Above: Claude Rains and Susanna Foster star in the 1943 film "Phantom of the Opera." (Photo/Universal Pictures)

Part of Hollywood history has been one of Horror.

Little joke there. Yes, Hollywood has endured its share of horror stories. Thanks to Kenneth Anger and others, we’ve learned about a lot of them.

But I’m talking about horror films, some of the most famous of which have come courtesy of Universal Pictures. In fact, many of the studio’s films released between the 1930s and 1950s are considered classics of the form.

Two of the most famous will be screened in a special double feature beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Regal Cinemas theaters at NorthTown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium.

The films: “Creature From the Black Lagoon” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

“Creature From the Black Lagoon”: This 1954 feature directed by Jack Arnold has its cheesy aspects, the costumed diver posing as the creature feeling fake even then. We'd have to wait another six decades for Guillermo del Toro to get that right. But the perennial starlet Julia Adams is cute. Also starring Richard Carlson.

Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader had this to say: “Jack Arnold has a flair for this sort of thing, and if there really is anything frightening about a man dressed up in a rubber suit with zippers where the gills ought to be, Arnold comes close to finding it.”

“Phantom of the Opera”: Dating back to French author Gaston Leroux’s novel, which was serialized between 1909 and 1910, the story of the disfigured madman haunting an opera house has been retold a number of times. It's been adapted both in the movies, on television and most famously on the musical stage. This 1943 version, directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Claude Rains, Nelson Eddy and Susanna Foster, is one of the most famous – if not universally liked.

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times was dismissive. “To be sure, the production is elegant,” he wrote. “Settings and costumes are superfine and, photographed in technicolor, they all make a lavish display. But that richness of décor and music is precisely what gets in the way of the tale.”

Oh, well. One critic’s horror, is another movie fan’s joy.