Lady Frankenstein

JULY 5, 2007

GENRE: MAD SCIENTIST, MONSTER
SOURCE: DVD (BUDGET PACK!)

Despite (estimated) millions of readers, so far I have gotten very few reader recommendations for films to watch. Come on folks, I have almost totally cleaned out all the options at my 2 local blockbusters! There’s only so many “Netflix recommends!” movies I can stand.

One such film was Lady Frankenstein. It was an easy sell; I already owned the damn thing thanks to my beloved Budget set. And, I was told it featured yet another woman seducing a mentally challenged character, much like Devil Times Five and Funeral Home (the fact that all 3 films are on the same disc speaks volumes about the twisted genius of Mill Creek). Sold!

The movie is essentially a remake of Frankenstein for one half and then a Skinemax slasher for the 2^nd half. The monster kills Frank, and his daughter decides to make another creatures while the original one tries to kill everyone else involved with his rebirth. The makeup on the monster is pretty good, though he looks a bit like the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth. And despite the obvious liberties, there's a great deal of the standard Frankenstein elements - the monster rampaging around, villagers with pickaxes and torches... there’s even a recreation of the girl by the lake scene, but now she’s “of age” (read: nude).

You know, to be honest, turning Frankenstein into a slasher isn’t the worst idea, but it would probably be done better without such a low budget. How low, you might ask? ROGER FUCKING CORMAN had to come in to save the film by giving them more money. Look, if your movie can only be completed by receiving financial support from Roger Corman, you’re beyond help.

But it’s still entertaining. The lead chick is hot and you get to see her naked, which automatically gives the film at least a C+. And she’s not just naked; she seduces a retarded man (and saying “You actually DO understand, what’s going on, don’t you?” while she does it. Nice, movie.) in order to use his body for her experiment. The fact that she actually goes to ‘completion’ before having the guy knocked out makes this movie a must-see. Then later, he gets his comeuppance (I guess) by killing her as they make love in the middle of a burning castle. It’s the finest and possibly most extreme ‘hate fuck’ ever committed to celluloid.

If you plan on seeing this masterpiece, I urge you to watch a regular copy, and not the Mill Creek version. Perhaps it’s like that all the time, but many times the music drowns out the dialogue, a common problem on these DVDs. With potboiler dialogue like “One day, you’re going to tell me the wrong thing at the right time” to be enjoyed, you won’t want to risk missing a single word!

What say you?