It was on a dreary night in January that yet another studio beheld the accomplishment of its toils with the release of I, FRANKENSTEIN, the latest film inspired by Mary Shelley’s pivotal novel, as well as Kevin Grevioux’s comic.
Monsters have always been big business in the movie industry. While Shelley may have called hers “creature” or “wretch”, calling into question its wickedness, Hollywood doesn’t always have such a sympathetic view.
So as I, FRANKENSTEIN lurches into cinemas, we decided it might be time to take stock of the highs and lows of Man’s overreaching pride, with six crazy creations from film, stage, and the small screen.
1. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
No discussion of Frankenstein could be complete without James Whale’s renowned interpretation from 1931. Boris Karloff’s rendition of the creature is the make-up job that launched a thousand parodies, rip-offs and Halloween costumes. But it’s no wonder.
The moment Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) finally sees the pay-off from all those late nights in the laboratory is legendary. You’ve got it all: thunder, sparks, bandages, white coats, a hunchbacked helper and a mad scientist screaming he’s now god. And of course there’s Karloff. His lumbering monster (on four inch platforms) is a jabbering, speechless man-child, who chucks little girls into ponds. It’s not that he wants to do wrong, more that he’s totally clueless when it comes to, well, being alive.
After its success, Universal Studios well and truly cashed in on the monstrous appeal, birthing a host of sequels. Most notable of these is Whale’s THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). Elsa Lancaster’s bride is arguably even more iconic than Karloff’s monster – and she manages to look sexy too, in a stitched-together-with-mad-hair sort of way. You can’t help but love her bizarre animal hiss and bared fangs when she clocks her husband-to-be. Even monsters have standards.
2. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season 4 of Buffy saw big changes in the lives of the Scooby Gang, with the move from high school to university. However, the script writers chose to drag the Frankenstein trope out from the crypt, dust it off and put the Sunnydale spin on it.
We’d already seen monstrous creations in the distinctly average Season 2 episode “Some Assembly Required,” but Season 4’s Big Bad story arc pitted Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) against this archetypal figure once more. Cue Professor Maggie Walsh 
(Lindsay Crouse) and her bonkers plan to create the ultimate fighting machine from a medley of demon and human body parts. Masquerading under the guise of a hard-ass academic, she was in fact beavering away on Project 314, perfecting her hideous creation, Adam (George Hertzberg).
In a way Walsh’s plan was logical. Different demons, different properties. Add them all together and you get a super demon. It’s just a shame that Adam didn’t view his “mother” with the same loving feelings she had for him.
3. DANNY BOYLE’S FRANKENSTEIN
But whose story is Frankenstein really? Danny Boyle’s production for the National Theatre in 2011 toyed around with this question by swapping the roles of creator and creature between Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller each night. Boyle’s focus remains firmly on the monster however.
In fact it begins with our monster breaking out of some giant glowing womb-like structure, alone. No Frankenstein in sight (he’s already a rubbish dad). Instead the creature spends a good ten minutes crawling, then stumbling, across the stage, trying to work out what the hell legs are for. No wonder he has major abandonment issues.
This production messes with your head. After following the poor, misunderstood creature, spurned by everyone he meets, he turns into one of the more depraved monsters, murdering Elizabeth in an extra nasty way on her wedding night.
4. THE FLY (1986)
I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of many things worse than the sight of Jeff Goldblum vomiting a flesh-melting effluence over someone’s hand and foot, then watching as both dissolve down to the bone. Yes, it’s Brundlefly, possibly the vilest creation yet.
Of course it’s not exactly Frankenstein, but the spirit’s there. Seth Brundle exhibits the same sort of egotistical brilliance as 
Shelley’s scientist, plus flies do feed on dead things, so there’s a link, of sorts. When Brundle starts messing around with a Star Trek transporter, you just know where it’s going to end up. And although we initially may be disappointed, Cronenberg didn’t decide to replicate the 1958 film where fly and human literally swapped heads (remember The Simpsons parody anyone?). His body shock version is delightfully disgusting.
But it gets you thinking about this mad scientist stuff. Imagine what else could have got stuck in the teleporter? The possibilities are endless. Brundlecat? Brundleflea? Brundlehalfeatencheesesandwich?
5. BLADE RUNNER
What is Frankenstein if not a quest for origins? Ridley Scott’s BLADE RUNNER (1982) projects the story into a dystopian future Los Angeles where a marauding gang of replicants is searching for their creator because they want more life.
Led by the striking Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the replicants are on Deckard’s (Harrison Ford) hit list. There’s no rotting limbs or manky body parts on Roy. Instead he’s pretty much perfect – apart from the four year life span. There’s no way he’s leaving his maker Tyrell’s apartment without what he wants, and when Tyrell can’t give it to him, Roy kills him anyway. He’s the bad boy prodigal son we can’t help rooting for, simultaneously magnetic and terrifying.
So the showdown between Deckard and Roy leaves us unsure about where to put our allegiances. Do we cheer on the alcoholic, scruffy detective or the terrible and beautiful android, who’s not averse to a bit of eye gouging? Ridley Scott’s masterpiece solves this problem with a famously improvised monologue on a rainy rooftop, as Roy shows Deckard just how human a replicant can be.
6. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
But it can’t be all terror, horror and eyeballs. Sometimes a monster just needs to kick back, sing a few songs and let its lank hair down. And that brings us to Dr. Frank N Furter (Tim Curry) of course, and his quest to create the ultimate perfect being – a playmate Adonis to fulfill his every (ahem) whim.
One thing that’s always bothered me about Frankenstein is the body parts. I mean, why stitch him together? Why not just choose a tall, attractive corpse, with a good head of hair and all his own teeth? At least there’d be less sewing. Frank N Furter’s creation, Rocky (Peter Hinwood), arrives fully formed and so very, very smooth (once his bandages are unwrapped). What he hasn’t got in brain cells he makes up for in muscles and singing voice. Frank N Furter’s delighted of course, pampering Rocky and promising to “make him a man” until Meatloaf turns up and ruins things (I hate it when he does that), prompting a homicidal attack with an ice pick.
I, FRANKENSTEIN arrives in cinemas from 29th January.
