Once upon a time, I viewed a copy of Jess Franco's Virgin among the Living Dead. I thought the movie was slow, boring and utterly pointless. Henceforth, I made it my firm resolution to avoid any movie directed by Jess Franco again. However after catching "the Awful Dr Orloff" on tv I have over the years become an admirer of his unique filmic style and now suprisingly claim that Jess Franco can be considered an Auteur of Euro-trash cinema.
The Erotic rites of Frankenstein is a very hard movie to track down. As far as I know it has never been released in the UK or America. Therefore, I was lucky enough to obtain a good widescreen copy on VHS from a car-boot sale. (These thing's always turn up in carboot sales!) The movie is a very imaginative and bizarre reinterpretation of Shelley's classic horror tale with and overtly sexual subtext.
Dr Frankenstein finally bestows the gift of speech upon his creation. Unfortunately his triumph is short lived when he is attacked by a weird naked vulture woman who tears him to shreds in his laboratory. Vera Frankenstein investigating his death reanimates her fathers corpse and discovers that his murderer is none other than Cagliostro the Wizard who has stolen the monster to aid his plans for world domination. Vera sets out to revenge her father but alas falls into the clutches of the wicked and very perverse Cagliostro....
This film contains many odd scenes and speeches from the characters. The oft mentioned scene of a bare chested and silver skinned Monster mercilessly whipping a naked couple over a spiked floor is suprising to say the least. The naked vulture woman's attack and slaughter of several naked men too is unexpected. As is the appearance of zombies at Cagliostro's castle. For once in a Frankenstein film it is the Doctor himself who is reanimated not less than three times and eventually becomes his own monster.
I enjoyed this movie - Franco's obsessions with S&M and naked women provide a spice to a very tired tale.
The Erotic rites of Frankenstein is a very hard movie to track down. As far as I know it has never been released in the UK or America. Therefore, I was lucky enough to obtain a good widescreen copy on VHS from a car-boot sale. (These thing's always turn up in carboot sales!) The movie is a very imaginative and bizarre reinterpretation of Shelley's classic horror tale with and overtly sexual subtext.
Dr Frankenstein finally bestows the gift of speech upon his creation. Unfortunately his triumph is short lived when he is attacked by a weird naked vulture woman who tears him to shreds in his laboratory. Vera Frankenstein investigating his death reanimates her fathers corpse and discovers that his murderer is none other than Cagliostro the Wizard who has stolen the monster to aid his plans for world domination. Vera sets out to revenge her father but alas falls into the clutches of the wicked and very perverse Cagliostro....
This film contains many odd scenes and speeches from the characters. The oft mentioned scene of a bare chested and silver skinned Monster mercilessly whipping a naked couple over a spiked floor is suprising to say the least. The naked vulture woman's attack and slaughter of several naked men too is unexpected. As is the appearance of zombies at Cagliostro's castle. For once in a Frankenstein film it is the Doctor himself who is reanimated not less than three times and eventually becomes his own monster.
I enjoyed this movie - Franco's obsessions with S&M and naked women provide a spice to a very tired tale.