Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 1994.
Hand on heart the 1931 version I do have a soft spot for and The Horror Of Frankenstein certainly is a entertaining version, I first saw this when it came out on VHS thanks to my dad and I couldn't take to it, I found it too long and dull, 30 years later and my attitude towards this has changed.
Kenneth Branagh is a amazing actor and director especially with Henry V, watching him go from a historic king to a mad doctor can be laughable. It does build up the character especially with his mother saying about his thirst for knowledge and meeting with John Cleese's character and begging to see his notes on his previous work shows how far the character of Victor's quest for knowledge will go. Tom Hulce plays the new friend who gives out some laughs as he wants to explore anatomy and then faints in class but also has the serious side when he tries to stop Victor in making another abomination. Helen Bonham Carter plays the adopted sister/lover and yet I found her portrayal of the character a bit annoying. Screen legend Robert De Niro as the creature is amazing, he is reborn as something else, rejected, thinks he has found happiness with the blind man only to be abandoned, looking for a mate that doesn't quite work out and then becomes abandoned again. De Niro manages to create a character that we should find hideous yet after going face to face with his creator we end up feeling sad for him.
The set design is appreciated in Victors lab, when we see the attic space for the first time and hearing he will have scientific stuff arriving so we know that will be his inventing/creating room. On the night Victor is planning his quest to bring back life, with the background score and him running about does bring some excitement as to how he will do it and manages to create his own electricity without relying on mother nature. Only thing puzzles me and yeah spoiler ahead when Elizabeth is brought back and is running through the house in flames, did the stunt woman intentionally or unintentionally smack her face into the wall??? I will definitely return to this again.
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