I last saw ‘Frankenstein Created Woman’ SO long ago, that rewatching it today I seemingly had absolutely no memory of it. I KNOW I did watch it…but it was such a new experience to me here, that im going to log it as a first time watch because…for all intents and purposes…it might as well have been.

Here? we see a return to form for the series. This one seemingly ignores ‘Evil of Frankenstein’ and is a sequel instead to ‘Revenge of Frankenstein’ picking up an undisclosed number of years from ‘Revenge’ and somehow the Barons Mustacheoed disguise failed (I cant imagine how!?) and he died under circumstances not really elaborated on…What IS important, is that somehow he’s been frozen and transferred to a new doctors lab. The new doctor promptly thaws him out, and within seconds, Frankensteins working wonders in the lab and discussing his work.

This is really where the main plot of the film comes in, as we follow Hans (a different Hans to ‘Revenges’ Hans.) and his love interest Christine. Christine has a deformity on her face, and the local ‘Toffs’ take great pleasure in mocking her furiously. Hans meanwhile is the son of an executed murderer and the town takes out their grief on him.

Chrstines father refuses the two of them to be together, but when has that ever worked? because they’re hooking up. When the Toffs go too far and accidentally murder Christines father, Hans is suspect number 1 and…well..the rest of the film will really be spoiled if I go any further.

But it really is something of a return to form, the script is punchy, keeps a really solid pace for most of the runtime, the characters are a little one note, but they contrast that basicness with some moral grey zone work which I think really works in the films favour, its not as grand as ‘Evil’ nor should it be trying to be.

I really like that it deals more in the ethereal of ‘What makes a person who they are’ and the concept of a ‘Soul’ rather than the last few films being too ground down in pseudo science and ‘brain waves’.

This film has a really solid 3 act structure, it mixes wonderfully bleak humour with macarbre horror. and most important of all, its FUN and it feels like it has something to say about humanity. Which really put it ahead of the last entry for me.

The direction and cine are a pretty strong return to form. While it is a shame we dont get quite the visual spectacular of ‘Evil’ for me? Hammer has never really been about that sense of grandness and whats presented here feels solid. With excellent colour use, interesting compositional choices and some wonderful scene and sequence building. Fischer being back at the healm really helps give this production a much needed boost in terms of whats seen, and whats explained.

The performances are frankly delightful with both Peter Cushing and Thorley Walters as Baron Frankenstein and Doctor Hertz delighting for most of the runtime. Robert Morris and Susan Denberg are equally wonderful as Hans and Christina. and everyone here seems to know the EXACT energy with which to play this. Its really quite wonderful.

Throw in a great score that perfectly punctuates the film…and while I feel the vision maybe isnt *quite* as sharp as ‘Curse’ or ‘Revenge’, ‘Frankenstein created Woman’ is still an absolute delight of a picture thats very well made, very well handled and really is must see hammer in my opinion.

That being said, I feel a wider discussion on whether this really truely IS a ‘Frankenstein’ movie is really rather needed…as to me? it felt less like a ‘Frankenstein’ picture…and more a ‘picture with Frankenstein in it’…Answers on a postcard.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/frankenstein-created-woman/