The final film on the series of Hammer films I've been watching at a local theatre is also one of Hammer's last movies, with Peter Cushing (in a really outrageous blonde wig) reprising his role as Dr. Frankenstein for the last time.
Hammer and director Terence Fisher seem too aware of the end of their era in this one. It is a 1974 film, and by then Hammer had already milked the cow too much, as Dracula 1973 and other of their late films show, and they also had to battle with newer, more explicit horror films, like "The Exorcist", released the year before this one.
Fisher and company seem happy to want to play it one more time with feeling, giving the Frankenstein myth yet another twist. Here they go full steam showing Frankenstein at his most inhuman and decadent, and violence and gore are surprisingly over the top (Fisher had always been tame on the previous Frankenstein outings), setting a more somber and pessimistic tone than ever before.
The film introduces us first to Simon Helder, a young doctor who is following Frankenstein's investigations closely. Too closely, actually, because he is soon arrested and sent to an asylum, where he meets with, surprise,surprise, a Baron Frankenstein in top form, who has not only faked his own death but also gained control of the asylum through blackmailing the director.
With the help of his new young protegé and his mute aid, Sarah, they proceed to create another creature, but soon Herder realises that Frankenstein has become an unredeemable monster who cares only for his work, which has become an end in itself rather than a way to bring progress to mankind. Herder likes Frankenstein at first, considering a visionary, but finally realises that he is capable of the most inhuman acts just for the sake of them. Is he really insane? I'd say he is, considering how distorted his way of thinking has become.
As the previous Frankenstein outings, it is a wonderful film, perfectly staged by Fisher, but I'm sure some people will be taken back when they notice the seriousness of its approach and its somber tone. It is the most disturbing film in the whole Hammer-Frankenstein series, and it also shows quite a lot of gore, specially if you compare it with the rest of the series. The film also suffers from cutting some of the suspense and black humour of its predecesors in favour of the new approach, as well. I missed some more suspense scenes, like the superbly opening of "Frankenstein must be destroyed", but I understand that Fisher wanted to go beyond all that.
I quite like the film. Cushing is perfect as always, and Fisher's camerawork is once again dead on. It always surprises me how freely he moves the camera around, avoiding statism at all costs without losing ellegance at any point. The asylum also provides a perfect scenario for this story of unsatisfied curiosity and obssesion.
I saw this years ago on cable and remember almost nothing about it except the image of the monster from stills and a clip from some montage I saw after that.