FRANKENSTEIN – THE REAL STORY
Switzerland, end of the 19th century. In the privacy of his laboratory, Dr. Frankenstein makes a fantastic discovery: the possibility to give life to inanimate objects. Driven by an excessive pride, he decides to challenge God by creating a superior man. However, when his creature starts to breathe, Frankenstein understands the awful scale of his mistake: he gave life to nothing but a ridiculous and horrible caricature of a human being, lacking instinct and reason. The monster escapes the laboratory and flees in the forest, tortured by fear and pain. A lonesome blind man takes care of him and teaches him to speak, but everyone who meets him is so afraid that they try to destroy him, in vain. The creature wanders randomly on roads, looking for love and understanding. By chance, it meets Frankenstein’s brother, but accidentally kills him. Feeling that the monster is alive, and that it also killed his brother, the scientist understands that it is his duty to repair his mistake: what he created, must now perish by its hand!
If DRACULA is the figurehead of fantastic, FRANKENSTEIN is with no doubt the one of science fiction. The novel by Mary SHELLEY, written when she was only 19 years ol, has already been adapted multiple times for the cinema, but it is rare to see such a faithful adaptation. The screenwriter and director David WICKES turns the trend around by portraying the REAL Frankenstein’s monster: an innocent creature looking for his humanity. David WICKES directed the TV film JEKYLL AND HYDE, in which Cherryl LADD and Michael CAINE play together, as well as the series JACK THE RIPPER, THE HITCHHICKER and PHILIP MARLOWE, PRIVATE EYE. Dr. Frankenstein is interpreted by Patrick BERGIN (PATRIOT GAMES, SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY, LOVE CRIMES), and its creature by Randy QUAID (MISSOURI BREAKS, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, FOOL FOR LOVE, DAYS OF THUNDER).