Tighten those neck bolts, it’s time for ten essential Frankenstein-inspired movies…
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a literary classic and one of my all-time favourite books, from an era of fiction I love. The tale of the titular doctor creating a reanimated monster has inspired plenty of literature since but it has also provided ample inspiration for cinema with an array of direct adaptations, riffs, variations and homages that have borrowed heavily from Shelley’s novel.
From arthouse to high-brow Oscar baits right down to the dusty recesses of Blockbuster video’s bottom shelf, there have been thousands of Frankensteinian films, some of which even sought to raise some of the same philosophical and existential questions raised by Shelley. Here are ten essential Frankenstein-inspired movies:
Poor Things
Let’s start with a film fresh from Oscar glory with Emma Stone’s Academy Award-winning turn as Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film. As we come to expect from the bold and idiosyncratic director, Poor Things is an uncompromised and quirky auteur work. His films never strike me as feeling like they’d tickle the fancy of mainstream audiences, yet in his previous two, he certainly has.
All the watercooler talk over autumn and winter was about how shocking Saltburn was but Poor Things matches it stride for stride (dear normies, y’all have obviously never watched Salo or anything by Takeshi Miike). Emma Stone plays a reanimated unborn baby, whose brain was swapped out and placed into the dead body of her mother (who committed suicide). Willem Defoe is a mad scientist who looks like Frankenstein’s monster but is really just an obsessive creator with a troubled upbringing. Cue a film loaded with quirky characters with atypically curious affectations of speech (a Yorgos staple), gross-out humour, excessive and near innumerable sex scenes, gorgeous design and cinematography and a tour-de-force performance from Stone.
Frankenhooker
The internet has been awash with direct Poor Things and Frankenhooker comparisons. From rambunctious humour to the genesis of the protagonist, to their sexual awakening, it’s easy to see why. So, was Frankenhooker ahead of its time? Is this 1990 comedy trashtacular unfortunate it wasn’t considered by the Academy voters? Not quite, but it is a hell of a lot of fun.
Patty Mullen is fantastic, contorting all manner of facial expressions as a mad Doctor’s girlfriend who he reanimates after inadvertently killing her with a lawnmower. Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) has cobbled her back together with hooker body parts.
Blade Runner
Replicants are created by the Tyrell Corporation as slave labour. A band of the replicants coming to the end of their four-year life cycle rebel and escape an off-world colony and return to Earth to force Tyrell into giving them more life. Deep existential questions permeate Blade Runner as Harrison Ford’s Deckard (a hitman of sorts) is tasked with ‘retiring’ the escaped Nexus 6 models (headed up by the mesmeric, Rutger Hauer).
Blade Runner is still divine with incredible visuals and stunning audio (from the soundwork to the amazing Vangelis soundtrack). Its Frankensteinian elements are clear but it’s also evident just how influential the film has become to the science fiction genre with innumerable films since mercilessly ripping off the design of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
As said, there have been many famous film adaptions and notable ‘monsters’ such as Boris Karloff but there’s just something about the overwrought and dialled-up style of Kenneth Branagh’s version. It’s just as grandiose and unrestrained as Coppola’s Dracula, and just as oddly missold as being a totally faithful adaptation of the literary work (this is billed as Mary Shelley’s, Coppola’s film billed as Bram Stoker’s).
Okay, there aren’t as many liberties taken by Branagh as Coppola but his film isn’t quite as majestic. Still, with such a stellar cast (Branagh is the Doctor, Robert De Niro is the monster and Helena Bonham Carter is Elizabeth) and dazzling visuals, as well as unforgettable moments, it’s a film with plenty of highlights and one that modern audiences will easily tap into.
Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks had a hell of a year in 1974, delivering arguably his two most iconic and infinitely quotable comedies, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The latter is a brilliant send-up of the classic story and its many distinct movies (particularly from the Karloff era). In keeping with the most iconic era of Frankenstein cinema outings, Brooks’ film is shot in black and white and really does look great.
Gene Wilder (who co-wrote with Brooks) is fantastic as is Peter Boyle as the monster. So many great gags and memorable moments make this an unwavering joy to watch.
Universal Solder: Day of Reckoning
From an enjoyably goofy B picture that owed huge debts to Terminator and RoboCop, the Universal Soldier’s unexpectedly eclectic franchise ended with Day of Reckoning a melting pot of Lynch, Cronenberg, Noe, Kubrick and Nic Winding Refn influence that fused horror with existential angst and martial arts action. Director John Hyams had already made one UniSol sequel that surprised many. If Universal Soldier: Regeneration owed a debt to Blade Runner, his follow-up was a balls-out and seemingly unfettered work of auteur magic.
In fact, merely connecting it loosely to the Universal Soldier lore and title, possibly did it a disservice as it inevitably gave many viewers a pre-conceived idea of what to expect (which Hyam’s actively smacked away like returning a weak serve into a pinpoint corner for game, set). Plenty of critics got the gist and appreciated the somewhat mad scientist directorial approach, whilst Van Damme die-hard fans didn’t really take to it. Still, it’s an engrossing, surprisingly complex and dark work that has an assurance that is incredibly rare in the (more or less) straight-to-video realm. Just for pure action it certainly delivers, but give it some dues and attention and there’s some depth to dig into. It’s also one of Scott Adkins’ best performances.
RoboCop
Intelligent, wryly satirical, comically violent and filled with pathos, RoboCop is a film that belies its silly title and concept. In much the same way as James Cameron’s Terminator, RoboCop defies its B movie roots to give us a film rarely matched since in the genre. Verhoeven’s mix of violence and razor-sharp satire has largely served him well, but never better than in the realms of Science Fiction.
Peter Weller is a great Murphy, playing every part of the arc from life to death to resurrection, to reawakening, brilliantly. Kurtwood Smith and Ronny Cox are iconic villains too and Basil Poledouris’s bombastic music was criminally overlooked during awards season. There are times I find myself almost absent-mindedly humming the RoboCop theme.
The Terminator
A key takeaway often repeated in sci-fi books and movies since Shelley’s novel, is that when man plays God it rarely ends well. Plenty of our Sci-fi film tech marvels inevitably rebel, be it replicants or in the case of James Cameron’s aforementioned Terminator, cyborgs.
Owing much to Frankensteinian motifs, an Outer Limits episode and one of Cameron’s own feverish nightmares, The Terminator is a masterpiece. It’s Cameron’s most perfectly paced, constructed and lithe works, expertly conveying what could have been a complicated story. It doesn’t just hit the breaks and sit us down to do an exposition dump. Cameron delivers what Sarah Connor and the audience need to know, on the fly and quickly throws her into a fight for her survival (with only the fate of mankind riding on it). Michael Biehn is badass, Linda Hamilton is brilliant and Schwarzenegger is incredible.
Re-Animator
An oddball medical student invents a drug that can re-animate the dead in Stuart Gordon’s classic Lovecraft-inspired horror. HP Lovecraft’s own work was inspired by a multitude of classic science fiction literature, including Frankenstein. So there are very direct and roundabout homages to Shelley’s work in this film.
The inimitable Gordon stalwarts, Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton are great, whilst the film is blessed with dark humour and great make-up FX.
The Fly
It’s been widely discussed but a key point in Frankenstein and many of the homages is when the creator becomes the monster metaphorically speaking. The creature, even in violent rebellion, is still steeped in the tragedy of its existence.
In David Cronenberg’s, The Fly, the mad Doctor (here played by Jeff Goldblum) very literally becomes the monster when his experiment goes horrifically awry and he begins to turn into a very large (and very gross) fly. The creature makeup, particularly after the full transition from man to fly-man, is jaw-dropping.
What’s your favourite Frankenstein-inspired film? Let us know on our social channels or hit me up @jolliffeproductions…
