13. The Creeper series lasted a mere two films
In the mid-1940s, Universal planned a series of films based on new monster characters, recognizing that stories featuring the Big Four (The Mummy, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and Dracula) were beginning to be played out. One such series was to be based on a character known as The Creeper, a madman easily manipulated into creating brutal murders. The first was filmed in 1945 and starred Rondo Hatton as The Creeper, though the film was titled House of Horrors. A second film, The Brute Man, was filmed in early 1946, also starring Hatton as The Creeper. Neither film was well-received.
Universal planned further films based on The Creeper, which were to run for about an hour in length and be shown as a second feature B picture. But Hatton died in February 1946 following a series of heart attacks and plans for the series were shelved. Both films were shown repeatedly though they never rose in the regard of critics. The Creeper was one of several series of B pictures planned by Universal to show in conjunction with other B pictures or as a second feature when viewing one of their A pictures, especially those which were re-released in the late 1940s and the 1950s.