Frankenstein Unbound Movie Review

It took Roger Corman 19 years to decide to make a comeback, and he did it Corman style, completing the shooting in seven weeks, writing the screenplay himself, and making a better-than-B “B” movie. It's 2031 and Dr. Joseph Buchanan is about to perfect the ultimate humanitarian weapon. No splattering, no charring, just instantaneous, implosionary, vaporization. How kind…poof! You're gone. Unfortunately, the experiment ruptures the time continuum and lands the Doc in Geneva, 1817. Fortunately, he runs in to fellow scientist Victor Frankenstein (Raul Julia), whose experiment has also gone haywire. Seems that, in trying to create life, Victor has constructed a monster who (although cool enough to wear eyeballs with stitches) ultimately kills Victor's six-year-old brother. Promising to cut out the doin’ in if he has someone to do, the monster bullies the bad doctor into making him a mate. Buchanan gets to rub elbows with poet Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and falls for future Frankenstein authoress Mary Shelley. The monster is a surprisingly touching sort of brute and the climatic, apocalyptic time trip is sure to grab you. The atmosphere is striking, the effects are fun, the actors have fun, and the plot twists fly. Corman is back! Based on a novel by Brian Aldiss. AKA: Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound.

1990 (R) 86m/C John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, Michael Hutchence, Catherine Rabett, Nick Brimble, Catherine Corman, Mickey Knox; D: Roger Corman; W: Roger Corman, F.X. Feeney; C: Armando Nannuzzi, Michael Scott; M: Carl Davis; V: Terri Treas. VHS, Beta, LV FOX