After ‘Curse of Frankenstein’ helped put ‘Hammers’ horror wing on the map, it was all but inevitable that a sequel would be forthcoming. And lo, 12 months after the original, we have ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein’ a MORE than worthy sequel to the original that manages to quite literally ressurect the franchise from the dead!

The film opens where the first film immediatley left off, with Frankenstein heading to the guillotine for his crimes in messing with human nature (and all them murders wot he done.) But just before the Guillotines blade gets in his way…By some…mad antics. He’s managed to swap himself with the priest who was in his cells.

Yes! Frankenstein lives! and having moved to a small village in another part of the country and adopting a psudonym. He’s continuing his experiements into ressurecting the dead, and building the perfect living creature. He’s managed to set himself up as a new town doctor, and his efficiency in treating patients is the talk of the town (and a great scourge to the towns medical council who dislike how private he is)

It attracts the attention of recently graduated student Dr. Kleve who immediately puts 2 and 2 together and realises that the new doctor in town IS Frankenstein…and after some very mild blackmail, the pair form an alliance. With Kleve assisting Frankenstein in his latest experiment (building the perfect body for a heavily disabled work assistant) and in return Kleve learning all about Frankensteins work and NOT turning him into the authorities.

The rest? well…im sure you can figure out what happens if you put Dr. Frankenstein in charge of a major hospital of sick patients while he works on rebuilding his lifes work. Chaos, carnage and good times for all!

And I honestly really quite enjoyed this one. The script feels ‘Of’ the originals universe without it feeling like a retread of the original. Its main plot line basically answering the question ‘What if Frankensteins work HADNT been interrupted by Paul in the original?’ and I found it fascinating to see how things might have played out differently.

The script does seem tonally a little lighter than the first entry, the more horror driven moments do still have a distinct Macarbre touch to them, but there is a slightly heavier campy aspect to this one that I think nicely contrasts the events of the film.

Theres a bit more of a shift away from the stuffier aspects of victoriana dialogue and more emphasis on the actual characters this time around. Theres also at least a couple of characters brought in almost solely for comedic effect. Im still on the fence about those moments…

Outside of that however, pacings as rock solid as ever, the film once again has a clean 3 act structure that transitions effortlessly across its acts, and it manages to keep the 3 acts fairly equal too. the tone feels a little more footloose than the last entry, but that isnt strictly a problem. I quite like that they expand on and develop the character a bit more here than in the original. Its honestly just a really great and fun little work, that I dont think *quite* matches the original quality wise…But comes pretty bloody close!

One thing of note, that I did find a bit weird…is just HOW many times the script mentions how dirty the people in the movie are. A HUGE chunk of the runtime is given up to talking about dirty patients, dirty locations, digging in literal dirt, jokes about dirty members of the public. its pretty relentless, and I can only assume that, because the first film didnt really mention Hygeine at all, this films had to cram 2 movies worth of ‘dirty peasent’ talk into one movies runtime.

Direction wise there has been a bit more of a shift into the gothic, the first entry was a fairly well lit affair that felt more like a period piece in tone rather than a horror film. This film transitions us nicely into a heavy horror styalization. The gothic horror vibes are out in full force as we enter a chronically night time based picture, with grubby locations, dark and macarbre set spaces, with only the flourescent beakers of mysterious bubbling fluid offering any vibrant colours from this picture thats awash in midnight blues, mouldy greens and dingey yellows.

The cast and crew work in near lock step here, delivering an end product that I think actually surpassses ‘Curse of Frankenstein’ on a technical level. it shows the team learnt a lot in there first couple of the ‘Universal’ adaptations and now they’re able to hit the ground running. it looks superb.

Same goes for the cine, which is a LOT tighter than the original, shots are incredibly well composed, with decent uses of the rule of thirds and blocking. they really set the shots up to make the colours pop and the attention to detail and creative experimentation present is an absolute delight.

All of this of course is wrapped up in an edit that perfectly paced, has the exact amount of breathing space to let the edit do the heavy lifting it needs to and is open to creative experimentation. It keeps a perfect sense of timing and ends EXACTLY as I feel it needed ot.

Performance wise, we have another fantastic turn from Peter Cushing, who’s take on the Baron here is one thats now a much more calculating and considered person than his first outing. he doesnt quite get the range work that the original allowed him, but what he delivers here are easily some of his finest moments.

Credit also has to go to Michael Gwynn as the assitant turned creature Karl Immelmann. This creature gets to talk and we get to explore what he makes of his new ‘humanity’ in all its horrible, real and complex detail. He DOES get a good range to work with in this one and he absolutely delivers on the brief, a stunning performance and easily one of the biggest reasons to check this movie out.

The rest of the cast are all equally fantastic too, I think they’re even a bit of an upgrade over the previous film, where there was a certain degree of stiffness. Here? they’re all perfeclty animate, use the set space really well, and it’s nice to see the camera work match pace to such an animated cavelcade of talent.

While ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein’ doesnt *quite* line up to the greatness of the original. the gap of difference between them is eyewateringly close. had it not been for a couple of strange script choices and a toning down overall of the ‘Hammer blood’ and colour I think this could have easily been the better of the two.

Absolutely worth checking out. Highly recommended. I loved this one, and I regret not having seen it sooner quite honestly.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-revenge-of-frankenstein/