Boris Karloff Documentary Shudder Review: Honors Horror Icon

I had a religious conversion. In Thomas Hamilton's new documentary Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster, the man says he saw his messiah. The moment when the Oscar-winning filmmaker was moved? The first time he saw the monster was in 1931's Frankenstein.

The Man Behind the Monster pays tribute to the screen legend through talking heads, which include Joe Dante, Leonard Maltin, Ron Perlman, Dick Miller, and Roger Corman.

While the documentary devotes a lot of time to Karloff's best-known roles, it also examines his unique place in cinema history. He was born in England in 1885 and moved to Canada in the early 1900's, where he pursued his acting dreams and eventually found his way to Hollywood. He went from being an extra to a character actor who was good at supporting roles. He bridged the gap between silent and sound films and became an important part of the industry's fascination with horror movies. He starred in The Black Cat, The Old Dark House, and The Mummy, as well as opposite fellow Universal Monster Bela Lugosi. He was an early supporter of the Screen Actors Guild, he weathered the introduction of Hollywood's Hays Code, and he enjoyed a career resurgence when a new generation of fans discovered his creature features.

Karloff was often typecast as a sinister character in films like The Mask of Fu Manchu, and as The Man Behind the Monster openly addresses, he appeared in some films that are now dated. The documentary makes it clear that even if Karloff were to play the same kind of revenge-seeking ghoul, he could always be counted on to turn in a magnetic performance. His Broadway debut in Arsenic and Old Lace, his voice-over work in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and his poignant turn as an aging horror star in Targets are some of the memorable roles he landed later in his life.

Shudder has you covered if you want to watch as many Karloff films as possible after watching Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster. Karloff plays the mad scientist for a change in The Mummy and The Black Cat, but you can still watch him in other films. Black Sabbath and The Old Dark House are on Shudder.

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