WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS I saw this film a little under a year ago. It's a preposterous retelling of the Frankenstein story. In this film a Dr. Shwartz produces his "Shwartz Serum", a drug which helps patients bodies accept organ transplants. Enter our hero, Karl Schein (whose name apparently means "handsome" or "pretty" in german, or so my girlfriend tells me). Schein's sister was in a car wreck and needs an organ transplant. Without a suitable donor, Schein turns to Dr. Shwartz. Unfortunately, the evil Dr. Frankenstein steals the serum through a secret door, and Shwartz cannot produce more! Yes, incredibly, Shwartz has no way of reproducing his bottle of serum...apparently he didn't take notes. Anyways, Shcein, a reporter, begins to investigate this and a series of deaths that involve organ stealing. Frankenstein has created a monster, named "Mosaic" after his being made of many different body parts. Frankenstein uses this serum to keep the organs in Mosaic from "exploding"! Basically, what follows is a series of sadistic rape/murders committed by Mosaic...apparently he has a random appetite for this sort of thing. Anyways, eventually the whole "Shwartz Serum/Dr. Frankenstein" connection is figured out and good ole' Mosaic is a hunted man. The police's answer for dealing with Mosaic: wait for his organs to be rejected by his body when the serum's effect wears off. Our hero, Karl, uses the effective strategy of pushing Mosaic and running away; eventually the monster justs blows up when his organs reject! I don't know which is sadder: a monster who can't kill the wimpy Karl, or the fact that the hero and the police's solution is to wait the monster out!. Highlights of this film include a random, stock footage race track sequence; the heroine's incessant "Karl! Karl!"; Dr. Frankenstein's 1890's look in a movie set in 1972; and a ridculous "Mosaic goes to a prostitute" sequence in which the heavily stitched up Mosaic hires a prostitute, who demands extra due to his appearance, seems willing to ignore it. Mosaic is instructed to leave the room to get undressed, at which point he returns. The prostitute *still* doesn't mind his appearance until he approaches the bed; then she suddenly decides to resist. Mosaic then promptly kills her. This film is ridiculous, and the murders are pretty mysoginistic; if you can get past that, the plot, dialogue, production values and FX are incredibly funny.
Review of Frankenstein '80
