In observance of that autumn spell when we celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear, Rainestorm highlights 31 days of spooky scares to season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

This week we pay obligatory homage to the studio that brought some of finest thrills and greatest cinematic cheese to the 20th century. It’s Universal Monster Week!

Reign of terror: 1974

The horror… the horror: Never before or since has Mel Brooks nailed a parody so precisely as Young Frankenstein. Forget the vulgar Blazing Saddles and the meandering History of the World Part I, Brooks and star Gene Wilder really did their homework on this one. Primarily using the Universal classic Son of Frankenstein as a template, they’ve mined every deliciously ridiculous moment from the monster series. Kenneth Mars gets the lion’s share of laughs, liberally lampooning Lionel Atwill’s Inspector Krogh, followed closely by Cloris Leachman’s magnificently menacing Frau Blucher. Virtually every scene is a classic, from the opening shot of a pair of hands trying to wrest a diary from the clutches of an uncooperative skeleton, to the sneering university student who taunts Wilder’s Frankenstein with questions about his grandfather, to the priceless parody of Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill’s dart game in Son of Frankenstein, and more, and more, and ever more. Rounding out the cast are Marty Feldman as Igor and the hysterical Madeline Khan as Frankenstein’s chaste “financée” who turns carnal at the sight of the monster’s… endowments.

Halloween haunt: Hits all the right Universal monster movie notes: the creaking castle, the deserted village at night, the spooky graveyard, the creepy catacombs… but with a cute little comic twist.

Tastiest treat: Gene Hackman’s uncharacteristically campy blind man, who simply cannot help scalding and burning the poor monster despite his best intentions.

Check the candy for: The wolf howl that draws Frederick’s attention, and the cat that yowls after getting hit by a dart were done on set by Mel Brooks.

Devilish discourse: “Sed-a-give!?”

Goes great with: Son of Frankenstein (1939). What better companion to this comedy than the film that most inspired it.