As Hollywood's official House of Horror, poignant monster dilemmas . . .

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2018)

. . . are no strangers to Universal Studios. From its silent movie days, when the unrequited loves of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA elicited many a tear from sensitive theater goers, to Frankenstein's Monster learning that little girls don't always float, to the Creature being hounded out of the cozy confines of that Black Lagoon, the lives of Universal's horror stars are a lot more difficult than those of "Terry Howard's" HUSTLE & FLOW street entrepreneurs. And what could be harder than the predicament facing "Doc" in GREEN BOOK? An alcoholic gay White Chopin-playing piano prodigy born with a Black body, Doc nevertheless insists upon drunkenly cruising Pale Face-only swimming pools after hours, on the prowl for short-term romantic partners. To "up" the horror quotient, Universal depicts Doc's Happy Hunting Grounds in the U.S. Deep South at the height of America's so-called "Jim Crow" Era. If all of this is making GET OUT seem like a church picnic in comparison, you're picking up on the vibe created by GREEN BOOK, our top Horror Flick of 2018.