Review of Bride of Frankenstein (1935) by Kyler D — 22 Sep 2012

Good: Great scenery, good acting, explores Frankenstein's monster more, creates the iconic character Frankenstein's bride, good dialogue, powerful scenes, very fun, shocking ending, there was a good amount of metaphors within.

Bad: I was hopeful to see more interaction between Frankenstein and bride, but I can see why Whales made the decision he did and can respect it.

Bride of Frankenstein is one of the few sequels I have seen in my life that may actually surpass its predecessor, Frankenstein. Both are almost even, although I believe this will come out slightly on top. I found this movie to be quite the adventure that kept me very entertained throughout. I noticed that the scenery is one of the better aspects of the movie, a rare thing that I notice and commend in a film. My favorite scenery moment is when Frankenstein is within the forest, the scene is stunning. Particularly in the last major forest scene where it is desolate, and the trees look like telephone poles. The acting is very good overall, especially from Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. There are some classic over the top old movie shrieks from women as they see the monster travel, which is really adds to the fun atmosphere of the movie. Bride of Frankenstein continues to explore the character of Frankenstein's monster. He furthers the amount of sympathy felt for this misunderstood monster. One of the most powerful scenes, which will surely be the first that I think of when I reminisce about this movie, is when the monster travels into a home in the forest. I won't go into detail about this scene for those of you that have not seen it, but it is a very sad and sweet moment. The dialogue and writing is done very well, there were no awkward moments. One thing I love about this movie is that overall it is fun. I'm not sure if it was scary at the time, but now it seems silly, with a few good moments of sympathy thrown in. I also found it interesting while listening to audio commentary afterwards to find that many scenes had a deeper meaning, and that there were many hints to other meanings to things. People have noticed today that that one of the characters is hinted at to be a homosexual, and I can completely see what they mean with a quote that he says being translated that way. Although I have found that people seem to take this too far (Frankenstein is a bisexual?). Whether Whales, an openly homosexual man, did these things on purpose, or just out of the subconscious creativity of a gay man, or maybe these things meant nothing and people are reading too much into it we will not know.

I was thinking that the bride of Frankenstein's monster would be in the movie more, but she is only featured for a matter of minutes! I can see why this direction was taken after looking back, but I found this one of the more surprising elements of the movie. Especially so because the movie is named after her! The ending was very strange, at least to me, for how the movie was going. While the rest of the movie was overall fun, I found the ending extremely depressing. It could be that back when the movie was scary it would have fit, but to me it was just a huge swing of emotion. Do not misunderstand however; despite this quick change in mood I found it nevertheless to be a stunning and powerful ending. This leaves me wishing to watch the next, although I have a sinking feeling it will not be as good. But then again, I thought the same about this film, and look at what I say now! I suggest this to anyone, as this is a large piece of cinema history.