The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957): Yell! Magazine’s Greatest Films Series

Yell! Magazine’s review of The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957):

By 1957, the Frankenstein monster had done battle with the Wolfman, Count Dracula, and the Abbott and Costello team. He’d gone further than being just a literary character; he’d become a full-blown icon of pop culture. Calling him saturated in the film market would be like calling the Atom Bomb “some sort of firecracker thing.” He’d been Universal’s horror mascot for the better part of two decades, and he was becoming so over-exposed that many writer’s fingers became mysteriously tired just typing about him. If you see the same thing over and over again, you will become sick of it, and the Frankenstein monster was seen about as much as trees were, with significantly less appraisal.

Enter Hammer Films. Hammer had dabbled to a limited extent in horror, producing such movies as The Quatermass Xperiment and X the Unknown. To preface the quality of the aforementioned two films, they’re so awesome that after seeing them, I could mystically dunk from the three-point line and hot women now claim to know my musk by the time I enter a new state. I’m not kidding. Watching The Quatermass Xperiment is similar to an Old Spice commercial, with the only change being the British accents.

When a script very similar to Universal’s Son Of Frankenstein made its way to Hammer, they were unsure, not wanting to fall victim to any copyright infringement. However, after a rewrite by Jimmy Sangster, production was started, with direction handled by Terence Fisher, who would go on to direct Horror Of Dracula and The Mummy, among others.

Curse Of Frankenstein deals with Victor Frankenstein (played by Peter Cushing, in a role so creepy that cats will instinctively hiss in the DVD’s direction) and his attempts to bring life into a body made of different pieces of human corpses. As I said before, it’s an old story, but Hammer Films exploited three new elements in this take: Color, blood, and more Dr. Frankenstein. The first two of these go hand-in-hand. The color in this film is vivid, and for those raised on seeing the Universal Frankenstein films, the only thing I can liken it to is having sex with a real women after you’ve been having sex with a real cabbage. You sort of know what to expect, but the process is far more enjoyable.

Read the verdict after the jump…