Frankenstein

Sorry for not posting on Tuesday, the beginning of this week was hectic, so to apologize I shall talk about one of the greats! Frankentsein! Directed by James Wale, who also directed another monster movie: The Invisible Man. Frankenstein has the great Boris Karloff playing the monster. Giving the character an innocence and creepy vibe throughout the film. Even contributing to the sunken cheeks by removing a dental bridge.

This film starts off extremely grim, especially one from the 30's. The beginning is about a funeral in a graveyard, with Henry Frankenstein and his hunched-backed assistant, Fritz (yes Fritz, not Igor), digging up a freshly dead body. Along the way they chop down a hanged man to take his brain, although they just left him. Then Fritz creeps into a university and breaks one brain, steals another, to help create the monster of Frankenstein! A person who was never alive, made out of many dead body parts, gaining life from the heavens in the form of lightning!

The actors are great. Boris Karloff creates one of the most iconic characters come alive, no pun intended, for generations (maybe centuries) to remember and fear him. The actor who plays Henry Frankenstein really ups the crazy to all mad scientists. His famous quote "It's Alive, It's Alive, It's Alive!" shows how insane he is. He's so over the top that he's scary. But once he tries teaching his created monster, and Fritz tormenting to torturing it, he starts to fear it. He wants to kill it. Giving the film the essential question: is there a time when science can go too far?

After watching the Invisible Man, and getting to know the director's style, I can see some humor integrated into this film. If you watch this for the first time, you can see it just as a horror film, but if you pay attention it actually has some funny parts. The one that comes to mind is when the monster meets Henry's wife and she screams and the monster screams and they just go back and forth before he leaves. And like any good horror monster film, it makes us feel sympathy for the monster. He's just a little kid, learning, but from his looks and his misunderstandings make the villagers go violent and burn him alive in a very tragic end. (He even throws Henry onto a wing of the windmill, how is he still alive?) Everybody should watch this film, it's a classic, and just a beautiful film.

RECOMMENDATION: High