Tag Archives: hubris

Nuts-N-Bolts-N-Hos

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Don’t you just love saying “Frankenhooker?”

I may possibly have watched Frankenhooker on a certain online video platform where it probably shouldn’t be running. I watched it with Spanish subtitles. The Spanish title was just as elegant and flowing as “Frankenhooker”, if even more shocking and vulgar: “Frankenputa.”

The VHS box cover for Frankenhooker used to be on display at the video store near my college. It had a button you could press and one of those electronic voices you find on very expensive greeting cards, very manly, would exclaim “Wanna Date?” It would make me burst into hysterical laughter for no good reason.
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The Bride’s Bloody Revolt

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I expected Showtime’s Penny Dreadful to be an overwrought, edgy attempt at League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the film adaptation, not the comic book series by Alan Moore, which cannot be outdone in ‘edginess’). I expected to see a team of classic Victorian characters fighting crime, and some standard twists, turns and whatnots.

I was wrong. Penny Dreadful is a complicated, high gothic horror thrill ride with a mix of classic public domain characters and original characters, brought to life by amazing actors. Eva Green as Vanessa Ives is an absolute revelation, she should be an icon. And Timothy Dalton should play every last Victorian occult researcher/protector of mankind. Continue reading →

Fritz’s Found Footage Frankies

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Frankenstein’s Army

Year Released: 2013
Directed By: Richard Raaphorst
Written By: Richard Raaphorst, Miguel Tejada-Flores, Chris W, Mitchell,
Notable Cast: Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse, Robert Gwilym, Alexander Mercury, Luke Newberry, Hon Ping Tang, Andrei Zayats, Mark Stevenson, Klaus Lucas, Cristina Catalina, Jan de Lukowicz, Zdenek Barinka
Plot: Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of super-soldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades — a desperate Hitler’s last ghastly ploy to escape defeat. – SOURCE: imdb.com “Production”

Commentary: Frankenstein’s Army is a delightful oddity of steampunk carnage, and a baffling one, too. Taking place during the end of World War II, and following a troop of Soviet soldiers, the filmmakers decided to use the found footage format to tell the story. Continue reading →

Over at the Frankenstein Place (Reprise)

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Last night I attended a production of the Rocky Horror Show, Richard O’Brien’s stage musical later turned into the infamous cult sensation, at Salt Lake Community College’s Grand Theater. Overall, a job well done!

Production and cast:

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img_20181018_144215757_hdr.jpg Continue reading →

Don’t Dream It, Victor

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There’s not much I can add to illuminate what’s known and what’s loved about Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’m pretty sure that if you are reading this, you know this movie and its music all too well.

Maybe I can offer this: Dr. Frankenfurter is the fabulous ultimate expression of Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein. Where one is an odious, cowardly mass of 19th century anxieties and weak egotism, the other’s rampant self-centeredness is perfect and glorious. Both scientists create their own downfalls, but only one does it with heels and fishnets, and with a lack of remorse that’s honest and goddamn decadent. Continue reading →

You Best Believe I’m in Love, L-U-V

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Silvia Hoeks as Luv, Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049

I think the Blade Runner series fits quite well in the canon of fiction inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, even if Philip K. Dick’s mind wandered elsewhere.

Human beings with god complexes creating biological, artificial lives and being horrible parents? Alienated and angry offspring suffering and murdering for their parents’ sins? It was all there when Rutger Hauer’s Roy kissed his creator on the lips. Continue reading →

This Monster, This Superhero

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This panel moved me. She wants to join Frankenstein in the battle against evil. We all want to take up arms and live a life of superheroic adventure.

In 2004 Chaos magician and rock star comic book creator Grant Morrison brought to life a vibrant, weird and understated superhero magnum opus: Seven Soldiers.

Morrison took the name of an old Golden Age superhero team (The Seven Soldiers of Victory) and he took inspiration from a 1970’s period in DC Comics where strange, lush horror comics were en vogue. Continue reading →

Lumbering Doofus or Ninja? (Frankenstein, Chapters 22-24)

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Cover of Tor Books edition of Frankenstein by fantasy art master Boris Vallejo

In the home stretch, and here are my takeaways on the end of the novel! Of course, I don’t really have much more to say, not about Vic all of a sudden becoming a self-righteous avenger of justice, dramatically appealing to “spirits” etc etc.  What a drama queen! I don’t have much to say about the showdown in the Arctic, either, except that Vic kills a lot of huskies trying to chase the Monster. Nope, not a whole lotta sympathy from me, gotta tell ya. It also looks like Captain Walton is developing a man-crush or more on Vic. Find another thing, Walton. Continue reading →

Milton, Geo-politics and Romantic Procrastination in Scotland! (Frankenstein, Chapters 15-21)

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Here is one of the most fascinating segments of Shelley’s novel, where the Monster, far from the image of the lumbering idiot that Universal Studios imprinted upon popular culture, eloquently relates his tale and reveals a depth of thought and soul that is heartbreaking. Actually, this all began at around Chapter 10 – where the Monster stalks, helps, learns from and is rejected by a poor and virtuous family, the De Laceys-  but I will address it here.

My takeaways: Continue reading →

Natural Vistas, Child-Care Panic and the Monster Speaks! (Frankenstein, Chapters 8-14)

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1882 cover of the  George Routledge & Sons edition of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. The Monster is looking like a Yankee Doodle Dandy.

 

My takeaways from Chapters 8 through 14 of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus: Continue reading →