Monster Movies: 2011 Wall Calendar

Each month offers a poster from a classic Universal horror film, beautifully reproduced. The details are exact, with vibrant colors. This sturdy calendar would be a fine gift for any admirer of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Having enjoyed the 2010 version, I purchased the 2011 calendar to have another year of old film friends shown at their best in classic posters in brilliant colors and superb reprints. If you've seen one calendar, you've seen both. Save for one change, the exact same posters are used again. They're in different months, though, if that matters. Last year, we started with "Bride of Frankenstein"; this year began with "The Phantom of the Opera" ... which was last year's February choice. Not even a different poster for the same film, but the exact same as last year. The 'one change' is that instead of "Dracula" being used for 2 months, it's used for one and "The Old Dark House" replaces it. Reissues (which were noted last year) for "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" are used, but are not identified as such this year. If there's a 2012 version, I guess I'll pass it by.

This is the first year I've bought one of these instead of a landscape calendar and I like it just fine. Sorry to learn it's the same images as last year's, but for first timers like me, the lurid, highly theatrical posters are great fun--emphasis on melodrama over morbidity, operatic rather than repulsive, fitting representations of those great old Universal Pictures. The dates also leave plenty of room for appointment notation. The only horror-info is identifying labels for the images.