{"id":1069,"date":"2026-07-17T17:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:10:19","slug":"boris-karloff-targets-and-the-changing-landscape-of-horror-screenhub-entertainment-screenhub-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1069","title":{"rendered":"Boris Karloff, Targets, and the Changing Landscape of Horror \u2013 ScreenHub Entertainment \u2013 ScreenHub Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Boris<\/div>

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Boris Karloff was once a household name when it came to fans of horror films. I\u2019m not begrudging younger generations for not knowing the heroes of generations before. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that. I was hardly into the films of Buster Keaton in my youth, so who am I to judge? To understand the importance of Boris Karloff, one has to understand just how iconic he was to monster movie fans everywhere, arguably the very face of the genre. Who is Boris Karloff? Well, you all may have run into him without even being aware of it. He served as the narrator for the classic animated short, How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em>, for instance, but another, more iconic role is that of the monster from the 1931 classic, Frankenstein<\/em>. Yes. Whenever you go to a Halloween store and see a costume for the famous monster with bolts in the neck, a flat head and stitches, that is the likeness of Boris Karloff. <\/p>\n

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[Credit: Universal Pictures]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karloff would go on to portray numerous other monsters, reprising his role in Bride of Frankenstein<\/em>, and playing the original version of Imhotep in the 1930s version of The Mummy<\/em>. These days it can be easy to forget that Universal Studios was built by the success of their monster movies like The Wolf Man<\/em>, Dracula<\/em>, and yes, the monsters made famous by Boris Karloff. But even when I was a kid growing up in the 90s, films from 60-plus years ago were no longer the talk of the town. We had slasher movies and major monster franchises like Alien<\/a><\/em> and Predator<\/a><\/em>. Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Dracula were icons, but not ones people spoke about as much.<\/p>\n

The fate that befell the classic Universal Monster movies is the same that befell my icons like Michael Myers<\/a>, Jason Voorhees<\/a>, Freddy Krueger, Alien, Predator<\/em>, you name them. Sure, the movies still come out, and are often successful. But with films like Obsession<\/em> and Backrooms<\/em> making waves, the horror landscape is changing.<\/p>\n

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Boris Karloff (1887-1969), British actor, holding a telephone in a publicity portrait for the film, \u2018Targets\u2019, USA, 1968. The 1968 thriller, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, starred Karloff as \u2018Byron Orlok\u2019. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again, there is no bitterness intended by this. It\u2019s just the truth about horror as a whole. Why do we tell horror stories? Because in some ways we like being scared. We like fear from a place where we can be safe. But another reason is that we live in a harsh, cruel world, and sometimes dealing with that fear with fictional monsters is easier than facing the terrible things we\u2019re capable of doing to each other. My personal favorite film by Boris Karloff is not a film where he\u2019s covered in makeup or playing a heavy in a gothic castle. Instead, he plays an actor living in then modern Los Angeles, late 1960s, and ready to face that harsh reality.<\/p>\n

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