Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Directed by Terence Fisher

Film Review

In common with virtually all of Hammer's late output in the 1970s, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell has a feel of desperation about it.  In the face of fierce competition from the more visually graphic horror films being made in America at the time, Hammer was driven to make their own films ever more gory and violent.  But at the same time the company was reluctant to give up its attachment to a quintessentially British form of horror rooted in Gothic tradition.  The result of this irreconcilable conflict is a series of films that marked Hammer's slow march towards oblivion, none more so than its final Frankenstein film.

Before this, Hammer had attempted to bring new blood to its Gothic horror output, with Ralph Bates taking over from Peter Cushing as the infamous spare parts scientist in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).  This film's failure led Hammer to backtrack and persuade Cushing to reprise his most famous role for one last Frankenstein fling, although it proved to be just one more nail in the coffin for the ailing studio.  The film's dismal performance at the box office and accompanying critical onslaught was to be the death knell for Hammer's association with Gothic horror.

It is not hard to see why the film was so badly received.  Like the monstrosity that Frankenstein cobbles together in the story, it is an ungainly mixed bag, with little of the artistry and commitment that had made Hammer's early horror films so popular.  As fantastic as the studio's early Gothic horror offerings were, they did at least have some semblance of logic and coherence to them.  Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is a crazy mass of recycled concepts which struggles to hold itself together.  The sets are drab and cheap-looking.  The direction (Terence Fisher's last work before he retired) lacks focus and imagination, the camerawork unbearably static.  The only thing that the film has going for it are the gripping performances from a talented cast, Peter Cushing ably supported by Shane Briant, Madeline Smith and John Stratton.

Despite a silly wig (which he apparently helped to design), Cushing is as compelling as ever, still evoking menace and pathos in his sixth and final outing as Baron Frankenstein, the man with the worst possible form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.  By now, you'd have thought old Victor would have learned his lesson, but no, he's still at it, pinching body parts from all over the shop and stitching them together, his creations getting uglier with each attempt.  The latest monster is a throwback to primeval times, brought to life by David Prowse (the future Darth Vader), who had previously played a slightly more socially acceptable version of the creature in The Horror of Frankenstein.  Enrolled as Baron F's glamorous assistant, Shane Briant gets to do all the interesting work, sawing open people's heads, wiring up brains and stitching on dismembered hands as if he'd been doing it all his life.

Yes, this is definitely not a film for the squeamish or someone about to tuck into a plate of spaghetti bolognese.  With jars of eyeballs and human brains being carelessly knocked all over the set, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell takes grand guignol excess to a whole new level, but it totally misses the point as to what audiences wanted in a modern horror film.  If you're after cheap visceral thrills, you only have to pay a visit to the local abattoir or sit and watch daytime TV.  Like poor demented Victor, Hammer had by this stage totally lost the plot and was doomed to repeat past mistakes, getting it even more wrong on each successive attempt.  This final desperate bid to revive a dying genre was like a stake through the heart of a geriatric vampire - messy, grotesque and totally decisive.

Film Synopsis

Arrested for performing immoral experiments on stolen corpses, a young doctor named Simon Helder is declared insane and admitted to a lunatic asylum.  Here, Helder is surprised to meet Baron Frankenstein, whom he has long idolised.   Under the pretence of being the asylum's physician, Frankenstein has been continuing his attempts to artificially create life and he agrees to take Helder on as his assistant.  Having brought back to life a neolithic savage of a man, Frankenstein has grafted onto him the hands of a skilled violist.  With Helder's help he intends to replace the creature's primitive brain with that of a genius.  When a criminally insane mathematician hangs himself, Frankenstein has the opportunity to fulfil his life's work...