Critic Reviews

You can almost hear a Universal Studio executive coming up with the idea: "Let's take our two top comedians (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) and throw in our top money-making creatures - Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man and Dracula. The fans'll love it!" They sure did.

It's the perfect blend of haunt and humor, and no matter how many years go by, it keeps us laughing — and screaming.

Most importantly, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein doesn’t pretend to mask itself as something more than a cheap thrill, but it’s that tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that not only made it a box office smash, spawning several sequels, but the birth mother of an entirely new genre altogether.

The incongruous pairing—the late-’40s equivalent of dropping the American Pie gang into a Saw movie—really shouldn’t have worked, but it resulted in a highly entertaining film that became a huge hit and breathed new life into the comedy team’s career, while providing a convenient tombstone for the monsters, who faded from screens.

This one transcends the subgenre to be a respectful and very funny horror spoof. [11 Feb 1999]

It's a giddy blend of horror and comedy.

Hilarious spoof of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and early 40s, with Abbott and Costello playing railway porters who unwittingly deliver the "undead" bodies of Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) to a wax museum, where the bodies are revived.

The comedy team battles it out with the studio's roster of bogeymen in a rambunctious fracas that is funny and, at the same time, spine-tingling. Stalking through the piece to add menace are such characters as the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man and Dracula.

A little bit of going through the motions with this horror spoof but fans will enjoy.

This 1948 effort is probably the last of their watchable films, though it’s a long way from their best.