Rent Frankenstein: Day of the Beast (2011)

Spoilers follow ... - Frankenstein: Day of the Beast review by NP

Rearranging events from Mary Shelley's original novel, this film manages to be true to the book while at the same time making something new.

Very much an independent production, Ricardo Islas has directed a very atmospheric horror variation on the familiar theme, of an animalistic monster who seems to delight in killing. You may not blame him, because most of the supporting characters want to kill him too. More than bloodlust, a sense of mating drives him along.

Newly married Victor Frankenstein (Adam Stephenson) and his new wife Elizabeth (Michelle Shields) are, at the time of the story's commencement, being heavily guarded by a group of guards only too aware there is a monster afoot. Frankenstein here is a rather fey character, who is afraid of what he has created, but is not prepared to take the responsibility. What transpires is a game of cat and mouse between the motley selection of guards and the creature, with the latter displaying an almost impossible inability to succumb to death. Some of these effects stretch the budget and the realism.

This is low-key and highly enjoyable, muddy and grimy, with a fast-moving story and willingness to go gory when the plot demands it. Also, the ending is delightfully oblique, allowing us to imagine that somewhere out there ... evil lurks.