Directed by:
Jimmy SangsterCinematography:
Moray GrantComposer:
Malcolm WilliamsonCast:
Ralph Bates, Dennis Price, Jon Finch, Joan Rice, Veronica Carlson, David Prowse, Kate O'Mara, James Cossins, James Hayter, Bernard Archard, Neil Wilson (more)Plots(1)
Coming at the tail end of Hammer Studios' Frankestein cycle (it was preceeded by the classic CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED), HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN takes the familiar story in a much different direction than its predecessors. The film finds young Victor Frankenstein (Bates) becoming fed up with his boorish father and his boring classes. Longing to escape to Vienna to experiment in his lab, Victor offs his father and quits school. Soon Victor has successfully re-animated a turtle and begins work on his ultimate creation--a human made out of dead body parts. Taking place in a vaguely mod-ish 18th century where the characters carry on as if they were London during the swingin' 1960s, HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN has its tongue planted firmly in cheek. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
Repeated joke is no longer a joke, and so is repeated horror no longer horror. Studio Hammer overall relied on the fact that individual films, not only in the Frankenstein series but also in the Dracula and Mummy series, will actually be the same thing, just in a slightly different guise. This eventually leads to the fact that these films simply become repetitive after some time. They are never completely bad, but the repetition gets boring.
()
After half an hour, he only managed to revive a turtle. But there are two passionate, busty ladies around him, one of whom (the brunette) cooks and keeps him company in bed and the other (the blonde) loves him platonically. Besides them, the slow and thin plot is livened up by the rising body count – this Victor is an arrogant prick and spares no one. The monster is OK in terms of musculature but with its eyes of a kind-hearted good guy, it elicits anything but “horror”. The film’s ending is imaginative but unsatisfying after the long slog through the trashy ballast.
()
Ads