A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This 1992 version of "Frankenstein" tries to mix up the familiar story by changing a lot of details, with mixed results. Some of the changes are made for budgetary reasons, other stylistically and some just baffled my mind. One of the changes made is that the monster (Randy Quaid) is not pieced together from bodies collected from slaughter houses and dissection rooms, but is created in what I can only describe as a "duplication chamber". Also notable is that the creature learns to speak English by befriending a blind old man in the woods. The old man thinks it to be a foreigner that does not speak English and teaches him how to talk. It's an acceptable substitution for spying on a family that is teaching one of its members to read and write English, like in the original story. Some changes, like creating a psychic bond between the creature and Victor Frankenstein (Patrick Bergin) are problematic, create plot holes and huge leaps of logic in the story. It's too bad that it was handled poorly because if it had been executed well it could have been interesting. I also have to admit that while the duplication chamber thing is kind of a neat special effect, it doesn't work. The main problem I had with it was that because the monster starts off as a perfect clone of the doctor there had to be convoluted ways for the creature to become disfigured to make the rest of the story work. It just didn't lend itself well to this story.The film has some decent performances, but the plot is inconsistent in its quality and so loosely based on the novel it could almost be its own, unrelated thing. Some elements are introduced then immediately dropped or hastily discarded without much logic. Early on for example, Victor Frankenstein shows us that he is able to create entirely new species of animals by splicing a cat and a snake together and by creating a porcupine/rabbit hybrid. That entire scene comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again. I'm pretty sure it was only included to show off some special effects.Overall this 1992 film is more of a curiosity than a significant addition to the ever-growing amount of Frankenstein-related material. It might be enjoyed by hardcore fans of the book and story of "Frankenstein" that are simply looking for something different. If that's you by the way, check out "Frankenstein Conquers the World", that is one wacky "sequel" to the original novel. Unlike that film though, there isn't much remarkable about this version of "Frankenstein". At times it's hilariously bad so you can easily skip this one. (On VHS, August 31, 2012)

Director David Wickes was responsible for the horrible David Essex vanity project Silver Dream Racer. With this in mind, you could be forgiven for expecting this 1992 made-for-TV update of the oft-filmed Frankenstein story to be a somewhat trite affair. Surprisingly, this is a pretty good version of the tale. Indeed, it is actually better than the high profile Kenneth Branagh version that was released around 18 months later.Innovative scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Patrick Bergin) comes up with the idea of making and animating a man. His research consumes him, and his love for the project becomes greater even than his love for his fiancée Elizabeth (Fiona Gillies) and best friend Clerval (Lambert Wilson). Eventually, Frankenstein finishes his creature and it is brought to life in the guise of a huge, disfigured monster (played with considerable emotion by Randy Quaid). It is not long before the monster escapes and heads off into the Alpine countryside. Here it spends its time spying on humans, learning what makes them tick and observing their daily lives. The monster becomes aware of the very human emotions of love and commitment, but because it is so ugly it only arouses fear and revulsion amongst normal humans. Enraged that it will never understand what it is to be loved, the monster returns and kills Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, thereby robbing its creator of the love-of-his-life and making him share its despair. Frankenstein pursues the monster to the Arctic, where he plans to destroy it.Wickes is extremely faithful to his source novel, more so than virtually all film-makers who have gone before him. He cuts out occasional bits of Mary Shelley's narrative, and makes the odd change here and there, but on the whole this is as close to Shelley's story as a film version has ever been. Bergin is a revelation as Dr. Frankenstein. Usually a solid but unspectacular character actor, here he gives one of his best-ever performances as the ambitious scientist. On paper, Quaid sounds a terrible choice for the part of the monster (one can't help thinking of the oafish rednecks he played in movies like Moving, National Lampoon's Vacation and Independence Day), but in actual fact he is superb as the monster, registering anguish and pity from beneath layers of heavy make-up. At two hours, the film is paced well and moves briskly without sacrificing character or plot development. (Wickes had already directed two 3-hour made-for-TV films about Jack The Ripper and Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde, both of which were on the excessively lengthy side.) It seems surprising that this film has faded into obscurity, for it is very well-made and admirably faithful to its source book. If you are fortunate enough to find, it is well worth viewing.

This Version of Frankenstein is the best!I won't even waste my time criticizing Branagh's Version. Branagh's Version stays with the book until it is time for the monster to kill Victor's wife,then Branagh throws in this ridiculous resurrection of Elizabeth scene which was totally horrible. Branagh ended his movie exactly as the book ended with the monster and his dead master floating away on a sheet of Ice burning up.This Version of Frankenstein was made in 1993 for TNT. It was one of the first original movies made for that network, Gettysburg premiered that same year on that station.This version stays pretty close to the basic plot of the book but it adds a twist. The Death of Elizabeth is exact to how she died in the book, the monster breaks her neck, the rest of the scene was different from the book.The film adds some new twists to the story that make it all the more interesting. William is a teenager in this version not a child and has a somewhat different role.This version remains pretty faithful to the basic plot of the book not the details of the book like Branagh attempts to stick to in his version but pathetically failed at towards the end.John Cameron did a superb job with the music score for this film!I give this film 4 stars. Excellent viewing for a rainy day!

There has been made several versions of Frankenstein, and this TV version works OK.It's not the best of the kind of course, but it's watchable.This is a little different kind of version.In this version Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created are the same.They feel the same pain and they have the same feelings.When one dies, dies the other too.Patrick Bergin plays dr. Victor Frankenstein and Randy Quaid the monster, which is a little surprise.But they both do good acting job.