The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957)

Having enjoyed success with the sci-fi horror film The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), the Hammer studio was keen to further exploit the apparent appeal of darker content – Quatermass had notably been one of the early recipients of the ‘X’ certificate – amongst the British public of the time. In the early stretches of the decade, horror cinema had mostly gone out of fashion, with the popular big-screen monsters now being of scientific or outer space origin. After Quatermass’ success, Hammer decided to resurrect the Frankenstein property, it being the blueprint fiction work for science leading to terror. The tragic creature of Mary Shelley’s creation had become a figure of mockery by the time of its 1948 encounter with Abbott and Costello, but Universal still held copyright despite the property’s apparent lack of profitability. As such, the script of Hammer’s reboot had to have as little to do with both Universal’s films and Shelley’s original novel as possible…

Full review at Sound on Sight, as part of “31 Days of Horror”