Give the director credit on this one - he took the basic Frankenstein idea and took it in a direction that Hammer studio might have considered, but would have rejected as being beneath their dignity. The results have a crude power in some spots of the movie, but because of the low budget and lack of polish, the movie is less than it might have been, even for a sleazy exploitation horror film.
There are a few talented actors in here, and a few familiar faces, but they all work in service to a screenplay that wastes most of their goodwill in clichés and unsympathetic characters. Joseph Cotten is in here for the first third of the movie, and he's pretty cool. The lady who plays his "daughter" is actually perfect for the part, but her character is a real piece of work.
One real problem for the movie is the monster and the scenes that feature his rampage. The monster isn't that scary or impressive, and most of his scenes seem disconnected from the rest of the movie; they feel tacked on, and very poorly thought out. (A person could make a pretty good drinking game by taking a drink every time a villager tried to hit the monster with a feeble overhead clubbing stroke which resulted in the monster grabbing the villager's arm and pulverizing him). The original monster was a creature of tragedy and pathos - this spin off is just a lug that kills people. Again, if the violence was staged a lot better than this, it might not matter.
I dunno. Too much polish and actual human emotion might have actually ruined the cheap, sleazy thrill the film makers were obviously going for. But too cheap and too raw and unpolished a production makes the viewer disrespect himself for sitting through this.
There are a few talented actors in here, and a few familiar faces, but they all work in service to a screenplay that wastes most of their goodwill in clichés and unsympathetic characters. Joseph Cotten is in here for the first third of the movie, and he's pretty cool. The lady who plays his "daughter" is actually perfect for the part, but her character is a real piece of work.
One real problem for the movie is the monster and the scenes that feature his rampage. The monster isn't that scary or impressive, and most of his scenes seem disconnected from the rest of the movie; they feel tacked on, and very poorly thought out. (A person could make a pretty good drinking game by taking a drink every time a villager tried to hit the monster with a feeble overhead clubbing stroke which resulted in the monster grabbing the villager's arm and pulverizing him). The original monster was a creature of tragedy and pathos - this spin off is just a lug that kills people. Again, if the violence was staged a lot better than this, it might not matter.
I dunno. Too much polish and actual human emotion might have actually ruined the cheap, sleazy thrill the film makers were obviously going for. But too cheap and too raw and unpolished a production makes the viewer disrespect himself for sitting through this.