Good horror film that is clearly in the same lineage as Dracula and Frankenstein. The makeup is noticeable and Lon Chaney is similar to Bela Lugosi, who is in this movie, and Boris Karloff. This is clearly a film made within the confines of its genre and a group of people who were making these sort of escapist monster films throughout the 1930's. The film is kind of stilted, the camera work is very plain, and non-inventive. There's generally a static camera shooting a wide or a medium and panning around to find the frame. However, the sets and lighting are extremely intricate and the production design detail is very fine. The makeup for Lon Chaney took hours to apply and was one of the most intricate transformations of an actor onscreen into a monster at the time.
The story is fine, although nothing special. It’s just another horror film. It definitely shows the detail for set design, creating a world, and acting beats. You can see the necessity for meticulous planning at the time. However, the film itself didn’t speak to much to anything honestly apart from great special effects makeup.