The Bride of Frankenstein

I absolutely love
James Whale's 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein! From the opening sequence where Lord Byron and Percy Shelley beg Mary Wollstonecraft to tell more of the story of Frankenstein and his monster to the final showdown between the monster and Dr. Pretorius, The Bride of Frankenstein represents everything I like about the horror genre. It's been over seventy years since the film was released by Universal, and it still hasn't been bested. In the film, Whale turns the original Frankenstein story on its head. The monster speaks and a second mad scientist (Dr. Pretorius) comes onto the monster making scene using what appears to be black magic to create miniature men out of nothing at all. The Bride of Frankenstein is frequently funny, often touching, always fun but never really scary. I'm not sure if it's the age of the film or if it was ever truly horrifying. I know that ten die in the film (cut down from twenty-one by the studio), and that I never once felt that the film felt too violent. This is one of the rare cases where the sequel far surpasses the original and it does this by introducing interesting new characters and situations. Today's filmmakers could stand to learn from this film. Whale outdid his original effort by taking the story wherever his whims decided it should go. He didn't constrain himself to any mythology created by Mary Shelley's novel or the original film. He made something wholly original and entertaining by allowing the story to careen off the rails. Films like this one are what I'm hoping to see out of the modern generation of horror film writers and directors.

Last night I watched a French film titled Frontiers. It was essentially a Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Hostel rehash with subtitles. In the film, a family of cannibalistic neo-Nazis torture and eat a group of young hoodlums who are on the run from the police. It will be released in the US on May 9, 2008. You can wait three weeks for it to be released on DVD. Then you can pop some corn and relive the same torture porn garbage you've been subjected to constantly for the past four years, or you could watch a great film that's probably been right under your nose your entire life. I'm saying that a seventy-three year old film is fresher and more entertaining than a $3 million flashy bloodbath that you're going to see on your new release shelf in the very near future.