Review: The Evil of Frankenstein

Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and assistant Hans (Sandor Eles) return to Karlstad to move back into the former’s now decrepit old abode and laboratory. He also seeks out, finds, and thaws his ‘creature’ which has been frozen in ice. He revives the creature (played by Kiwi Kingston) but finds that it no longer obeys his commands. What to do? Well there’s this shonky carny hypnotist in town named Zoltan (played by a bland Peter Woodthorpe), and it gives Frankenstein an idea. Katy Wild is a mute beggar girl, Duncan Lamont plays the chief of police.

 

Director Freddie Francis (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”, “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, “Tales From the Crypt”, “The Creeping Flesh”) and screenwriter Anthony Hinds (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”, “Taste the Blood of Dracula”, “Scars of Dracula”) really drop the ball in this 1964 Hammer horror sequel. After the terrific previous entry “The Revenge of Frankenstein”, we’re given something lame and clunky despite the best efforts of Peter Cushing in the lead. He’s terrific, the film is cluttered nonsense.

 

For a film under 90 minutes, too much time is wasted on side characters of little interest. Did we really need a film where the ‘creature’ gets hypnotised? Sure it’s a new wrinkle, but it’s so juvenile and stupid. I will say there’s one really nasty brutal death scene I liked. The creature just repeatedly bashes a poor bloke’s head against a wall, which is quite nasty for the time. A lot more of that might’ve made this more fun, instead we get a lot of stupid side characters whose antics seem more at home in a lame “Carry On” comedy. A couple of the moments are amusing, but why is the film trying to be funny in the first place? The creature makeup is a touch better than in say “Curse of Frankenstein”, where the makeup looked like a green pavlova smashed into poor Christopher Lee’s face. Here it looks more prosthetic-based, though the dimpled chin is a touch too silly for me and the overall design is poor. I can see what they were aiming for but the result looks like a stone golem-type thing or a poor man’s Boris Karloff/Jack Pierce creature design. The supporting cast isn’t especially hot, with Sandor Eles a bit out of his depth, and James Maxwell pretty poor as the local vicar. Aside from lead actor Cushing the highlights here are excellent cinematography by John Wilcox (Hammer’s “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires”) and the terrific music score by Australian-born Don Banks (“Captain Clegg”, “Rasputin: The Mad Monk”). The set design is typically exemplary from Hammer too, though there’s also one very bad special effect where a plastic sheet tries to convince as ice. Did they run out of money by that point in shooting?

 

Well-mounted crap, pretty much. It looks and sounds great, but it’s wasted on a dumb story. Even a committed turn by Peter Cushing can’t bring this one to much life. A real letdown.

 

Rating: C-

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more