Frankenstein Unbound (USA, 1990) 85 min color DIR: Roger Corman. PROD: Roger Corman, Kobi Jaeger. SCR: Roger Corman, F.X. Feeney, based on the novel by Brian Aldiss. MUSIC: Carl Davis. DOP: Armando Nannuzzi, Michael Scott. CAST: John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, Michael Hutchence, Nick Brimble. (20th Century Fox)
Frankenstein Unbound marked Roger Corman’s return to the director’s chair, nineteen years after Von Richthofen and Brown. Although a critical and financial disappointment, this underrated film is a thoughtful and entertaining science fiction thriller .
This Fox release was produced on a modest budget, but compared to what Roger was spending on the average picture in his own Concorde studios at the time, he could have been making Titanic. This low-key picture has very good special effects and miniatures, all the more commendable for being produced with little money. Also, he had the good fortune of working with mainstream actors John Hurt and Raul Julia, who both give this movie a lot of dignity.
Based on Brian Aldiss’ 1973 novel, and written for the screen by Corman and F.X. Feeney, Frankenstein Unbound begins in the year 2031, in “New Los Angeles”- a world only slightly more futuristic, in which people drive really high-tech cars while watching news broadcasts of tributes to “the last remaining parts of the Brazilian rain forest”. While this world may not seem too cold or distant, people do have New Age funerals for bicycles. Scientist Joe Buchanan (Hurt) will soon go to a world where dead things are given human qualities.
He encounters a swirling matrix in the sky from which suddenly appears a warrior, possibly from the era of Genghis Khan. After sidestepping that confusion, he and his talking car are then sucked into the maelstrom and transported back to the time of merry olde Europe. The miracle car, replete with TV, radio and printer, utters: “Something tells me we’re not in New Los Angeles anymore.”
True enough, Buchanan enters a pub (which, like most interiors in this movie, are way too brightly lit for their time) and meets Dr. Frankenstein (Julia), who has finished working on his monster. The beast (a monstrosity, sure, but is capable of speech and introspection) has been killing people in the countryside, and threatens to keep doing so until the doctor creates a mate. Buchanan questions Frankenstein’s morals about how he can live with having created such a murderous thing, and the doctor responds with the pivotal line, “I am a scientist… I cannot sin.”
The film climaxes with a creation scene in which the doctor begrudgingly assembles a female companion for his human monster (Nick Brimble), with electricity from Buchanan’s car! And, as climaxes are wont to do, it is at this moment that the matrix arrives which may help Buchanan get back home.
Most interestingly, this movie blurs history with fiction. Bridget Fonda, in one of her earliest roles, plays Mary Shelley, who has so far only written a couple of chapters of her “Frankenstein” novel. Buchanan hands her a computer printout of her finished book! I am uncertain if this is due to the script or its source material, but this movie could have more developed how real-life characters react to the legacies they are soon to leave for future generations. There is also a fascinating scene where Buchanan meets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, played respectively by INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, and Jason Patric. Their characterizations as arrogant, effeminate fops add some satire to the movie.
As such, Frankenstein Unbound ’s greatest folly is that it sticks more to the horror conventions of laboratories and assorted gory killings (which would surely not exist if Corman made his during his Poe period), than to the possibilities of how past and future would alter with these literary and real-life characters. Despite the Gothic setting, this picture only approximates the Vincent Price movies of yore with a couple of elongated dream sequences to pad out running time. It may not be like the good old days, but compared to what was being made at the time, this film is a welcome old-fashioned romp. With its game cast, and Corman’s knack for making a fast-moving genre picture despite its shortcomings, this long-overdue return to the director’s chair may not be the masterpiece people would have hoped for, but it is nice to see that he’s still “got it”.
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.