HallowScream - Frankenstein (1931)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and for today's HallowScream, we'll be diving in to a Universal horror classic: the 1931 film Frankenstein starring Colin Clive and Boris Karloff. 

        The movie tells of Dr. Henry Frankenstein, who has been going about stealing body parts from the many graves in the local cemetery. Said parts, which are assembled in the form of a very large man. Henry sends his aide, a hunchback named Fritz, after a brain to put into his creation. Unfortunately, Fritz loses the brain he was sent for, and thus he is forced to grab the abnormal brain of a criminal, which was being used to compare the difference between it and an ordinary brain. 

        We also meet Elizabeth, who is Henry's fiancee, who is concerned over his well being, and both she and Victor, who is a friend of Henry's, go and speak with Dr. Waldman, who is aware of Henry's interest in creating life. The three head to Henry's lab, all while a thunderstorm breaks out, and witness Henry's experiment come to fruition. And, yes, it's here where we get the iconic "It's alive! It's alive, it's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" line that is heavily tied to most iterations of Frankenstein. Now, the creation seems to be childlike in nature, despite its grotesque appearance, but it's scared off when Fritz antagonizes it with a lit torch. Luckily, it's subdued by an administered drug, and collapses onto the laboratory floor. 

         Henry, exhausted, is taken home to prepare for his wedding, while Waldman keeps watching on the creature with the intent to destroy it. However, the creature strangles Waldman to death and escapes, inadvertently drowning a little girl named Maria. The villagers, including Maria's father, are upset and form a lynch mob to end the creature for good, leading to the climactic scene at the windmill, which is set ablaze and the creature is supposedly destroyed. Henry and Elizabeth marry, and their union is celebrated at Castle Frankenstein, ending the movie. 

         Frankenstein is a genuine horror classic. Colin Clive is brilliant as Dr. Frankenstein, while Boris Karloff is an utter nightmare as Frankenstein's monster. The makeup effects used for the monster are truly iconic and have continued to define the way the monster is portrayed in subsequent Frankenstein films. A must-watch for the Halloween season, I'm giving Frankenstein a rating of 5/5. Now, stay tuned because there's more Frankenstein to come later on during HallowScream. But, as for the next review? Tune in when I take a look at Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead.