Home :: DVD :: Horror  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics
Frighteningly Funny
General
Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks
Teen Terror
Television
Things That Go Bump
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

List Price: $19.97
Your Price: $17.97
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "If u don't like this movie--u need your head examined!
Review: "Don't listen to the last reviewer, It's quit obvious that some people don't know what films are about sometimes--sometimes they amount to more than just simple plain entertainment. Just like Martin Scorcees's "Taxie Driver" the film mirrors the nilihism, cynicism of soecity, here being-- of the late 1960's. Reflecting Fisher's parinoia take and look on society. This time The Baron is not the anti-hero, he is the monster, who is simply alienated in a soceity that refuses the ethics of science. He has tried many time, countless experiments, countless failures, he has become sick and embittered with soceity, and downright misanthorpic. There's alot that this film offers, but if you merely decide to dissmiss the film as just another Frankestein film, or if your one of those people who prefer the Universal Frankenstein series---then ur lost. At least Hammer came up with something new everytime, it kept the whole Frankenstein myth fresh, and if anything Hammer's Frankenstein series is vastly superior to there often Overrated Dracula films (excluding "Horror", Prince of Darkness" and "Taste") And like the movie "Taxie Driver"-which was Scorsess's masterpiece, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" is Terence Fisher's Masterpiece.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CLASSIC BARON FRANKENSTIEN
Review: As with the other Hammer Frankenstien films, this entry concentrates more on the creator than the monster(s). This film is the most accoplished in the Hammer Frankenstien series, and one of the best Frankenstien films ever made. Cushing gives his finest performance as the mad doctor, which is saying alot, because all his performances are excellent. Actors like Cushing are rare indeed. Color photography and atmosphere are both top notch as is the excellent screenplay which will hold your interest throughout. No horror libaray would be complete without this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Heartless, but thoroughly entertaining
Review: Baron Victor Frankenstein frees an insane scientist from an asylum because the the scientist once held the key to the same work Frankenstein has done. Frankestein removes the scientist's brain and puts it in another body with the hope of learning the secrets he needs to further his work and he won't let anyone or anything stand in his way. This is the fifth of the seven Frankenstein films and the only one of the last five that comes close to being as good as Curse and Revenge. FMBD has a strong script, the story is very simple, but never lets up. We have a scientist who was doing similiar work to Frankenstein and now he has become a victim of the same type of work that was once his life. I find this this whole concept very interesting and the film just never slows down. Peter Cushing is sinister and relentless in his pursuit of "knowledge", his biting humor in this film is classic. The whole supporting cast does well, although Thorley Walters' character becomes a little too much at times. I did feel the rape scene was unnecessary, the rest of the movie and all the other films truly show us how evil Frankenstein is. This is a fine film made during a time when most of the other Hammer films were starting to show signs of wear.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hammer's finest hour?
Review: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (UK - 1969): Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) blackmails a young medical student (Simon Ward) and his fiancee (Veronica Carlson) into helping him with a brain transplant which goes horribly wrong.

Following a long period of cheap-looking productions designed to play as double-features on their home turf, Hammer returned to premium quality horror with FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, arguably the company's finest hour, and certainly Peter Cushing's definitive portrayal of the monstrous Baron. Instead of the misguided adventurer depicted in previous films, screenwriter Bert Batt emphasizes the Baron's ruthless pursuit of knowledge and power, culminating in an unexpected sequence in which Cushing's domination of Carlson segues from mere tyranny to rape, a scene which Cushing reportedly found distasteful. Overall, however, Batt's script allows the characters to evolve via a skilfully constructed plot which employs levels of drama and emotion largely absent from much of Hammer's output at the time, alongside the usual elements of horror and suspense. Director Terence Fisher rises to the occasion with remarkable dexterity, orchestrating set-pieces which have been compared to Hitchcock in some quarters, especially the opening sequence in which a petty thief (Harold Goodwin) breaks into the wrong house and has a truly hair-raising confrontation with its volatile owner (leading to a truly great 'reveal'); and the traumatic moment in the back garden of Carlson's boarding house, when she's forced to deal with a corpse (one of Frankenstein's cast-offs) ejected from its makeshift grave by a burst water pipe. Freddie Jones adds pathos to the proceedings as the helpless victim of Frankenstein's latest experiment, his brain transplanted into another man's body against his will, traumatizing his incredulous wife (Maxine Audley) who refuses to accept his new identity (a scenario echoed by a similar plotline in John Woo's FACE/OFF in 1997). The period decor may look a little cramped and cut-price in places, but this is Hammer/Fisher/Cushing at the very height of their creative powers, and the film is a small masterpiece of British Gothic.

Warner's DVD offers a sterling reproduction of the film, letterboxed to its original screen ratio, anamorphically enhanced, with a strong soundtrack marred only by background hiss (clearly audible during quieter sequences) and a brief muffled section toward the end of the movie, during a short sequence without music or dialogue. The only extra is a trailer which sells the film as an outright exploitation flick, though the production is slightly classier than this tell-all promotion suggests! The running time quoted below doesn't include the Time Warner logo at the end of the DVD print, which wasn't part of the original film.

100m 33s
1.75:1 / Anamorphically enhanced
DVD soundtrack: Mono 1.0
Theatrical soundtrack: Optical mono
Optional English subtitles and closed captions
Region 1

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Bloody Baron
Review: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is one of the finest in Hammer Horror. This is the fifth of the series with the master horror thespian Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein. The film starts off with a quick little beheading with a scythe, then it's off to the lab. A drunk intruder, looking to burglarize the good doctor, foils Frankenstein's plan forcing him to find other accomodations. He moves into a bed n breakfast and terrorizes a young couple, and blackmails them into doing his bidding. Frankenstein gets the young man to murder, rapes the girl, and steals a colleagues brain, all in the name of science. This is by far the darkest of the Hammer Frankenstein series, and the best. We see that the doctor will stop at nothing to prove a point . Lots of suspense, blood, and lots of the beautiful Veronica Carlson. My only complaint is the reproduction is not the greatest. I only wish Anchor Bay would get off their butts and put ALL the Hammer movies out WIDESCREEN! Seeing a good brain drlling just loses something in pan-n-scan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Possibly the finest Hammer horror film of them all.
Review: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED is the fith entry in the Hammer series, which began with 1957's revolutionary CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Much of the impact of the series can be attributed to the input of director Terence Fisher and star Peter Cushing, and here they are united with stunning results. The story pulls no punches in telling the tale of the Baron, embittered by a string of failed experiemens, who is bent on taking his hatred for humanity out on all those who come into contact with him. Unlike many Fisher-Hammer films, which opt for fairy tale optimism, this film is informed by the nihilistic climate of the late 1960s. Typical for Fisher, the characters and relationships have more depth and complexity than is the norm for a low budget horror film. In fact, the film is more of a drama than anything else, so schlock fans need not apply. A stunning exercise in pathos and suspense, with a brilliant performance by Cushing, and a moving one by Freddie Jones as the pathetic "monster." Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of Hammer's finest
Review: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed represents one of Hammer's most delicately crafted productions. Production values are above par. Bert Batt and Anthony Nelson-Keys deliver an excellent script. Arthur Grant's photography, James Bernard's score and Terence Fisher's direction are all exemplary. The talented cast includes Peter Cushing in one of his greatest performances, an amusing Thorley Walters and an early appearance from Freddie Jones, as perhaps the screen's most tragic and pitiful Frankenstein's "monster" since Christopher Lee (1957) if not Boris Karloff (1931).

Central to the film is a pervasive irony: The irony of a man whose everyday manners are impeccable and gentlemanly, but whose total contempt for human life will lead him to murder and rape without a second thought; the irony of a man given back life only to be cheated out of the one thing in life he loves. Never is this irony more clearly captured than in the very first scene, in which a lilting and harmonious ballad accompanies a beheading, or (a few scenes later) the quick cut from Anna's words, "You'll find it very quiet here," to a screaming patient in an insane asylum (a surprisingly effective shock moment).

Baron Frankenstein here is no longer the ambiguous anti-hero of sorts that he was in Hammer's previous Frankenstein outings (excepting The Evil of Frankenstein). In Fisher's Hitchcockian opening sequence the camera follows a pair of black and white shoes, suggesting a certain ambiguity, as they make their way through the Victorian streets, but when the owner of the shoes (having just committed one murder and an attempted murder) tears off his hideous mask, it is revealed to be none other than Frankenstein himself. Now the Baron is clearly the monster, and it is he who must be destroyed.

The Baron here takes on god-like dimensions like never before. In Fisher's series there were always clear allusions to the wrongness of the Baron's attempts to usurp the place of God; here Frankenstein's spiral of descent into degeneracy, tyranny and blasphemy is complete. With great command, he exerts an almost supernatural force over the two young lovers he blackmails into assisting him in his experiment. There is a hint of his demise towards the end of the film when Karl (Simon Ward) watches him, unbeknownst to the Baron, and discovers his plans, which information he then uses to foil the Baron. Thus for the first time, the shoe is on the other foot: Frankenstein is no longer in control, and his destruction is imminent.

His destruction is one of the film's finest sequences (other highlights include the water pipe bursting, and forcing the cadaver of one of the Baron's victims to resurface, as well as the forceful scene in which Professor Richter (transplanted into the body of Freddie Jones), hidden behind a screen, pleads with his frightened wife to believe his story). The shoe really is on the other foot now: "I fancy... that I am the spider and you are the fly," says the creature. Frankenstein is trapped inside a burning house with the police waiting outside. In the words of his creation, he must choose between "the police and the flames." The implication is clear: Even if Frankenstein manages to evade human justice, "the flames" (a symbol of divine judgment) are totally inescapable. In a finale that harks back to Mary Shelley's original novel, the embittered creature himself carries his creator with him to their shared fate.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Frankenstein is The Creature from hell.
Review: In this episode of Frankenstein the baron has become so obsessed with his own hatred and anger that the character loses much of the dimension from the previous films. He murders without hesitation, blackmails a young couple into assisting his work and brutaly rapes the woman. The violence of this movie distracts somewhat from plot and character development. The treatment of the creature is much more sympathetic- he is a human victim of the Baron and not a monster. The film has some entertainment merit but is not for the weak of heart.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Frankenstein is The Creature from hell.
Review: In this episode of Frankenstein the baron has become so obsessed with his own hatred and anger that the character loses much of the dimension from the previous films. He murders without hesitation, blackmails a young couple into assisting his work and brutaly rapes the woman. The violence of this movie distracts somewhat from plot and character development. The treatment of the creature is much more sympathetic- he is a human victim of the Baron and not a monster. The film has some entertainment merit but is not for the weak of heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brain Surgery at its Best
Review: In this one the Baron goes way past insane in an effort to regain secrets lost in the mind of a mad man. Frankenstein stops at nothing, blackmail, rape, theft and of course murder in this masterpiece from Hammer Studios. A new twist for the twisted Dr. My only question is, where is the DVD???


<< 1 2 3 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates