-day planned production days were not adequate for the special effects. Production ended on November 11 and was followed by three to four days of post-production work needed to be done for the special effects. The film would be released on January 12, 1940.

Street Fighter (1994)

Just as there a seemingly endless number of Street Fighter game variants, the fighting game series is no stranger to outside media, with one of the most notorious being the 1994 Street Fighter film that was part of the initial wave of theatrical film adaptations of popular video game franchises (in this case, specifically adapting Street Fighter II). Much of its notoriety can be attributed to its production, in which Capcom was very hands-on and numerous behind-the-scenes issues plagued its development, resulting in a more atypical Street Fighter story. As someone who has had some familiarity with the Street Fighter series, mostly through Street Fighter IV and some amount of Street Fighter V, I had been curious to see what this film was like for myself and finally found an opportunity to do so in anticipation of the upcoming 2026 film. While it was lambasted at the time of its release, it has since been reevaluated as an enjoyable movie on its own, and I found myself falling more into the latter camp.

Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5)

Hot off the success of The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, Shinji Mikami and Ikumi Nakamura from Tango Gameworks would announce the studio’s next project, an action-adventure with horror elements called Ghostwire: Tokyo, at E3 2019. This project would later receive a generally positive reception following its official release in 2022, though it would notably depart in some ways from the survival horror gameplay of Tango’s first two games (before releasing something completely out of left field the next year with the acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush). Personally, E3 memes related to Nakamura aside, the original reveal had me interested in playing Ghostwire: Tokyo, to the point that I have the steelbook for it, although I would only get around to it after finally obtaining a physical copy of Hi-Fi Rush and after realizing that I owned every console Tango game physically. Though the wait felt worth it, I would agree on the repetitive nature of the gameplay, which had my initial enthusiasm for exploring every possible corner of the game gradually wane.

Resident Evil (2026)

Between the critical failure of Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil hexalogy and the commercial failure of Welcome to Raccoon City, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil (2026) had a lot riding on it. Although Cregger found success in both Weapons and Barbarian, his take on Resident Evil would represent the second reboot of the film arm of the wider franchise, a side that had already burned longtime fans (but not necessarily general audiences) multiple times. As such, he decided that instead of adapting a specific game, he would focus on adapting the “survival horror” aspect while following a new character. Although a loud segment of the fandom would question this decision, the finished film would not only earn the highest critical scores of any video game movie, surpassing Exit 8, but also make over $250 million against its $75 million budget as of this writing. Personally, following the disappointment of Welcome to Raccoon City, Cregger’s clear passion for the franchise and a sneak peek shown at SDCC 2026 won me over and I couldn’t wait to see it as soon as I could. Fortunately, Cregger seems to have finally cracked the code on adapting a survival horror series to the big screen in a way that a film like Return to Silent Hill could not.

Stubs - Haunted Mansion (2023)

Haunted Mansion (2023) starring LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto Directed by Justin Simien. Screenplay by Katie Dippold. Based on The Haunted Mansion by Walt Disney. Produced by Dan Lin, Jonathan Eirich Run time: 123 minutes. USA. Color. Supernatural Horror, Comedy.

Sometimes a film can have a really great cast but the material doesn’t live up to the casting. Such is the case with Haunted Mansion, a 2023 release from Walt Disney. It's a remake of sorts of The Haunted Mansion (2003), the original, which only gets better when compared with this film.

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Back in 2003, Disney released Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, their most successful film based on one of their theme park attractions by virtue of spawning a money-printing pentalogy. That same year, mere months later, Disney would also release The Haunted Mansion, based on the theme park attraction of the same name. Although the film would actually break even at the box office, with about $180 million earned against a $90 million budget, the film’s negative reception among critics, with a meager 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, would turn me off from watching it in the two decades since its original run. That would change with this blog’s yearly celebration of the Halloween season. While by no means a masterpiece, I now firmly believe that critics were too harsh on the film the first time around.