Frankenstein '80

Frankenstein '80 (1972)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Italian horror film has a nice scientist creating a formula that will allow organs to have a better rate at living in a new body but the evil Dr. Frankenstein steals it so that he can create a human who turns out to be a sexual predator who goes on a killing rampage. If you like goofy, gory and sex filled Italian horror films then you'll probably enjoy this one for some mindless entertainment. The story is pretty stupid and familiar but I liked the added touches of gore and sex. The monster has a thing for beautiful women so this leads to several nudity filled scenes with the monster attacking women both sexually and physically. The film drags in certain areas and goes on a bit too long but overall exploitation freaks should enjoy it.

This is yet another of a strange series of films that attempted to combine Frankenstein's monster and eroticism (because, of course, nothing is more sexy than a monstrous amalgamation of reanimated dead tissue). Naturally, this cycle of films was mostly Italian with some German and American co-productions here and there (and Spaniard Jess Franco making his typically insane contribution with "The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein"). The best of these films was probably "Flesh for Frankenstein" with honorable mention going to "Lady Frankenstein". This is probably the worst--or at least the most offensive--film of the cycle.

Dr. Frankenstein has stolen a formula from another doctor that prevents the rejection of transplanted organs. For reasons that eluded me in the English language soundtrack, he uses it to create a reanimated monster he calls "Mosaic". "Mosaic" is the horniest Frankenstein monster ever. All he does is bone women--sometimes literally: he brains his first victim, a female butcher, with a giant bone then has his way with her lifeless body. This movie is more ridiculous than offensive though. Like when the monster steals money from the doctor to buy a prostitute, who he ends up raping and strangling anyway.

The movie has a couple washed up American and English actors (Jon Richardson and Gordon Mitchell). The monster is a played by a Greek wrestler with scarry goop plastered on his face (which strangely doesn't seem to alarm any of the women he encounters). The women all have nice bodies, but are otherwise bordering on unattractive. The only recognizable face is Dalila DiLazzaro, an Italian beauty who actually got to play the bride of Frankenstein the very next year in "Flesh for Frankenstein", and went on to appear in "Night Train Murders", "The Pyjama Girl Case", and Dario Argento's "Phenomenon", all of which are infinitely better movies than this one. This is only for die-hard Frankenstein sex fans I'm afraid.

After years of work, Professor Schwarz (Roberto Fizz) has perfected his life-saving transplant serum. He keeps a bottle of the priceless serum, known cryptically as "The Schwarz Serum", in the staff fridge. Shockingly, the concoction is stolen within minutes!

Meanwhile, the world's ugliest man (Xiro Papas) is murdering women and removing their vital organs. The police are baffled.

FRANKENSTEIN '80 is a preposterous Italian horror film. Apparently made for no other reason than to show various bloody organ removals, the testicle transplant is a "highlight".

WARNING: Contains violent liver theft, nudity, garbled monster chatter, nudity, and icky monster love!

Highly recommended for those who seek to watch every movie ever made with the name Frankenstein in the title. All others may want to look elsewhere...

I can only wonder what Mary Shelley would have made of Frankenstein '80, one of the trashier movies to appropriate her classic literary creation for its own ends. Directed by Mario Mancini, this cheesy, sleazy piece of Italian schlock sees Dr. Otto Frankenstein (Gordon Mitchell) stealing a special serum that prevents organ transplant rejection, using it in the creation of a patchwork monster called Mosaic (Xiro Papas), who proceeds to not just kill beautiful women, but rape them too (in an early scene, we see Frankenstein preparing a nice set of gonads for his creature—how thoughtful of him).

With a rampant and very randy monster, there's certainly no shortage of sex and violence in this tasteless and often rather camp horror, but as delightfully deviant as it all sounds, Frankenstein '80 actually manages to be a rather dreary affair for much of the time, thanks to uneven pacing, lifeless performances, a weak script that dwells far too much on the investigative activities of a reporter called Karl (John Richardson), and a lack of decent gore: a lot of the killings are frustratingly bloodless, the surgical scenes are shot from a low angle so as to conceal the fact that Mitchell is pulling the organs from a tray hidden behind the body, and in one particularly inept scene, in which a victim has his head bashed against a wall, the ruptured bag' that provides the squirt of blood can clearly be seen attached to the actor's forehead. Only a brief shot of a severed head in a fridge genuinely delivers the grisly goods.

Thankfully, there is quite a bit of welcome nudity from a bevy of busty women to help alleviate some of the tedium, including a lengthy strip-tease routine that does nothing to advance the plot; but even with all of the bare female flesh on display, Frankenstein '80 is a tough watch, the last half an hour of obvious padding leading up to the monster's inevitable demise being particularly dull.

In 1818 when Mary Shelley wrote the supernatural tale that would go on to make her famous forever, it's difficult to imagine that she could ever have conceived that over 150 years later, her novel Frankenstein would be reinterpreted as a detective story about a sex-crazed rapist monster. Well, seeing as this version of the tale was made in Italy in the early 70's that's exactly what happened. Frankenstein '80 is one of the cycle of erotic Frankenstein movies made in Europe at the time. But this one also adds in a serial killer detective element which sort of ties it in with the giallo and poliziotteschi films that were very popular in Italy at the time. So it's a strange hybrid of specific sub-genres.

It's certainly a very trashy film. The dubbing is particularly deranged, while the film overall has a pretty cheap aesthetic. However, it's a gore and sleaze horror film at the end of the day and really has to be judged on these merits. And to be fair, Frankenstein '80 has plenty of both of those criteria; usually at the same time. The story is ludicrous of course. But I suspect very few of you will be watching this for its complexity or depth. It's more or less a slasher movie with Frankenstein's monster as the killer.

Not great but good mindless fun.