Frankenstein Fascination

Look! Its moving. Its alive. Its alive

ITS ALIVE! Oh, in the name of God!
Now I know what it feels like to be God!
It has been 85 years since Colin Clives
immortal ravings in James Whales
definitive film version of Frankenstein
(1931), but Mary Shelleys gruesomely
assembled 19th Century creation has
been relentlessly stitched back with
alarming regularity.
This year marks the 200th anniversary
since Mary Shelley first conceived of the
tale. Tellingly, film-makers have been
attracted to her story ever since cinema
was invented. But what has fuelled this
fascination?
It gave me a chance to dabble in the
macabre, Whale told the New York
Times in 1931. I thought it would be
amusing to try and make what everybody

knows is a physical impossibility seem

believable.
Frankensteins monster came to life during the summer of
1816 at Lake Geneva in Switzerland

Its more than just morbid curiosity that

has drawn directors to this tale for more
than a century. Its the quintessential
story of obsession, man meddling with
nature and of knowledge for the purpose
of good or evil. With moments of epic
action, grisly horror, doomed romance
and spine-tingling suspense its also
versatile enough to be staged as a
globetrotting drama or contained
chamber piece, or to be reworked as a
wacky comedy or whimsical animation.

Ken Russells 1986 horror Gothic cast Julian Sands (left) as Percy Shelley, Natasha
Richardson as Mary Shelley and Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron (Credit: Alamy)

As dramatised in Ken Russells 1986 film

Gothic, Frankensteins monster came to
life during the summer of 1816 at Lake
Geneva in Switzerland, where some of
the great literary minds of the 19th
Century Lord Byron, Mary Goodwin
(soon to be Mary Shelley), her future
husband Percy Shelley and vampire
creator John William Polidori gathered
to tell German ghost stories. Spurred on
by these chilling tales, esteemed host
Lord Byron challenged his equally
esteemed guests to come up with the

best horror story. After a spell of souldestroying writers block, Goodwin began
drawing on recent conversations
concerning galvanism (which involves
the stimulation and contraction of
muscles through electricity) as the
possible means of reanimating a corpse.
Her anguished state fed into the guise of
a compulsive scientist who attempts to
cheat death by creating life. Thus the
twisted genius of Mary Shelleys creation
was born.
In the two centuries since that fateful
summer, Frankensteins monster is now
so ingrained in the cultural
consciousness its difficult to appreciate
how shocking a prospect this walking
contradiction must have been to earlier
generations.
Indeed, the book was met with scorn
upon its publication in 1818 its subject
of reviving the dead provoking revulsion.
Nevertheless this unholy monster
seeped into the fabric of society, fuelling

the popular neurosis of science, its

ethical dilemmas and potentially sordid
consequences fears as relevant today
as they were nearly 200 years ago.
Frankenstein on film
Despite these fears of science gone
wrong, the first celluloid outing focused
on the psychological. In J Searle
Dawleys Frankenstein (1910) the
monster emerges from a boiling cauldron
a grotesque, wild-haired creation that
becomes repulsed by his reflection in a
potent moment of self-revelation. Ever
since that early attempt, film-makers
have tried to capture the essence of
Shelleys creation with wildly varying
degrees of success.

Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff starred in James Whales 1935 film The Bride of
Frankenstein (Credit: Alamy)

Following Colin Clives quotable 1931

version of the story, its sequel Bride of
Frankenstein (1935) immortalised Elsa
Lanchester as the monsters bouffanthaired female companion, who
memorably shrieks in terror at the sight
of her intended. However Universal
Pictures concluded the series two
sequels and three monster mash-ups
later with a slapstick send-off, Abbott and
Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

A decade of dormancy led to an

enjoyably lurid series of Hammer horrors
named after its production company.
Hammer was renowned for producing
the worlds first colour horror films, which
noticeably shifted focus toward English
actor Peter Cushings now homicidal
baron.

Tim Burton gave a new twist on the tale with 2012s stop-motion neo-noir Frankenweenie
(Credit: Alamy)

In response to the macabre mayhem,

Mel Brooks delivered pratfalls with his
affectionate spoof Young Frankenstein
(1974) before Kenneth Branagh returned
the creature to more sombre territory 20

years later with his overblown

extravaganza Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein (1994). And it would take
another two decades to properly honour
the tradition with Tim Burtons homageinduced stop-motion marvel
Frankenweenie (2012), which concerned
the heartfelt efforts of a boy scientist to
reanimate his deceased pet.

Despite a monster played by Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branaghs 1994 Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein didnt hit the mark with critics (Credit: Alamy)

More recently a drug-dependent Dr

Frankenstein and his soulful monster
have been responsible for spilling blood
on the cobbled streets of TVs Penny

Dreadful (2014). Effortlessly

transgressing generations, this old
corpse shows no signs of slowing down.
Failed experiments
Despite the level of Shakespearean
pathos, directors have largely failed to
deliver a definitive contemporary
adaptation. Kenneth Branagh unleashed
epic ambitions to mount a faithful
translation tellingly casting himself in
the role of the scientist. But with its
overblown theatricality, his creation
arguably ended up getting the better of
him and consequently Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein became a bleak box-office
bomb.
Arguably, its the films that weave Shelleys tale into
something original and meaningful that remain the most
effective.

Adapted from the graphic novel I,

Frankenstein (2014) was described as
the next chapter of Shelleys story. I
wanted to take him on a journey of
finding his humanity and finding his

purpose essentially a monster

becoming a man, claimed film-maker
Stuart Beattie. The attempt to turn the
creature (a toned Aaron Eckhart) into a
chiselled action hero, tasked with saving
the human race, fell disastrously short.

David Cronenbergs The Fly (starring Jeff Goldblum, pictured) is another variation on the
mad-scientist-as-creator theme (Credit: Alamy)

Arguably, its the films that weave

Shelleys tale into something original and
meaningful that remain the most
effective. David Cronenbergs
emotionally gruelling The Fly (1986) was
another variation on the mad-scientistas-creator theme. However, in a twist to

proceedings, scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff

Goldblum) becomes the monster when
his genes are spliced with a fly during a
teleportation experiment.
Most recently Max Landiss
reinterpretation Victor Frankenstein
(2015) chose to focus on the budding
partnership between Victor and
hunchback assistant Igor (notably absent
in the novel). Judging by critical
accusations at blatantly replicating
Sherlock, this is yet another failed
experiment.
So will we ever see a definitive modern
retelling of this tale? Given our ongoing
concerns of cloning and stem-cell
research, Frankenstein has not lost its
genuinely unnerving edge or relevancy.
As long as there are contemporary fears
of the power of science and the human
psyche, there will be plenty of life in this
monster yet.