Doctor Hackenstein

My review was written in December 1988 after watching the movie on Forum video cassette.

Even with a new name, you can't keep the Frankenstein monster down for long as "Dr. Hackenstein" present a pleasant sex-switch comedy spoof in the vein of Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".

Pic is set in 1909 with David Muir as the good doctor, intent on bringing his wife (Sylvia Lee Baker) back to life with the aid of spare body parts. Chief victims are a trio of comely girls who stay the night at Hackenstein Manor after their car crashes.

With topless footage (a bit incongruous concerning the femme monster) and gore added, pic is still quaint with okay period atmosphere and plenty of black humor. Muir is effective, playing the role straight, while in the supporting cast the late Anne Ramsey acts opposite hubby Logan Ramsey as a pair of grotesque graverobbers.

Color scheme here is rather drab and film probably would have been more effective (though less saleable) in black & white a la Brooks' classic homage.

After crashing their car, sisters Wendy and Leslie (Dyanne DiRosario and Catherine Davis Cox), brother Alex (John Alexis), and cousin Melanie (Stacey Travis) seek refuge at the nearby home of Dr. Elliot Hackenstein (David Muir) - which is good news for the doctor, since he requires limbs and organs from three healthy young women in order to rebuild and reanimate the body of his dead wife.

Doctor Hackenstein was clearly modelled after Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), which injected the standard Frankenstein tale with nudity, humour and outrageous gore. Unfortunately, this film isn't wild or wacky enough to distinguish itself like Gordon's classic did, while Muir as the titular mad scientist makes for a very poor man's Herbert West.

For much of the running time, it's a bloodless and rather tepid affair, with very few laughs and only a touch of nudity courtesy of DiRosario as Wendy. The final act dials things up a notch or two, Sylvia Lee Baker as Hackenstein's stitched together wife showing us why Elliot is so keen to bring her back from the dead (she has a nice rack!), with a nice touch of the macabre as the sisters wake to find that they have been given the arms and legs of a man (provided by a pair of inept grave-robbers, played by Anne and Logan Ramsey), but it's definitely a case of too little, too late. The film needed to up the ante from the start in order to make an impression.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

This is far better than it has any right to be. But that's not to say that it is flawless. There are definite Vibes of both bride of Re-Animator and frankenhooker, but it does not come close to those films in terms of Gore, comedy, or overall sense of fun. There were a few jokes that got a chuckle out of me, and the little bit of Gore that is in it does look alright. Far from the worst thing the Troma team has ever distributed. But a far cry from what the typical gorehound or horror-comedy enthusiast would be expecting. I technically rate this of 5.5, but as Imdb doesn't count half's, I upped it to a 6.

Take your basic Frankenstein flick, inject some Reanimator (but not the good parts), and you have Doctor Hackenstein. Certainly, this was obviously inspired by aforementioned films but it never materializes as anything special on its own.

A scientist accidentally kills his wife, so the whole movie takes place over the course of one night as he attempts to revive his wife. To revive his wife, he decides to chop off body parts from some women that have become stranded and, coincidentally, decide to stay the night at his place.

I can't really say the acting is bad, nor is the directing. Everything here is just way too standard. What little attempts there are at humor actually work (check out the scene when Hackenstein keeps hiding behind his deaf assistant because she would undoubtedly be very upset if she saw him clutching a woman and a needle), but that's hardly enough to recommend this film. The music is decent, what blood that's there is decent, and the cast looks quite good. And for half of the time, I was even entertained by this film. But I never felt like this was anything more than a time waster. Avoidable.

Try Frankenhooker instead.

This movie features an o.k. score and a not bad performance by David Muir as Dr. Hackenstein. The beginning and end credits show along with the most of the actors and the "special effects" that this is a low budget movie. There is nothing in this movie that you could not find in other mad scientist, horror/comedy, or low budget movies. Not special for any nude scene buffs or bad movie lovers either. This movie is simply here. Anne Ramsey and Phillis Diller are nothing to get excited about as well. If you are curious as I was and can actually find this, you will realize the truth of the one line summary.