10 Days to Halloween - Frankenstein (1931) - 23rd October 2012

Welcome back to the '10 Days to Halloween' countdown. Today we are going to talk on another of the 'Universal Monster' films, Frankenstein. Now before I go on I will explain what the Universal monster films are. Basically Universal studios was the biggest horror film company in the 30's, 40's and even stretching into the 50's. These films solidified all of the original monsters we know of today, from Dracula to The Mummy and even The Creature from the Black Lagoon. So now all that is cleared up lets continue shall we?

1931's Frankenstein was another of those instant classic horror films that uses mainly atmosphere to chilling effect coupled with the actor of the monster. The terrifying atmosphere is built by the use of Frankenstein's lab. Coupled with a few graveyard digging scenes and subtle shots of Boris Karloff as the monster on the operating table.

The main attraction here isn't the doctor or his sidekick, but it is the monster himself. Played by Boris Karloff, and I say 'played' with the loosest of meaning since Karloff has no lines at all through the film, the monster is a true testimony to how something can be so scary with just the use of inhuman grunts and growls.

Karloff basically created the idea of the monster in pop culture to come and shows how a hulking goliath of several (parts) of men can easily scare even the most hardened veteran stiff.

Now this film does not do any justice to the original Mary Shelley novel at all. It does not. Not even a smidge... well maybe a smidge.

This film is very loosely based on the novel. Mary Shelley's monster is very linguistic in the novel and even has a nice chat with doctor Frankenstein before anything serious happens. The doctor is also always very wary of what he has done in the novel whereas in the film, he seems like a raving lunatic. He isn't even there when the monster wakes up in the book! I mean come on Universal, at least stay true to the source material.

But, after all that I would still say that this film is an absoloute classic an must be watched now. I wont say any more on the film. Again, if you have already watched this then you know every criticism and rave I could give about this film. And if you haven't watched then go bloody watch it now!

That's it for todays '10 Days to Halloween'. Come back tomorrow where we will look at the final of the trilogy of universal monster films, that I am going to look at, The Mummy.


                                                    All photos and video are from Universal Studios