Five Horror Movie Monsters in the Public Domain

Monster Freddy Kruegar from A Nightmare On Elm Street starring Jack Earl Haley rakes in box office bucks from horror fans. Earl Haley took over the role from Robert Englund, who originated the burnt bad man in Wes Craven's original 1984 horror masterpiece. Freddy's a monstrous character who can only be seen in media like movies, TV, books or video games by paying the owner a generous licensing fee. This is great profit for the owners of the character, but gets expensive for producers and artists wanting to be creative.

Worry not, my budding creative types! Here are some of the most popular monsters in cinema history, available for your use absolutely free of charge. They reside in a wonderful place called the public domain. Write them up in short stories, flesh them out in film scripts or draw them in a comic book. Whatever you do with these scary guys, make certain you make it a horrific good time.

Mummy

Mummies, as we all know, are wrapped way too tightly. It's why they're so uptight and go around killing people by the dozens.

The 1932 Universal film starring Boris Karloff as The Mummy is a story that Universal owns, so that isn't in the public domain, however the concept of a mummy is free to all. Mummies are merely well preserved corpses - usually wrapped up in a kind of treated linen. Egypt is most known for the mummification process, like King Tut, yet some of the better preserved mummies come from Peru and Chile. Mummies can not only give a movie loads of chills, but it naturally provides great historic angles, and the fantastic use of dark sorcery or magical potions.

Dracula

Universal is the undisputed classic monster studio. It started in 1931 when the studio produced Dracula - based upon Bram Stoker's novel.

The wicked count with the insanely unquenchable thirst can be used by any of us in any form. Be aware however, that the character may be used in anyway you'd like, however you can't copy the exact story found in the Stoker novel, the Bela Lugosi movie version - nor the Frank Langella one filmed in 1979 directed by John Badham - nor the Francis Ford Coppola version starring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder from 1992. You can however use the cadaverous character, and many of the same bloody trappings. Just create a new biting story for the blood batty Count of the undead, and you'll avoid any legal garlic or suit stakes to your production's creative heart.

Werewolf

Long before actor Lon Chaney Jr. howled at the silvery moon on the silver screen in Universal's The Wolfman (1941), werewolf legends had long been established.

You may film a wicked werewolf movie, just make sure you don't use the same movie story that Universal used for its 1941 movie, or the 2010 remake starring Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving and Benicio Del Toro. Perhaps your werewolf is a hippy hound who's a l960's love child and enjoys the psychedelic vibe of flower children. He's a Charles Manson like charismatic leader who entices young girls and guys into his wolf clan. Before they know who - or what - he really is, these hippies become doggies - as in werewolves. Instead of flower children, they become howling children. Actually the great Joe Dante horror flick The Howling (1981) played up a similar notion of a tribe of werewolves, starring Dee Wallace Stone, Patrick Macnee and Robert Picardo, best known as the holographic doctor in Star Trek: Voyager.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his legendary novel Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in 1886.

Since then the characters have been treated to over a dozen movie adaptations. In 1973, there was even a TV musical version starring Kirk Douglas. Unlike most monsters, Jekyll & Hyde is a two for one deal - you can't have one without the other. Or can you? Since Stevenson's macabre creation can be used by anyone for just about anything, perhaps your Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde will finally see the two dispirit gentlemen divorcing each other - in both body and soul. This great story has influenced pop culture in so many ways, and is clearly the core inspiration for Marvel Comics The Incredible Hulk. In 1971, there was even a gender bender version. British horror studio Hammer Films produced Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

Frankenstein

British author Marry Shelley crafted her bizarre reanimated corpse in her novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, back in 1818.

No matter how many other versions are adapted to the cinema, Boris Karloff as a lumbering, though basically gentle behemoth who's Dr. Henry Frankenstein's monster will probably be best remembered by horror fans. Although certainly not the same type of character as what Shelley envisioned in her landmark novel, Karloff brings such an engaging humanity to the character, that we can think of nobody else in the role. If however, you think you can cast an even better actor for the legendary part, go ahead and do so. Frankenstein can be filmed by anyone, as long as you don't step on anyone else's original version.

www.imdb.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy