Jess/Jesùs Franco (also known under approximately two dozen of pseudonyms) must be – hands down – the most audience-dividing filmmaker in history! Regardless which one of his more than 200 (!) movies that you research here on this website results in ultra-contradictory viewers' opinions. Some claim that he was a severely underrated visionary and progressive artist of surrealism, while others carelessly downgrade him to one of the most incompetent and perverted amateur directors of all times. And me? I generally tend to agree with the first bunch of people, although admittedly I can sometimes just enjoy a certain Franco movie when I'm in a very tolerant mood and/or under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. "The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein" is arguably one of Jess' most challenging efforts. It definitely contains several ingenious and innovative aspects, but at the same time you can't get passed the numerous 'what the hell' moments and almost laughable story development. Speaking of alcohol, I assume that good old Jess had to be quite drunk as well to come up with a scenario like this. Dig this: Doctor Frankenstein is busy minding his own business and joyfully creating a monster when, suddenly, a ferocious blind bird-lady invades his laboratory, kills him and takes off with his semi-resurrected monster. The bird-lady turns out to be an acolyte of the evil wizard Cagliostro who intends to build a whole race of super-monsters, males and females! I'm not entirely sure why, but I reckon it's primarily to organize massive S&M orgies and gradually obtain world domination or something. After all, isn't that the goal all evil wizards pursue? Anyways, Frankenstein's daughter Vera wants to avenge her father, but she's rapidly captured by Cagliostro and – through a lot of whipping – forced to fabricate the first female mate for the monster. What makes this film so unfathomable, I think, is the wide variety of colorful and flamboyant characters. The Bird Lady, impeccably depicted by Anne Libert, is a fascinating and disturbingly loyal shrew with bright green feathers on her arms. She's blind but sees through the hypnotic mind of her master. Cagliostro, played by Franco's shadow Howard Vernon, is a skinny freak with heinous eyes and he has a ridiculous bush of pubic hair glued to his chin. The Frankenstein monster here is, for whatever unknown reason, painted silver and stumbles around the sets like he doesn't really fit into the story. Vera Frankenstein disrespectfully brings her father back from the dead no less than three times, just to gain some additional information about his slayer and it is all for nothing, since she is soon captured and whipped. Franco does succeed in – occasionally - generating a genuinely macabre atmosphere, mainly through misty forests, uncanny costumes and sinister musical guidance. And regarding the psychedelic sexual content? Well, let's just state that Franco unquestionably was a provocative pioneer in this department. "The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein" is one of the few movies that actually make me wonder: what would Mary Shelley think?
Footnote: there exists a heavily cut version entitled "The Curse of Frankenstein", not to be confused with the legendary Hammer classic starring Peter Cushing. In this version, most of the sexual content has been replaced with an additional sub plot about Lina Romay (in her very first appearance in a Franco movie) as a gypsy girl wandering through the woods and receiving mental messages from Cagliostro. The sub plot leads absolutely nowhere, but hey, what else did you expect?
Footnote: there exists a heavily cut version entitled "The Curse of Frankenstein", not to be confused with the legendary Hammer classic starring Peter Cushing. In this version, most of the sexual content has been replaced with an additional sub plot about Lina Romay (in her very first appearance in a Franco movie) as a gypsy girl wandering through the woods and receiving mental messages from Cagliostro. The sub plot leads absolutely nowhere, but hey, what else did you expect?