Thread by @john_murdy

Today we’ll finish up with 2019’s “Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man,” when we left off we were down in the catacombs, working our way back to the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle...

One of my favorite scenes in the maze was Dr. Frankenstein’s ruined library with its scores of books that hold the secret to life. Once again, we drew inspiration for this scene from the 1943 film and Bernie Wrightson’s amazing illustrations for the 1983 graphic novel

In our version, Dr Frankenstein’s library has been ravaged by fire after his monster threw the switch that caused that massive explosion at the end of Bride of Frankenstein. Here’s a pic I took when our props and dressing team had started work in that scene...

And here’s some pics of the final scene, where the Wolf Man makes his entrance through the gothic window!

The lab scene was pulled straight from the 1943 film, with a few additions. Chris and I both loved the visual of Frankenstein and the Wolf Man strapped to gurneys and designed the scene so the path went right between them!

There was quite a lot going on in this scene so I’ll try to point out a few details. First off, Dr Frankenstein didn’t make it out of the castle after his monster threw the switch in bride...that’s his charred corpse slung over the giant turbine/dynamo!

With Dr Frankenstein otherwise occupied (ie dead), Ygor has assumed the role of doctor in the scene. Here’s a few pics of him in action...always loved this mask!

And as for the poor bride...we’ll in our 2018 maze, she was in pieces when the lab exploded so obviously she couldn’t walk out of there. So the Bride is like an overcooked hot dog...but still alive. Here’s a pic of the scene and a close up of her finished mask.

We exit the lab into the frozen caverns of the castle, a scene inspired by the 1943 film and its sequel “House of Frankenstein.” I always loved those sequences and wanted to try and recreate it for our maze. This meant we had to come up with alternate looks for our characters...

These are the “frozen” versions of Frankenstein’s Monster and The Wolf Man masks we first created for Universal Monsters in 2018...I really liked the way these turned out.

And here’s a few shots of that sequence. We pumped cold air into the scene to make it feel “chilly” Just look at the difference between these pics when some tries to shoot a maze with a flash and when they don’t. Changes the whole look (no flash photography!)

The final scene was originally going to be a tableau of frozen Frankenstein’s Monster and The Wolf Man locked in mortal combat. While that would have been a cool visual it wasn’t scary so we changed it to a return to the film vault with the monsters busting through the posters.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man trivia - the key art for the maze was inspired by this statue by Sideshow toys that I have in my Monster Room. The Latin inscription on the grave marker translates to “Death conquerors all.”