THE DEVIL'S BROOD

A lackluster attempt to revive the classic horror movie monsters.

By Dan Cziraky     July 28, 2000

1998's RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN (Berkley Boulevard, New York, October 1998, 339 pp., $6.99) by horror movie historian Jeff Rovin (VESPERS) saw the welcome return of the classic horror movie monsters of Universal Studios: the Wolf Man, the Frankenstein Monster, and Count Dracula. Rovin's novel picked up from the last few minutes of 1948's ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, with Dracula and the Wolf Man surviving their plunge into the sea and the Monster dormant under the burned boat dock at Castle Mornay. The Wolf Man attacks and kills Professor Stevens. Insurance investigator Joan Raymond then helps Lawrence Talbot end his cursed existence by thrusting a shard of silver-backed mirrored glass into his heart. His body is bricked up in the castle's basement.

Fifty years later, a freak accident frees the sliver of mirror from Talbot's chest, releasing the Wolf Man once more. In quick succession, the Monster is discovered and revived; Count Dracula reaches out from his tropical island retreat to claim the Monster once again as his slave; and the modern world is poorly prepared for the return of such evil. It's a familiar story, but one that Rovin told with flair and respect for the classic monsters. The violence in the book reached a level of explicitness never possible in the films of the '30s and '40s; otherwise, it's easy to imagine the classic monsters going through their paces once more. Although Rovin's novel is self-contained, he did set the scene for another story involving the grandson of THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON on a quest for the remains of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Nearly two years later, author David Jacobs (movie novelizations of SNAKE EYES, WHERE THE MONEY IS, and ME, MYSELF & IRENE) picks up the storyline with THE DEVIL'S BROOD (the original working title for 1944's HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN). In her European retreat, Countess Marya Zaleska and her coven of Satanists use a diabolical ritual to observe the destruction of Frankenstein's Monster and Count Dracula. The cultists then make a disastrous attempt to revive the dormant 'Bride' of Frankenstein's Monster. Meanwhile, Dracula's army of zombie slaves overruns Isla Morgana, exacting bloody vengeance on their former tormentors. Dracula's remains, mixing with the blood of the Monster, metamorphosize into a hideous, Blob-like creature, absorbing its victims whole. Meanwhile, an aged occultist and his 'niece' procure the assistance of an American gangster to loot the treasures of Dracula's plantation.

In England, Prof. Wilfred Glendon III is haunted by nocturnal visits in his dreams by Countess Zaleska, and soon learns the truth about his grandfather as he begins to search for the remains of the Bride (as well as what may be the last functioning version of his grandfather's Moon-Ray device). Little does he realize that the evil Countess also needs the Moon-Ray to revive the Monster's Bride. However, on Isla Morgana, a double-cross at Dracula's plantation ends with a voodoo ritual designed to restore life to the Monster. The slimy thing that once was Dracula also undergoes yet another, startling transformation. As Prof. Glendon discovers the ruined laboratory of Dr. Pretorius in the Alps, Countess Zaleska springs her trap to capture the secrets of the Moon-Ray.

THE DEVIL'S BROOD is a highly disappointing sequel. Jacobs' story is little more than a series of disjointed scenes of graphic violence, perversions, and sequences lifted from dozens of horror movies. There isn't an original plot point or idea in the book. Most of the classic monsters are either turned into shrill, annoying caricatures (such as the Countess), or remain dormant for the majority of the action (the Bride never does get revived). There are infrequent references to such classics as THE BLACK CAT and THE INVISIBLE RAY, but nothing to generate any genuine chills, just mild revulsion and a dollop of disgust over the wasted potential on display.

In RETURN OF THE WOLF MAN, Rovin at least explained why Talbot reverted back to his lycanthropy after being 'cured' at the conclusion of 1945's HOUSE OF DRACULA, and also addressed the fact that Mr. McDougal of McDougal's House of Horrors survived being bitten by a werewolf in A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Jacobs, however, makes not attempt to explain Countess Zaleska's resurrection, after she was shot through the heart with a wooden arrow at the climax of 1936's DRACULA'S DAUGHTER.

Eschewing the classy, sepia-toned photo of Lon Chaney, Jr., on the cover of RETURN, Berkley Boulevard saddled THE DEVIL'S BROOD with a cheesy, comic book-style illustration that depicts Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Mummy emerging from beneath a fog-enshrouded bridge. Hold onthe Mummy? He's not even in the story!

If this slapdash, lackluster effort is any indication of future installments in this series, then they might as well drive a stake through the heart of this haphazard resurrection of the Universal Studios Monsters right now.

THE DEVIL'S BROOD, by David Jacobs. Berkley Boulevard; New York; June 2000; 316 pp.; $6.99.