mary shellys frank aob1

How has the Frankenstein franchise changed from Whale’s until Branagh’s version?

This film was made 1994 which was a time where period dramas were very popular so there were loads being made. This is because they were low budget and easy to make, plus they attracted large audiences so grossed big prophets. The costumes in the original movie did not reflect the Victorian fashion as much as the remake so this newer movie approaches the story differently with its style and visual representation.

The way horror films are made today we find it harder to class this film as part of the genre as modern horror films have lots more blood and shocking visuals so it is easier to class Mary Shelly's Frankenstein as a period drama than a horror. Some particular scenes in the film make it part of the horror genre such as the scene were the monster rips out the heart of his creators wife.

The difference between the two movies is that the one from the 1930's is a sequal so starts have way through the story. This makes it a shorter film than the remake. The length of the remake allows it to focus on more emotional issues than the first. There are issues of loss as frankenstein looses his wife and we see him go though a period of madness as he isolates himself and obsesses with the creation of a monster. The oridginal focused on the creation of the moster as the movie showed the idea of what science could do b in the remake we have gone past the point of scientific wonder so if it focused on that it would seem outdated and would not apeal to the modern audience. the scenes in which the monster is created has changed a lot in comparison with the original. back then the thought of bringing the dead back to life was enough for the audiences expectations so the scene did not need great visuals to make an impact but now we know that a monster will be created and the science is no longer new to us so for the new scenes to make an impact it needs to be visually stunning and have a complicated explanation of how it is done.

Audience with the advance in technology films have become more visual and the audience has come to expect that a film will have lots of visual effects and if it does not it would be seen as boring. For example 'Bride of Frankenstein' ended with the creation of the woman but the remake had the woman kill herself with an oil lamp so lots of pyrotechnics were used to appeal to the audience. The film tries to appeal to a large audience as it covers a number of genres besides horror, fans of period dramas would like this and so would people who like love stories and emotional dramas, The reason why it resembles a period drama is that it was directed by Kenneth Branagh who is known for making various period dramas. There is also a sense of action in some scenes like the explosive ending. Some people watch movies because of the actors in it, Robert de Nero played the monster and is a popular A list celebrity so attracts a bigger audience. Some people would see the movie because of John Cleese's part, he is known for comedy movies such as 'a fish called wanda' so some people maybe mislead to think that the movie was a comedy.

With Frankenstein being made such a well known franchise everyone knows of monster and most would know the story so the audience would possibly know what the expect and therefore they would not enjoy it as much as audiences of the originals.

One thing that has degraded the film is that the director abandoned the iconography of the monster which was created by Boris Karloff, when we hear the word Frankenstein we think of the square forehead and the bolts in the neck but in the remake the monster has no resemblance to that, instead the monster is bald, has a deformed face and lots of stitches.