Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein, or under one of it's other alternate titles like The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, La Maldicion de Frankenstein or The Curse of Frankenstein which was the title of the version I saw, starts in Dr. Frankenstein's (Dennis Price) laboratory where he & his assistant Morpho (writer & director Jesus Franco) have just transplanted a human brain into his silver skinned monster (Fernando Bilbao) that has been able to give it the power of speech. However, they are attacked by a blind half bird half human woman named Melissa (Anne Libert) who was created by a mad reincarnated scientist named Cagliostro (Howard Vernon) who attack Frankenstein & steal his monster, before he dies Dr. Frankenstein tries to tell Dr. Seward (Alberto Dables) about what has happened, along with Inspector Tanner (Daniel White) Seward decides to investigate. Shortly after Dr. Frankenstein's daughter Vera (Beatriz Savon) turns up & with the help of her assistant Abigail (Doris Thomas) reanimates her Father who begs her to save his monster as Cagliostro is a reincarnated madman intent on creating a perfect female using various carefully chosen body parts & have her mate with his monster to create a 'master race' to replace all of humanity! As the clues point to the 'Castle of Barna' can Cagliostro be stopped?
This Spanish French co-production was written & directed by Jesus Franco who also appears in the opening sequence, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Franco fan usually but Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein isn't too bad & at least he tries to inject some horror amidst the nudity & surrealism. Apparently this film exists in a couple of different versions & the one I an commenting on is the 'hot' uncut version with all the nudity intact which probably consist of someone undressing, the naked female monster, Melissa's naked body getting a few camera pans up & down it & a few rituals involving naked people. The script doesn't play like an ordinary Frankenstein adaptation as you can probably tell from my synopsis, it's all rather strange, disjointed, nonsensical & downright bizarre at times but having said that it does entertain to an extent. What is Melissa all about? She is supposedly a half bird with blue feathers & sharp claws for no good reason as far as I could tell. Cagliostro uses 'Magnetic Waves' to control people's minds but has to do it through Melissa which again is just pointless. What are those zombie types doing just standing there doing nothing in particular? Why does the monster have silver skin? Why all the baffling incantations & rituals? In a odd sort of way these surreal elements work on a basic level & Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is watchable in a way I can't quite explain. It moves along at a fair pace & never becomes boring or dull which is one good thing about it. As far as the nudity goes there isn't much to talk about actually, one naked body is pretty much the same as another although the inclusion of naked breasts & vagina's isn't necessarily a bad thing & for the girls some bloke gets his wedding tackle out. Now in terms of violence & gore it could have been bloodier, there is a brain in a jar, a severed with a sword hand, a cheap decapitation & a scene where the monster brutally whips a naked man & woman whom are tied together (don't ask). Director Franco shows that he probably would be better off directing traffic as he uses the annoying day-for-night process & he puts constant Owl hooting on the soundtrack to try & convince us that it's the middle of the night! He uses plenty of zooms which seem to go in & out of focus at random & as a whole doesn't do much to add atmosphere to the proceedings apart from a couple of nicely lit shots. Technically Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is cheap & cheerful, some of the costumes look alright while others like bed sheets, some of the locations are decent, the cinematography is OK & I must admit that the music really got on my nerve's. The special effects are far from special, that lab skeleton is obviously plastic & the monster just looks daft. The acting is of low calibre by everyone involved. Overall I thought it was watchable in a daft & silly but entertaining & fun sort of way. Much better than most of the other stuff I've seen from Franco anyway although that in itself is far from a recommendation. Worth a watch for Euro horror fans if you can find a copy.
This Spanish French co-production was written & directed by Jesus Franco who also appears in the opening sequence, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Franco fan usually but Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein isn't too bad & at least he tries to inject some horror amidst the nudity & surrealism. Apparently this film exists in a couple of different versions & the one I an commenting on is the 'hot' uncut version with all the nudity intact which probably consist of someone undressing, the naked female monster, Melissa's naked body getting a few camera pans up & down it & a few rituals involving naked people. The script doesn't play like an ordinary Frankenstein adaptation as you can probably tell from my synopsis, it's all rather strange, disjointed, nonsensical & downright bizarre at times but having said that it does entertain to an extent. What is Melissa all about? She is supposedly a half bird with blue feathers & sharp claws for no good reason as far as I could tell. Cagliostro uses 'Magnetic Waves' to control people's minds but has to do it through Melissa which again is just pointless. What are those zombie types doing just standing there doing nothing in particular? Why does the monster have silver skin? Why all the baffling incantations & rituals? In a odd sort of way these surreal elements work on a basic level & Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is watchable in a way I can't quite explain. It moves along at a fair pace & never becomes boring or dull which is one good thing about it. As far as the nudity goes there isn't much to talk about actually, one naked body is pretty much the same as another although the inclusion of naked breasts & vagina's isn't necessarily a bad thing & for the girls some bloke gets his wedding tackle out. Now in terms of violence & gore it could have been bloodier, there is a brain in a jar, a severed with a sword hand, a cheap decapitation & a scene where the monster brutally whips a naked man & woman whom are tied together (don't ask). Director Franco shows that he probably would be better off directing traffic as he uses the annoying day-for-night process & he puts constant Owl hooting on the soundtrack to try & convince us that it's the middle of the night! He uses plenty of zooms which seem to go in & out of focus at random & as a whole doesn't do much to add atmosphere to the proceedings apart from a couple of nicely lit shots. Technically Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is cheap & cheerful, some of the costumes look alright while others like bed sheets, some of the locations are decent, the cinematography is OK & I must admit that the music really got on my nerve's. The special effects are far from special, that lab skeleton is obviously plastic & the monster just looks daft. The acting is of low calibre by everyone involved. Overall I thought it was watchable in a daft & silly but entertaining & fun sort of way. Much better than most of the other stuff I've seen from Franco anyway although that in itself is far from a recommendation. Worth a watch for Euro horror fans if you can find a copy.