The Horror of Frankenstein

The only Hammer Frankenstein film not to feature Peter Cushing in the lead role, The Horror of Frankenstein is a ribald retelling of the classic Frankenstein story. In this version, the Baron Frankenstein is a cold, cruel genius hellbent on advancing his experiments and bedding down any and every woman who strikes his fancy. The Horror of Frankenstein is trashy, but mostly in the heaving bodice sort of way. The violence level is limited to severed limbs and bright red blood. The film’s pacing is a little slow and it’s about an hour into the movie before the monster is created, so most of the action takes place in the third act. It's not the worst entry in the series, but if you’re going to watch a Hammer Frankenstein film, you’re probably going to want to watch one of the ones starring Peter Cushing.

Rating: 63%

(Image from IMDB)

Fun Fact: Kate O'Mara, who played Alys the housekeeper, played the Rani on Doctor Who and David Prowse, who played the monster, played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

After another one of his clandestine laboratories is discovered, Baron Frankenstein skips town and holds up in a boarding house under an alias. When he finds out that his young landlady's fiancé is stealing drugs from the nearby insane asylum, he blackmails the couple into helping him kidnap one of the asylum's patients. That patient, a former collaborator who might have information that could help with the Baron's experiments. One thing that I really enjoy about Hammer's Frankenstein films is that Baron Frankenstein is often more villainous than the monsters he creates. However, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed takes that element just a little bit too far. There is a scene in the film where the Baron rapes his landlady. It's an unpleasant scene that has no real bearing on the plot. Apparently, executives at Hammer at the time felt that the scene was necessary to appease international distributors because of the lack of sex in the movie. Ultimately, the scene was cut from some of the film's original releases but is currently available on the home video version of the movie.

Rating: 61%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Brides of Dracula

Over shots of the Transylvanian countryside, a narrator tells us that "Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires is dead. But his disciples live on..." And so begins The Brides of Dracula. But, you may be asking yourself, why call it The Brides of Dracula if Dracula isn't even in the movie? Is it even, technically, a Dracula movie? Well, if you want to get pedantic about it, there is some validity to that train of thought. However, given that Van Helsing is in the movie, I think we can give them a pass. Especially since they have Peter Cushing once again taking up the mantle of the fearless vampire hunter. The Brides of Dracula is a relatively small movie, there are maybe only two scenes featuring more than five characters on screen at the same time. It's a little slow and fairly chaste compared to some of Hammer's later movies. But The Brides of Dracula has enough going for it to keep it from being a total slog. The opening sequence has similar vibes to the opening of An American Werewolf in London and there's a great scene where the lead vampire sneaks up on a woman while she's looking in a mirror.

Rating: 64%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Frankenstein Created Woman

In Frankenstein Created Woman, Baron Frankenstein's efforts to cheat death have taken a new direction. Rather than merely reanimating dead flesh, the Baron attempts to preserve and transfer the human soul. After the Baron's assistant Hans is executed for a murder he did not commit, his soul is transferred into the body of Christina, a young woman who committed suicide after witnessing the execution. Christina, having no memory of her old life, begins to hear the voice of Hans, urging her to seek out and kill the people who framed him for murder. The rest of the movie has some great slasher vibes, with hints of Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. Frankenstein Created Woman is a fun departure from Hammer's other Frankenstein films. There's no attempt to connect it to the previous entries in the series and it even skips over some of the sequences you would expect to see in a Frankenstein film, like the creature's creation.

Rating: 69%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Evil of Frankenstein

The Evil of Frankenstein is a soft reboot of Hammer's Frankenstein series. It rewrites Baron Frankenstein's origins, while totally ignoring the events of The Revenge of Frankenstein. It's essentially the sequel to a movie that never existed. The Evil of Frankenstein opens with the Baron being driven out of town because of his ghoulish experiments. He decides to return to his former home in Karlstaad, hoping to salvage possessions and furniture from his abandoned home that can be used to finance his experiments. It's there, in his ransacked chateau, that the Baron finally tells his assistant of the experiment that lead him to be driven out of Karlstaad. This new origin story, along with the design of the creature, puts The Evil of Frankenstein more in line with Universal's Frankenstein films. The movie becomes a hodgepodge of all of the Frankenstein films that came before it filtered through the bawdy, gothic lens of Hammer in the 1960s. The Baron, though not totally redeemed, is now more of a sympathetic character. A shadow of his former, murderous self. Most of the villainy in the film is carried out by Zoltan, a crooked hypnotist hellbent on revenge. As mentioned, the design of the creature approximates the classic look of Karloff's Frankenstein. Unfortunately, the bulky makeup robs any expressiveness from the creature's performance. And yet, despite all of these criticisms, The Evil of Frankenstein is actually quite entertaining.

Rating: 66%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Revenge of Frankenstein

Having escaped the guillotine, Baron Frankenstein sets up shop in a new town under an alias. The arrival of an eager pupil allows him to expand the scope of his experiments. And soon enough, another creature is born. But what starts out as an advancement in science quickly becomes another threat to all mankind. The Revenge of Frankenstein is definitely a step down in quality from its predecessor. The new creature isn't anywhere near as effective or iconic as Christopher Lee's monster in The Curse of Frankenstein and the sequel's bare bones story isn't very compelling either. However, Peter Cushing's performance as Baron Frankenstein is top notch once again. He carries these films.

Rating: 62%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Curse of the Werewolf

Hammer Films have definitely made some of the classiest looking trash anyone has ever seen. There's a reason the poster art for this movie looks like a distorted version of a romance novel cover. The Curse of the Werewolf definitely has some heaving bosoms and star crossed lovers in it but it also has some prison rape and a satanic baptism. Overall the movie is a little disjointed, half of it is about the birth and childhood of the werewolf and the other half features Oliver Reed as an adult living with lycanthropy. Oddly enough, this was the only werewolf movie ever made by Hammer.

Rating: 67%

Fun Fact: Oliver Reed, who played Leon, was also in David Cronenberg's The Brood.

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Curse of Frankenstein

The Curse of Frankenstein was the first color horror film by Hammer Film Productions as well as their first foray into the classic monsters genre. It's also significant for being the first real pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, who would go on to be two of the biggest names in Hammer horror. The film focuses more on Frankenstein (Cushing) than the Monster (Lee), which is a bit of a departure from what we usually see in Frankenstein adaptations. And the technicolor gore, though tame now, must have been somewhat shocking for audiences in the late 1950s. "I dare say that this film is positively ghastly." "Quite, Sir Reginald. Quite."

Rating: Crumpets and Cadavers%

(Image from hammerhorror.wikia.com)