Frankenstein Reanimated

FRANKENSTEIN REANIMATED doesn‟t even have a name. It is only referred to as the “monster” and the “creature”. This only reinforces the idea that the monster is not human and instead just a product of experimentation.

When Mary Shelly wrote her original “Frankenstein”, it shocked people that a woman could write about such horror. However, in comparison with more modern films such as Francis Ford Coppola‟s “Dracula” (1992) and Gore Verbinski‟s “The Ring” (2002), Thomas Edison‟s original 1910 film of “Frankenstein” was not scary. Film maker James Whale was the first to make a terrifying version of “Frankenstein” in 1931.

Mel Brook‟s film “Young Frankenstein” represents 19th centaury gothic horror by drawing upon cultural assumptions of the gothic genre. These gothic elements are amplified by the comic parody of the original 1831 novel, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelly. Certain film elements position the viewer to accept aspects of goth and horror as being funny, unrealistic and overdone.

Mel Brook‟s 1974 “Young Frankenstein” is a comic twist of Marry Shelly‟s novel. When young Frankenstein returns to Transylvania to tie up his father‟s work he meets bug-eyed Igor (pronounced “eye-gore”) who is a hunched character who wears black draped clothes and speaks mysteriously. Throughout the course of the movie, Igor‟s hump seems to swap between his shoulders to make light of the gothic genre created by previous film versions of Frankenstein.

In the tale of “Young Frankenstein”, Frederic, Victor Frankenstein‟s son, rejects his father‟s work as he believes that reanimating dead tissue is impossible, morbid and unscientific. This positions the viewers to accept the idea that “modern times” (in the movie) have given light to better science and less morbid and obsessive experimentation. This sets up the audience for a surprise when Frederic later tries his father‟s experiments again to prove him wrong, and then gets carried away when they begin to work. The opening scene shows Frederic prising open his father‟s coffin and trying to take the box that Victor Frankenstein is holding to his chest. The skeleton of Victor keeps a tight grip on the box and Frederic‟s curiosity drives him to finally snatch the box. Young Frankenstein opens his father‟s box to find that it holds a key to a secret room that contains all of Victor‟s papers and a book entitled, “How I Did It”, which demonstrates Victor Frankenstein‟s pride in his horrible experiment of the monster. The “monster”

“Werewolf!”….“Therewolf”

While travelling in the coach from the train station to the castle (where Victor‟s laboratory is), Frederic lies next to Inga, his attractive German laboratory assistant, when they hear a wolf cry. Frederic says, “werewolf,” and Igor replies, “there wolf,” and points towards the dark woods. Once again Igor mocks the gothic genre.

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008

Frederic‟s playful relationship with Inga shows that mad science is rewarded and favoured by the text. As the plot progresses, Frederic is lured deeper and deeper into his father‟s work and motives for creating the monster. He soon begins working on reanimating the monster again but with a different brain. Unfortunately for Frederic, Igor and Inga brought back an „abnormal‟ brain from the morgue to transplant into the monster‟s head. The monster turns out to be this raging creature that Frederic and his assistants become terrified by. The monster can only be tamed by music which is somewhat of a riddle – the monster is made to appear inhuman, and yet it has feelings and a soul of its own that is moved by music. At the end of the film when Dr. Frankenstein fixes the monster‟s brain so that he can become „normal‟, the monster begins to speak eloquently of his struggle to fit into society and be understood. This change of heart in the monster is enhanced by the camera angles used. While the monster is in a position of physical power, the camera looks up at him, making him seem threatening. However, at the end of the film, front on and above shots are used to show that the monster is humble and rational.

comes to consciously realise that they unmistakably illustrate goth and horror. The film, “Young Frankenstein”, is very blatantly representative of the gothic genre in every aspect. Almost the entire movie is set during night time in a castle on the top of a steep mountain that has a neverending storm brewing above it. The gore element is taken care of by the digging up of the monster‟s body from the graveyard, Igor‟s expedition to steal a brain which is kept in a container on a shelf (as if it were normal to store brains in this fashion) and Frederic‟s attempts to reanimate dead tissue. The “creature” adds the horror to the film in the way that he is viewed by the camera, and the way that he grunts and walks slowly and heavily. Suspense is held as he walks through the street with no real direction, leaving the viewers wondering who he will terrorise next. Even though the viewers are positioned to accept the monster as something inhuman, he is genderised as a male which demonstrates another aspect of the gothic genre; that males are threatening. When Frederic presents his creature to fellow scientists, he dances with his monster – Frederic toys with the horrible experimental disaster he created. Frederic too mocks the gothic genre.

Shot from below - the monster’s ominous shadow Dr. Frankenstein toying with the monster – an icon of the gothic genre.

In creating “Young Frankenstein”, Mel Brooks exploits all the goth and horror elements of previous versions of the film and presents them to the viewer in a comic fashion. He draws upon the viewer‟s cultural assumptions of the modern day science and those of the gothic genre, and ties them together to make a parody of Marry Shelly‟s “Frankenstein”.

Shot from above - the monster calmed by music

Mel Brooks draws on cultural assumptions of goth and horror in order to make the film a comedy. Certain recurring events in the film (such as the striking of lightning every time a fearful concept is realised by Frederic) send up aspects of the gothic genre. Such events are so repetitive throughout the film that they become funny because the audience

© Sarah Don, Australia, 2008