A new review from B-Movie Enema is bounding your way!

2025 was the year of Frankenstein. Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel of a scientist who plays God and cobbles together a living thing from dead flesh finally saw the light of day. That del Toro adaptation was well-cast with Oscar Isaac playing Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi doing amazing work as the Creature. It was gorgeously shot and designed. Seeing two perspectives to tell the full story was amazing. It was solidly in my Top 10 list for last year. I’m not alone in this praise. It was nominated for many Academy Awards.

Let’s also not forget that releasing to theaters today is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s reimagining of the themes of loneliness and monstrous love in Mary Shelley’s seminal work, The Bride! So, yeah, Dr. Frankenstein and his creation(s) are all over the place right now. Plus, speaking of awards, while I’m sure del Toro’s Frankenstein will be picking up at least two or three awards come next weekend, the Queen of this year’s awards season, Jessie Buckley, is celebrating her crowning achievement with another solid performance as the titular Bride. If you’re a monster kid like me, you’re eating well at the trough of Shelley’s work and the present-day adaptations.

However, it was the success of last year’s Frankenstein that got me thinking I should do something for Shelley’s creature – especially as Gyllenhaal’s feminist monster movie is hitting screens. Obviously, I’m not so sure about Guillermo’s masterpiece being what should be covered at a site like this, and I literally just watched The Bride! last night. So I needed to look elsewhere. I landed on the movie that had an eye-popping (no pun intended) box art at the video store. 1990’s Frankenstein Unbound isn’t just what we’re going to be talking about in this review, but it also serves as the final film in which the great Roger Corman was ever credited as director.

Naturally, we are no strangers to Roger Corman around these parts. However, as much as people think of Roger Corman as a director, with his Poe series films starring Vincent Price, A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors, and many more. Most of us probably know that Corman was responsible for bringing a lot of new people up through his films to become big-time Hollywood figures. These are people like Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, Joe Dante, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and Jonathan Demme. He also made drive-in horror and monster films incredibly popular in the late 50s and 60s. By the time the 70s came along, he was one of the pioneers of exploitation cinema in America.

But what most people don’t often think about is that after 1971’s Von Richthofen and Brown, Corman stopped directing his films. After about four dozen directing credits and a few uncredited ones to boot, Corman opted to step out of the director’s chair and into a producing and distribution role. That’s where his true empire was built. 1978’s Deathsport and 1980’s Battle Beyond the Stars list Corman as an uncredited director. But he returned to the job that made him who he is for Frankenstein Unbound.

The person who coaxed Corman back into the director’s chair after a couple of decades was producer Thom Mount. Mount was something of a mover and shaker himself. He served as the President of Universal Studios from 1975 to early 1985. When he left, he produced movies like Bull Durham and Natural Born Killers. The 1992 Robert Altman film The Player is rumored to have the Tim Robbins character modeled after Mount, but Mount denies this could be the case because he never killed a screenwriter. At least that we know of, that is.

Corman wasn’t really going to jump back into that director’s chair without a good script. Enter screenwriter F.X. Feeney. Feeney and Corman co-wrote the script for Frankenstein Unbound, which was not an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein from 1818. Instead, it’s based on a 1973 novel named Frankenstein Unbound by Brian Aldiss. Aldiss was a two-time Hugo Award-winning writer who was largely known for being a sort of modern H.G. Wells figure in sci-fi. In fact, he was a V.P. for the international H.G. Wells Society. Aldiss was also the writer of the short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” which became the premise Stanley Kubrick developed into 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which, of course, was completed by Steven Spielberg after Kubrick’s death.

So, yeah, you’ve got an interesting premise, which we’ll get into shortly, and Corman is back behind the camera and filming, what would ultimately be the final film he would direct. But let’s talk about some of the members of the cast that will fill out the movie. As Victor Frankenstein, we’ve got the great Raul Julia. Julia is probably best known to a certain portion of Gen-X and Millennial populations as Gomez Addams in the Paramount films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. He was a guy who seemed to be so nice and honestly enjoyed acting and doing the work he did that when he died in 1994, it was something a lot of people mourned.

Narrating the movie is the character Joe Buchanan, played by John Hurt. Hurt is probably best known for playing John Merrick in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, as well as playing the guy who becomes the first poor bastard we ever see a Xenomorph bust out of their rib cage in 1979’s Alien. Near the end of his life, he gained a new audience when he played the “forgotten” War Doctor in the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who. Similar to 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Unbound features characters representing Mary Shelley, her husband Percy Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron. Mary is played by Bridget Fonda in a very early film role in her career, just before she would get really popular in the 90s. Her husband in the film, Percy, is played by Michael Hutchence. If that name sounds familiar, well, don’t ask me what you know is true, I don’t have to tell you… He’s the lead singer of the incredibly popular 80s rock band from Australia, INXS. Lord Byron is played by Jason Patric, just a few years after his breakout role in The Lost Boys.

So, we’ve got Frankenstein and vampire connections… And INXS. And the Elephant Man. And Bridget Fonda. And Gomez Addams. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to dive in because that is a hell of a cast!

I do like that the title card for the movie does say Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound. While, at some point, I’m sure that would have been looked at with a groan, despite the adaptation of a serious novel, the cast, and the lovely opening theme score that plays during the credits, it does highlight something kind of important. This is, as I’ve already said earlier, the final Corman-directed feature before he totally retired from directing and fully went into the role of Producer.

The movie begins with John Hurt’s wonderful voice. He’s narrating the film and likens himself to the lamenting Einstein, who said that if he had known what his work eventually led to, namely, the creation of the very first nuclear weapon, he would have become a watchmaker. In terms of what Hurt’s character, Dr. Joe Buchanan, is doing, he’s wandering a snowy wasteland and cataloging what happened that led to his current situation. He speaks of timeslips and other things that make him regret his own scientific pursuits.

The story really begins in 2031, Los Angeles. Dr. Buchanan is demonstrating an ultimate weapon to some generals. Basically, it’s a beam that, when fired at an object, completely and totally obliterates it. Maybe more accurately, it “removes” the thing it was fired at. He calls it “Project: Safeworld,” and the idea would be to give the United States Army a particle beam that would completely wipe the enemy out that stood before them. It’s the age-old idea of “create a weapon so freakishly deadly and powerful no one will want to oppose you.” The positive? The beam has no ill effect on the environment like a nuke would. That said, there’s a series of side effects that bother some people that Buchanan is pitching this to.

Whenever he test fires the particle beam, it creates incredibly strange weather phenomena, causes people to unexpectedly disappear, and creates what they are calling timeslips. But, hey… The President wanted a weapon, and dammit, Joe delivered. Sure, there’s this teeny weeny issue with tears in the time-space continuum, but this guy should know what he’s doing! He’s a Time Lord, albeit one that his other selves refuse to recognize. He also single-handedly ended that big war between his people and the Daleks!

I’m sure it’s no big deal.

Op… nope. Actually, it’s a very big deal. Joe knows what he’s created is doing some very bad things. He laments creating a weapon that would save the world, but whoopsie daisy… he’s opened up a giant scary rift in the sky over this city.

What do you think those people in the city think of that scary pink-glowing cloud monster? This is 2031. We’re solidly a couple of decades into the dumbing down of the average American, thanks to YouTube (subscribe to the B-Movie Enema YouTube channel), and, well, general conservative ideology. There’s no way there aren’t at least 20% of the L.A. population bowing down and praying to the mercifully merciless sky god that is forming over their heads. Also, this is how kids dress in 2031. I cannot wait to make fun of every single dork kid I see wearing whatever the fuck these things are called.

2031 seems almost like a technological utopia. Buchanan here is like Tony Stark. He has an A.I. assistant that sometimes drives his bitchin’ futuristic sports car. He has mastered how to effectively send something into a trash dimension, or at least, send it out of the current timestream into god knows where. These kids are burying a girl’s crummy old bike because she got a new sci-fi-looking one. While he doesn’t fawn over it, he recognizes the new bike is progress.

As they bury this kid’s bike, the rift in the sky gets worse. MUCH worse. A literal Mongol comes flying out of the rift and attempts to kill Joe before he’s sucked back into the rift. Unfortunately, it also grabs Joe and his bitchin’ futuristic car. When Joe comes to, he’s in the middle of a grassy field near a wooden hut, nowhere near Los Angeles.

So, yeah, this is a time travel Frankenstein movie! This is kind of like Time After Time, which is part modern thriller, part Jack the Ripper, part H.G. Wells, and a lot of Malcolm McDowell and David Warner being awesome. I like the idea of Corman not just doing a straight-laced Frankenstein flick. We can still get all that goodness, but we’re going to bring in a modern-day John Hurt to mix things up.

It doesn’t take long for Joe or his supercar to realize they are no longer in 2031 Los Angeles. There are no television or radio broadcasts. The usual uplink methods that the car has to get to the mainframe at the Hawkins Institute are unable to connect. There are no satellites orbiting the Earth. Oh, and there is no pollution in the air.

Joe hides his supercar and goes for a walk to see what he can find. He eventually finds a village way the fuck over there that he decides to hike toward. On the way, he gets spooked by an owl. He finds a bunch of disemboweled sheep. When he arrives at the village, the locals look at him for how he’s dressed, like one of them crazy California guys. I bet he even has pronouns in his bio, ugh…

I guess it’s somewhere along the way that Joe comes to terms with the fact that he has, indeed, time traveled. He goes into an inn in the village and discovers he’s in Switzerland. He wants something to eat, but soon realizes his credit cards in his wallet will not help him pay. He pawns his gold pinky ring and ends up with a decent little pocketful of francs.

He finds an empty seat at a table with a man who is reading the newspaper. The newspaper reveals it is Tuesday, May 22, 1817. The man who is reading it is none other than Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Immediately, Frankenstein makes fun of what Joe’s wearing. At least Frankenstein has heard of America.

By the way, May 22, 1817, was a Thursday, not a Tuesday. I was able to learn that thanks to the modern wonder of Google. By me searching that, I unfortunately ripped a new butthole in space, and it farted out a bunch of huns who are now going to murder at least two dozen people. I sorry.

At first, it doesn’t seem as though Frankenstein is all that interested in this American. But then, when Joe’s digital watch beeps, Frankenstein is quite curious about it. When Joe says it runs on electricity, Dr. Frankenstein becomes VERY curious. He takes his leave of Joe but offers a future conversation around electricity. That’s when he introduces himself to Joe. The name Frankenstein is something that Joe knows, but Frankenstein says it’s impossible as his work is quite unknown.

So Joe stows away on the back of Frankenstein’s carriage. He sees Frankenstein speak to someone in the forest who demands that Frankenstein give him what he wants. Joe stumbles down a rocky incline and passes out, dreaming of a demonic figure. He returns to the supercar and has the computer begin working on a possible solution to their timeslide problem by way of a prototype beam similar to the beam he created before that landed him in this quagmire. He travels to Geneva, where he buys himself a more appropriate attire to fit into his surroundings.

As he wanders around the city, he finds Frankenstein and his wife, Elizabeth. He follows them to the courthouse, where a trial is underway for a murder. He spots a pretty young woman sitting by herself. He wants to sit by her and asks someone if he’s allowed to sit in her section. The other guy is like, “Yeah, that’s Lord Byron’s friend, so do with that knowledge what you will, stranger.” And, yes, this is who will be better known as Mary Shelley.

The murder is of young William Frankenstein. The woman on trial is Justine Moritz. She’s a young woman, and the grizzly nature of the murder of the Frankenstein boy seems not to be something she would have the strength or ability to do, or at least that’s what Mary Shelley believes. Joe does think that maybe she’s there to get some good material for a book. She excuses herself and, despite some locals coming to the trial to say that the murderer must be a giant who lives in the woods. It had to be the giant who killed the boy because this guy saw the giant and, later, his sheep got gutted by something that had to have more power and muscle than Justine.

No one buys this guy’s story, so Justine is not only found guilty of murder but also of being a witch, and she’s sentenced to die by hanging.

Elizabeth begs Victor not to go to the woods. Naturally, Joe follows. He runs right into Victor’s creation – the Creature. Frankenstein knows the creature killed his brother. The Creature doesn’t have an understanding of murder. He even gloats that the boy was easy to crush, and Victor should have made him stronger like he is. But, most importantly, the Creature again threatens to crush everyone around Frankenstein if he does not give him what he wants.

Let’s talk a little bit about this premise a little more in-depth. The time travel element is an interesting way to tell this story without doing all the stuff you see in every other Frankenstein story. There’s no need to go through the whole motivation behind Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments, his madness, the big lab scene that creates the monster, etc. We’ve seen that a million times. That’s pretty a-ok with me. Let’s try something different.

While we can argue exactly how well that starting premise works, what I kind of like even more is where Joe Buchanan has been dropped into this story. The creature is already made. He’s already either been rejected by or escaped from Dr. Frankenstein. He’s out in the countryside terrorizing people. Yet, what I find myself really getting into is the creature’s limited understanding of… well… anything. He thinks every person is created by Frankenstein. “You should have made him stronger, like me…” he says. When he’s directly accused by Victor of murdering William, he doesn’t know the word. Frankenstein has to restate it in a way that the creature would understand by saying he ended the life of William.

He also looks kind of like a constipated Cenobite, which, by all accounts, would also be a difficult thing to try to resolve or understand.

Yet, not only has the Creature been on the loose long enough to terrify and kill people, but he’s also gone away and now returned. Frankenstein has already attempted to destroy the Creature. Now the Creature is back, and there is one thing any person, alive, born, undead, and created, understands… It’s pretty damn lonely out there. He may not understand murder or biological birth giving life to things, but he knows he’s alone.

I’ve seen MANY Frankenstein movies, and this one follows an idea that goes all the way back to the source material. This Creature craves a mate. That’s what he wants Frankenstein to do, or he’ll crush everyone around him. He even states that he did not ask to be born monstrous. He asks one last time, but this time with a much more pointed price of refusal: make him a mate, or he will kill Elizabeth. The Creature flees before Frankenstein can shoot and destroy it.

Frankenstein is quite conflicted. He is embarrassed by the monstrosity he created. However, Joe tries to tell him that he knows science has created far worse monsters than Victor ever created. He begs Victor to show the world what he created. If for no other reason, than to help save Justine’s life before she’s taken to the gallows. On one hand, he’s embarrassed by what he’s created, but he’s also too proud to even admit that he’s ever sinned. Frankenstein even says that, as a scientist, he “cannot sin.” That’s… That’s a hell of a thing to believe, and say through gritted teeth. Joe says that he won’t be able to sleep if he doesn’t help Justine.

Later, Frankenstein writes a letter to the judge explaining that Justine is not guilty. He tells Joe that he must not deliver it straight to the judge but to Elizabeth. She’s of a better family, so the judge will more likely believe her. He is enamored with all the things that Joe has. However, Joe plays it cool by not saying he’s from the future, only that he’s from the same world Victor comes from – science. Frankenstein grabs Joe by the shoulders and says they are kindred, brothers.

And Joe is all like, Are… Are you going to kiss me?”

And Frankenstein’s all like, “Maaaaybe.”

Elsewhere, that night, the Creature is attracted to a village by way of following fireworks being set off overhead. When he arrives, he discovers a celebration in the town. He encounters some children. He demands to know if Victor created them. The kids run away, and a constable drives the Creature crazy with a whistle. To get him to stop with that goddamn whistle, he picks the constable up by the throat and rips his heart out.

When Joe arrives with the letter he was to give to Elizabeth, he discovers that the letter Victor wrote was not to reveal the existence of the creature, thus proving Justine’s innocence, but to tell her to get the hell out of town for her safety. Instead of going to ask Victor, “Like, what the hell, dude?” he decides to go to where Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron hang out. And, goddamn… Mary has got these two fancy boys eating out of her hands.

The trio of Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron are absolutely treated like philistines. They seem to basically spend their days sleeping and spend their nights up all night exploring all their holes with one another. I’ve always assumed that these three were definitely fucking around with each other. It seems especially the case for the two guys. One, Percy, believing heavily in free love, and the other, Byron, very likely a bisexual man who, unfortunately, liked very young men (read: boys). Mary probably just thought, “Ugh… all day with these fuckboys. Well, at least I’ve got them right where I want them.”

I digress. Joe wants Mary to help him clear Justine’s name, largely because she correctly assumed that the girl was too weak to commit the crime she was found guilty of. She’s curious why he seems to know so much about the book she’s working on and why he thinks she can do anything to change Justine’s situation. When Joe returns to Geneva, he’s too late. Justine is about to be hanged for murder. He tries to help her, but she says she’s already made her peace with God. He’s carried off by the townsfolk and tossed into the lake while he watches the trap door give way, and Justine hangs.

Again, Joe has a nightmarish vision of a demonic figure, but awakens to an angel.

She asks him how he knew she was working on a book. He decides to show her his supercar because, let’s face it, even in the 19th century, bitches love cherry rides. He takes her for a drive… Yeah, I guess I need to actually say that he doesn’t just reveal to Mary that he’s from the future, but EVERYONE in the Swiss countryside they drive past. Yet, he still has to tell Mary that he is from the future. He also shows her the book Frankenstein. She’s happy that her book is famous in the future. She’s also excited to discover that she marries Percy in the future.

She asks where he came from, and he points to that crazy ass cloud thing that is tearing time and space apart. He again says that he was only trying to save the world, and, instead, he created a monster… Like Victor Frankenstein. Mary believes what Victor did was an affront to God. This leads to some back and forth about whether or not Joe believes in God and how she figures his religion is science. They make out, and she seals that deal by saying, “Percy and Byron preach free love, I practice it.”

I hate to bring this up in such a tender moment, but when this movie was released, John Hurt was roughly my age. Bridget Fonda was 26. Is this movie saying that if I, too, travel in time and break the universal constants that are time and space, I can catch some pretty top shelf strange? Sweet. Let’s tear that shit up!

Anyway, Mary believes that Joe came to this exact place and time for a reason. That reason? To stop Dr. Frankenstein. I… Wait. He’s already succeeded. He built the Creature. Wh-what’s he supposed to stop? Stop him from… choking on a bone from a fish he didn’t clean properly? Stop him from having one of those really embarrassing moments when he’s doing a public speech, and he farts so loud that no one can take him seriously ever again? Stop him from eating an Arby’s Roast Beef ‘n Cheddar? Actually, that last one could cause the second one.

Anyway, yeah, I guess that’s why Joe’s here. But you know what Joe isn’t going to stop? The Creature killing Elizabeth. Both Joe and Elizabeth are separately heading to see Victor. Joe gets there first and asks Victor if he plans on killing the Creature. Frankenstein says that nope, he’s going to create him a mate.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is on the way to that little shack that Joe hangs out at while he’s in 1817. She foolishly is riding alone. When the monster begins chasing her carriage, she tries to elude him, but he stops the carriage. This causes Elizabeth to fall from the carriage. The Creature reveals that Victor made him. There is a really cool moment here. She tells the Creature that she is to be Victor’s wife, so he would not want him to hurt her. The Creature simply responds, “I know.”

Victor and Joe rush to find Elizabeth after hearing her screams when the Creature started his attack, but arrive too late. When they find her body, he says that people don’t really stand much of a chance against his creation. We’re nowhere as strong or as well-built as it was, and he made wonderful improvements. The townfolk believe Joe killed Elizabeth, but the Creature arrives to fight them off. Victor tells the Creature to be careful with Joe because he can help them.

Despite telling Victor he will not help him and the Creature create another monster, Frankenstein is more than happy to let the Creature “play” with Joe while he studies the car and figures out how to get the electricity he needs. While Frankenstein prepares everything, Joe learns from his car that there is no way for him to reverse the timeslip. He can only go to a new time and a new place. The car tells Joe he is unbound in time, and there is no way to correct that. So, Joe asks the Creature to carry some cables up to the steeple of a church Frankenstein is using and sets about a plan to send everyone here to a new time and place.

Inside, Frankenstein is working on resurrecting Elizabeth. Just as lightning strikes the church steeple, bringing Elizabeth back to life, this powers up Joe’s car. The car fires its laser that basically transports the church, Joe, Victor, and the two Creatures to the distant future to the snow-covered wasteland we saw Joe in at the beginning of the movie. Victor tells Joe to put it back the way it was, but Joe simply responds, “I can’t.”

Before Victor can shoot Joe for not being able to fix what he did, he’s distracted by Elizabeth beginning to stir. He watches as his first Creature tries to make nice with what he believes is his new mate. Now, normally, we expect to see the “Bride” reject the Creature; this time, it goes a little differently. At first, she accepts the creature for their differences. Then, it seems like she’s going to return to her beloved Victor.

Victor attempts to kill the Creature with his pistol as she approaches her beloved. However, realizing how much of a freak she is now, an abomination if you will, she pulls the pistol to her body just as Victor pulls the trigger. She dies instantly. The Creature, really pissed off now, picks Victor up, breaks his body, and then tosses him aside. Before dying, he tells Joe to kill the Creature.

Joe chases after the Creature through the frozen wasteland. Joe says that the time ruptures are now basically out of control. The only life aside from him and the Creature seems to be dead remnants of some long-gone future civilization. He goes into an underground bunker where a lot of equipment that would look right at home in Victor Frankenstein’s lab sparks and flickers. A mechanized voice welcomes Dr. Buchanan into this underground lair. While he continues to explore this bunker, the Creature busts out of a wall and says he likes this world Joe created much more than the one Victor created. It’s barren and lonely like he is.

Joe says he didn’t create this world, nor does he even know where he is. The Creature says they are in the heart of the great city, the last refuge of the human race. Joe shoots the Creature, but he cannot be killed. When asked what the Creature is that Joe must destroy, Joe says, “an abomination in the eyes of God.” Joe tries shooting the Creature again, but he’s simply unkillable. As Frankenstein destroys the stuff inside the bunker, Joe can use the lasers in the security features of the bunker to destroy the Creature.

However, the Creature, though badly burned, tells Joe he cannot be killed, for he is now unbound from life.

I wish I liked this movie more than I did. This is one of those movies that has a lot of really good ingredients. There’s a different take on the idea of scientific creation that begins with either good or neutral intentions that turn into a monster. Whether we’re talking about playing God and creating life from lifelessness or a superweapon that unravels time and space, there’s something you could work with. That might be the best element of the movie. Remember, one of the possibilities that could have happened when Oppenheimer’s bomb was first exploded was a complete molecular unraveling that would have destroyed basically everything. So, yeah, the whole guilt concept that could play into this, as well as the time/dimensional rifts that open up and snatch people, is a bit of a horror concept that is neat and not something you see too often. In fact, it kind of reminds me of The Quiet Earth.

Another thing I admire is some very good central performances by John Hurt and Raúl Juliá. They are bringing their A game to this movie. John Hurt, in particular, is doing something pretty interesting here. He’s less unhinged. Julia is going bonkers. Hurt, though, is carrying guilt and hope and awe. You believe he is truly guilty for what he’s created, despite being very complicit in providing the weapon he was asked to create. You believe he’s hopeful to find a way to do good in this past world. He’s in awe of who he’s meeting and what he’s learning about these figures in what this world purports to be, a true retelling of actual events from Mary Shelley’s novel.

While the performance is okay, Bridget Fonda is luminous as Mary Shelley. She’s drop-dead gorgeous in this, and the camera knows it. Everything from how she’s shot, to how soft everything around her is, to how she’s styled looks so beautiful and makes her seem almost like she doesn’t belong in this world. She rises above it. In one line, she rises above the preaching of her boy toys. She stands out so starkly in the trial scene that it seems so unlikely a woman like her would be interested in the gory details of a boy’s murder. What’s really unfortunate is that Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein do not interact with one another in this movie. It seems like a majorly overlooked thing. Mary Shelley is largely known for creating Dr. Frankenstein. If you are building a story that features both of these people in the same reality, you need to have them interact, if not for at least one scene.

The main problem, and it’s a catastrophic one too, is that the narrative is really not strong enough to carry this movie or give this movie a reason to exist. This movie is not without some very good elements. Again, this is a movie that has the bones of something great and clever. However, the movie, while only about 85 minutes and paced somewhat well, just kind of bland. It, at times, feels like a movie that only wants to get to the final 20 minutes, where some really interesting stuff is happening. That’s where Victor seems to make amends with his creation, Elizabeth is killed, Victor forces Joe to assist him with electricity, and Joe sacrifices himself to send everyone somewhere they can do no further harm. It wants to have that final shot of an undiscovered country and the self-imposed purgatory that this guilty scientist commits himself to, but the first 60 minutes just can’t help support that loneliness that Dr. Joe Buchanan will feel after he makes his great sacrifice.

Basically, he’s now the Creature. He’s forced to walk alone without a mate or anyone else who can connect with him for the rest of his existence. Hell, he might be forever now as he’s time unbound. When the Creature asked him who he was in the big final moment in their climactic battle, Joe should have said that he is now the Creature. Instead, he identifies with Frankenstein. There’s absolutely a parallel here worth exploring, and the movie, at times, did, but the climax should have had Joe realize that he wasn’t creator and destroyer; he’s now the creature alone in the world.

So, the movie has its moments, but it’s not the big final moment I was hoping for when it came to Roger Corman’s directorial career. It’s a whimper with some flashes of brilliance. I’m not sorry I finally saw this movie after 35 years of curiosity gazing into that multi-colored eye of the Creature on the VHS box at the video store, but it’s not one I will rush to ever watch again.

Aaaaand I won’t have to! That’s because there’s another movie that I probably shouldn’t watch again, but I will because I like ya. We’re traveling into the varied multiverse that is the land of the Marvel movies. But this isn’t just any ol’ Marvel movie. It’s the one that REALLY belongs on this blog. Oh yes. We’re gonna quack like it’s 1986 next week. I’m gonna review Howard the Duck.

I… I don’t have a pithy or clever conclusion to this blog. I’m gonna do Howard the Duck next week. That’s enough of a way to finish this.