Erotic Rites
of Frankenstein
Spain/France
1972. Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Dennis Price, Howard Vernon, Anne Libert, Britt Nichols
Aka: La Maledición de Frankenstein
Just
as Dr. Frankenstein (Dennis Price) has managed to give life to a beautiful
monster he is killed and has his creation stolen by his worst enemy
Count Cagliostro (Howard Vernon). Cagliostro, "a genius though
he is mad" is living in a castle where is trying to create new
species by kidnapping carefully selected young girls, whipping their
asses off and stealing their body parts for experiments. To his help
he has a strange bird-woman named Melissa (Anne Libert) who has the
useful ability to control other creatures by "magnetic waves"
(don't ask). After a while Frankenstein's daughter Vera (Beatriz Savon)
arrives to town and learns about her father's mysterious death. In order
to find out what happened to him more exactly she decides to re-animate
him and she also succeeds long enough so he can tell that Cagliostro
is the one guilty of killing him as well as stealing his monster. Then
Vera is also kidnapped by Cagliostro and taken to his castle where she
is put under his spell and forced to help him in creating a bride for
Frankenstein's monster, which will hopefully bring forth "the ultimate
creation" which will in turn help Cagliostro take over the world.
Jess
Franco's version of the Frankenstein classic is slightly different from
the more familiar Universal and Hammer movies.
In fact, it's so different it resembles nothing else. If you're a devoted
Franco follower the above plot may not sound very unusual perhaps, but
to the rest of us Erotic Rites of Frankenstein comes across as
a very peculiar movie. A peculiar movie which almost plays like a comedy,
or at least like a comic horror movie, with a bit of everything and anything
thrown in. The budget couldn't have been lower either, it's amazingly
cheap and tacky. No one seem to mind much, though, as the plot is stuffed
with gratuitous nudity, violence and bizarre creations. Frankenstein's
own monster is mainly a big guy painted in silver. Like a silver coloured
Hulk. Though Hulk never got to whip any naked women in his basement (or maybe he did, we don't know). Ann
Libert as the bird-woman must also be seen to be believed, a hybrid of
a woman and a bird in blue feathers. The best thing by far, however, is the extraordinary
over-the-top performance by Franco regular Howard Vernon (in goatee beard)
as the evil mastermind Cagliostro. Vernon alone makes Erotic Rites
of Frankenstein a must-see, but there's enough whacky stuff going
on all over the movie to make it a euro-trash classic not to miss. See
it now. Then see it again.
© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.