Frankenstein's Monster Tops Halloween Poll

Frankenstein's monster has been named the top classic horror movie creature in the run-up to Halloween.

The creation drew almost a third of the votes in a poll by SFX magazine, leaving Dracula in second spot.

Fans were given a choice of vintage monsters which feature in a new Blu-ray collection of horror classics, entitled Universal Monsters: The Essential Collection.

British actor Boris Karloff's interpretation of the reanimated creature from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was first seen on screen in 1931.

Jack Pierce was the make-up artist who designed the now-iconic look for Karloff's monster, which is portrayed with scars, a flat head and a bolt through his neck.

Frankenstein was followed by a string of sequels, beginning with Bride Of Frankenstein in 1935, in which Elsa Lanchester played the monster's bride.

Dracula was next in the poll, first being played by Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi.

Dracula was made by the same film company as Frankenstein and was also released the same year, 1931, but was not as well received.

Some UK horror buffs also prefer Sir Christopher Lee's 1958 interpretation of the blood-sucking count.

In third place was the Gill-man from 1954's Creature From The Black Lagoon, which saw Korean War veteran-turned-actor Ben Chapman play the amphibian humanoid.

The top eight classic movie monsters are:

1. Frankenstein's monster

2. Dracula

3. Gill-man from Creature From The Black Lagoon

4. The Wolf Man

5. The Bride Of Frankenstein

6. The Invisible Man

7. The Mummy

8. The Phantom Of The Opera