Director: Freddie Francis
Writer: Anthony Hinds (Screenplay)
Starring: Peter Cushing, Kiwi Kingston, Peter Woodthorpe, Sandor Eles
Plot: Upon returning to his home village to continue his experimental research, the destitute Dr. Frankenstein revives his old creature, but a hypnotist wants the monster to control for himself.
Tagline – The monster bred from a dozen corpses.
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Hammer Horror 101
Story: The Evil of Frankenstein starts when Baron Frankenstein (Cushing) returns home with Hans (Eles) to create his next monster, he finds a carnival in town which makes it easier for him to get around and see what has changed in his time away from the village.
While in hiding from the locals that learn of his return, Baron discover the body of the original creature (Kingston) frozen, he takes it back to his castle to bring it back to life once again, turning to hypnotist Zoltan (Woodthorpe) to help command him, only he has his own ideas on what to use the creature for.
Thoughts on The Evil of Frankenstein
Characters – Baron Frankenstein is tired of his work being interrupted, he needs equipment which takes him home to use his old castle, he isn’t happy with how the village is operating now, but will continue his work even if the person he turns to for help only makes his life more difficult. Zoltan is the hypnotist that is being run out of the village, he gets recruited by Baron to help control the creature, he soon starts using his own motives to control the creature to eliminate the people that got in his way. Hans is the loyal partner of Baron who helps him through his experiments without questioning him. The Creature has been frozen for years and now it is free again to follow instruction not from Baron, but from Zoltan.
Performances – Peter Cushing is the icon of Hammer Horror and this shows why, he can make himself the strongest member of nearly any cast, this is no different. Kiwi Kingston as the creature is an imposing presence on the camera, while Peter Woodthorpe shows strength as the hypnotist with his own agenda.
Story – The story fits into the Hammer Horror style of film making, lets just keep making sequels to our strongest movies, this is the third of seven which shows that we still us events of the first films and try to build around it with what to do with the creature that is different from before and we get a nice enough spin on where to go. This time we focus more on the battle between Baron and Zoltan for control of the creation while it goes on to scary the people of the village. This doesn’t however give enough time to the creature which is one of the main drawing points.
Horror – The horror in this film comes from the creature which shows us just how it terrified the local village, though it doesn’t feel as scary as it should be.
Settings – The film returns to the main village setting which shows us just how the people will never forget what they once saw.
Scene of the Movie – The creature attack.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not enough of the creature.
Final Thoughts – This is a solid sequel that showed us just how the hammer horror system worked, just cash in on the names that work well.
Overall: Hammer horror system working well.
Rating
