This was the oldest film that I could find to watch. I believe that is the oldest surviving horror film ever made. I wanted to watch it to see just how unsophisticated films were when they began and, by implication, how sophisticated last night's The Fall of the House of Usher from 1928 was. This is pretty rough to be honest- the still camera captures some theatrical acting and the monster costume is lousy- but is surely the inspiration for Carry On Screaming's Oddbod.
It also takes liberties with the text by changing the method of creation- the monster emerges from a cauldron full of ingredients- and the ending. But with the limitations upon the film-maker, that was necessary. In fact, Director J. Searle Dawley's new ending is fantastic, the intertitle had said "Instead of a perfect human being, the evil in Frankenstein's mind creates a monster" and the monster we see attack first the Doctor and then Elizabeth disappears as it looks in the mirror and is replaced by the Doctor himself. If you thought Fight Club was a twist, then it was by no means a new one. Frankenstein is the monster! It's a great way to tie up the story and also to bring into play the internal good v evil wrangling from the original text.
The creation of the monster is remarkably well executed for the period and the tinting- brown for storyline and blue for horror is an interesting idea. It works far better than I'd expected. 8/10
