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Immortal. James Whale's 1931 masterpiece, predicated on the turmoils and agony of Difference, is still haunting. Much of it is based on its design, with the high Gothic metaphysical ideas clashing with the ignorant medievalist mindset. Knowledge vs. safety. Boris Karloff's performance, iconic from the first smash-cut to his undead scowl after turning towards the camera (and the audience), is so harrowing. Crying out on the windmill as his creator abandons him, as he is consumed by the fire that he fears, is one of many moments of legend in popular culture, horror, and tragedy. While a flawed adaptation of Mary Shelley's magnificent novel, it distills key ideas and transplants them into a stumbling corpse of artifice. The Universal…

Hooptober 4.0 - 2017 - Film #27

If you haven't heard of Frankenstein then you have obviously been living under a sulfurous rock on a malformed planet orbiting an arsinic farting sun in a galaxy hiding in the blind spot on the other side of Alpha Centauri. Or somewhere like that. You get the idea.

James Whale's 1931 version of Frankenstein is so embedded in our culture that even if you haven't actually sat down and watched the film in its entirety, there is a good chance you will have seen iconic images, heard famous quotes and quite often seen entire scenes, perhaps without even realising it

So, it is without a doubt that everyone is familiar with Boris Karloff's…

Can you imagine the pure unadulterated horror James Whale's Frankenstein incited in 1931! It is the stuff of nightmares, a monstrous creature created.. piecemealed if you will together like a patchwork quilt of flesh from dead corpses! My god what a horrifying and truly inspired addition to the horror genre! The 30s and 40s were great times for the horror enthusiast they knew no bounds or limits the possibilities were endless! Sadly creating new and terrifying monsters went out of fashion nowadays filmmakers primary focus seems to be limited to creating monstrous men wielding machetes or chainsaws!

When I was a youngin I literally got goosebumps on my arms watching the lab scene, levers pulled, lights flickering with a mad…

This is the first of a review series that will cover the original Universal horror films. I am partnering a list with each that highlights the respective character. Frank's list is HERE

When I was not quite five, I woke up one night after my parents were asleep, crept into the den, and quietly put on the TV. Something was just ending (that I don’t recall), but what came on next changed my life forever. It scared the shit out of me, mainlined a horror addiction right into my little veins and pulled me into the world of cinema.

Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein, like it’s Dracula before, has more to do with the play Frankenstein than the Novel by Mary Shelley.…

“It’s alive !” 

Although this was the first time having watched this iconic, masterful and deeply melancholic classic.... It felt just so familiar to me. Is this strange ? No. “The Monster” is on display in every mall in every country when it’s getting near to Halloween time and I’ve heard the story of Frankenstein since I could barely walk !
This wasn’t a bad thing though if you think that’s where I’m headed. Even though the film was familiar I was utterly fascinated throughout. In film I always get attached to stories about characters who’re treated wrongly just because they’re different. Maybe it’s because I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about the way I was treated sometimes…

Film #3 of Project 30

”Now I know what it feels like to be God!”

James Whale’s Frankenstein is an iconic and historically significant piece of cinema, nothing can change that. It has inspired numerous artists and it has astounded generations of movie lovers. For people who were watching this back in 1931 Boris Karloff’s “Monster” was so terrifying that whenever he was appearing on screen they were screaming and running away from theaters! So from a historic point of view Frankenstein is a very important movie, it is not just a milestone in the horror genre, its groundbreaking technical achievements and the role it has played in defining the relationship between movies and viewers turn it into a milestone…

Geoff T's Hoop-Tober 3.0 Challenge
Dracula and Frankenstein Double Bill #2
Frankenstein (1931)

I didn't set my expectations high for this after how underwhelming I found Dracula, but this was FAR better in every possible way, in that it was better directed, acted, and actually had stuff going on, which is surprising considering Universal produced both films back-to-back.

Henry Frankenstein toys with science a little too much and puts together a monster made from body parts he and his hunchback accomplice shamelessly robbed from a nearby graveyard. The creation seems innocent enough, but kills and escapes after being bullied for too long. The story is the typical "mad scientist" tale that's been copied countless times since. I understand it's not…

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My personal favorite amongst the other golden age classics. Just growing up I’ve always had a soft spot for Dr. Frankenstein’s creature. Not to mention the idea of a single man beating the eternal inevitable idea of death. It’s just so fascinating. There is consequences when testing the span of mortality and the general motion based on the film & book layers that out very well. 

I read the book way back in middle school with obviously Dracula and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. I can hardly remember it as it was a fucking stout read but it definitely changed my perspective on what I knew about the creature then. More so with the subject of life after death that was…

A stylish film that has been so parodied, referenced and reworked that many of its beats and key scenes are likely familiar to many. Still, this is one of the originals that made Universal Studios a byword for horror in the 1930s and 1940s. Although thematically Frankenstein is about man's (flawed) desire to become God, this film does periodically inject a brief glimpse into the Monster's humanity and society's depiction of this outsider.

The sets and camerawork, both heavily influenced by German Expressionism, are great. Karloff grunts and groans his way through a star making performance. Despite its virtues, it's interesting to compare Frankenstein to Fritz Lang's M released the same year. It is striking how much more advanced M…