Bride Of Frankenstein Genre Analysis

Kyle Calash
Genre Paper
Eames
April 30, 2013
Bibliographic Citation: Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale, Boris Karloff as The Montster, Elsa Lanchester as Mary Shelley, Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Pretorius, Universal Studios, 1931. The Invisible Man, James Whale. Claude Rains as Dr. Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man), Gloria Stuart as Flora Cranley, William Harrigan as Dr. Arthur Kemp, Henry Travers as Dr. Cranley and Una O’Connor as Jenny Hall, Universal Studios, 1933. The Wolf Man, George Wagner. Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot (The Wolf Man), Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot, Warren William as Dr. Lloyd, Ralph Bellamy as Colonel Andrews, Patric Knowles as Frank Andrews and Béla Lugosi as Bela, Universal
Studios, 1941. The horror genre is one of the most fascinating genres Hollywood has created. Horror films are unique because you can never be certain what you are going to get in a horror film. Three movies will be reviewed inside of this paper; they are all classics: The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man. I truly believe these movies fit and created the horror genre. These horror movies will all show a couple common themes, and these will serve as the necessary aspects to create a horror film. All horror movies need a main character and that main character has to be the villain. There is no remorse, these characters are not meant for the audience to feel bad for them; they should be hated. “Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience” (Scriptlab, pg.
1). This is one of the greatest features of a horror film, as much as you try and prepare for what you may see in the movie, you will never know because the movie is designed for you to be scared. Foreshadowing and allowing the audiences to easily predict what the next outcome of the movie would be unfair to the audience, you might as well just watch a romance movie. Another thing that is good about horror is that there will always be a variety of characters. “Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies” (Scriptlab, pg. 1). These instances provide just a few examples of what we may see as a villain in a horror movie, but in the movies being reviewed, you will be introduced to three different types of characters. Horror is not for everybody though; you have to have a willing mind, and sometimes an even stronger stomach. “Whether it is because of its base subject matter or often "gross-out" style of description, many find it hard to take horror seriously” (UFL, pg.1). This is not an un-common theme for horror movies, many look at it as this could never happen to them, this is stupid. To think a werewolf, invisible man or genetically created man is going to attack at any given moment is absurd. But people, people in general, can attack and kill at any moment. Generally, horror films are a little shorter of movies because
they start with an introduction; inform us on where it will take place and who will be in it. Followed by an initial scare, a murder usually, then the rest is just up in the air. Until the end, the end we usually find out why things happened and generally come to a dramatic ending with a dramatic death to a main character. This genre will always create new ways to scare audiences, which makes its possibilities endless. The Bride of Frankenstein has little to do with an actual bride to Frankenstein and more to do with the events leading up to the creation of Frankenstein’s future bride. The film starts with a flashback as to how Frankenstein was created and how a few events that took place in the original Frankenstein. It shows how he was supposed to be dead but actually is not. The family of the little girl who was thrown in the water wants to see the monster’s body however. Once he falls down into the still burning ruble and underground water, the girls fathers is greeted by Frankenstein and is drowned, soon after his wife is killed as well trying to help him out of the hole he fell through. After a lot of nonsense talking, Frankenstein’s whereabouts are revealed and the public has been informed to stay inside until he is caught. Eventually Frankenstein is caught trying to take a girl out of the water, completely innocent, but is soon caught and tied up by an angry group of people who are chasing after the monster. Soon after he is caught, he merely escapes ands begins to run through their village, he even ends up killing another little schoolgirl. Soon after, Frankenstein is wandering through the woods and winds up meeting an old blind man who takes him in and they become friends. The blind man teaches Frankenstein simple motor skills like speaking, eating, and drinking. This is a pivotal part of the movie because you never see a villain show such emotion and even comforts the old man when he starts to cry. While the old man is teaching Frankenstein how to say new words, two men walk into the cabin asking how to get out of the forest and they immediately notice the monster inside. During a small tussle, the house catches fire; the men escort out the old man out and way from the fire. Frankenstein is left wandering through woods alone, again. Frankenstein ends up in an underground grave tomb and meets up with Dr. Pretorius. They discuss making another version of him and the Dr. informs Frankenstein that he will make a female version of him. Dr. Pretorius uses the monster to take Henry Frankenstein’s wife to assist in blackmail to help him build the monster a friend. They are successful in creating the woman, but she is not happy and the monster lets Henry and his wife go, and pulls a level that destroys the castle, himself, his bride and Dr. Pretorius. This is a great horror film; the monster is definitely one of the most influential horror characters of all time. He has no moral remorse, which means he doesn’t necessarily understand the consequences and how it may affect other people. It just happens. Just like in the original Frankenstein, the monster kills another little girl, while this one is not seen directly in the film, we still know it happens. There isn’t much we can do to not be frightened by the thought of a monster that will kill you out of being scared. I would have to recommend this classic film to anyone, especially those who appreciate a good character/actor. The monster’s character is fearless and will do what he wants when he wants, which will leave us, the viewers, on the edge of our seat when a potentially dangerous situation approaches. The monster has the ability to shock us at any moment; if he ends up killing someone we think, “well we knew that was coming, but did that really happen?” If he doesn’t kill someone, we are forced to think oh, maybe he is changing into a different character, but how can we ever know. He does kill himself at the end of the movie after all. Larry Talbot, after the passing of his brother, has returned him to try and make amends with his father (John Talbot) in Wales. Larry offers his condolences over the recent death of his older brother and this leads to his father apologizing to Larry for treating him badly for years. While visiting Larry meets a girl who works at his fathers shop and even goes as far as to spy on her. Her name is Gwen and becomes fascinated with her, and immediately wants to talk to her. He revisits her antique shop a few times and finally figures out a way to speak to her. He buys a walking stick with a wolf figurine attached to the top of it. Conversation emerges, and Gwen explains that the wolf represents a werewolf. She soon agrees to actually go out and visit a gypsy fortuneteller with Larry, but only if here friend, Jenny, can come as well. During this visit Jenny’s fortune shows something about a werewolf and sure enough a werewolf attacks Jenny and although Larry tried to save her, he was to late. Jenny and the werewolf died. The werewolf in the process bit Larry, and soon enough turns into a werewolf himself. That night, Larry kills his first victim in a graveyard. Larry’s father teaches him the history of the werewolf and explains that it has to do with the good and evil in one man’s soul. Larry soon realizes he cannot do this anymore and decides to leave. He goes to tell Gwen and she offers to go with him but he cannot let her come. Larry becomes loose in the woods and they need to find him as soon as possible. Gwen, going against what she was told, goes outside to find Larry before he leaves. The werewolf almost immediately meets her. His own wolf cane strikes Larry and the wolf is killed. Montford explains that Larry, whose body is now lying there, was killed attempting to save Gwen. Gwen who now realizes Larry was the werewolf is in awe and collapse to the ground. The Wolf Man is another classic horror film, it uses a fear that people actually have; werewolves. This film uses that fact that people do believe werewolves can exist and exploits some people’s greatest fear. Many view this is a brilliant move. Critical analysts would think that if you are scared of werewolves, you wont go see the movie, but curiosity is what brought in so many fans to view this movie. So many wanted answers as to what a werewolf was all about, rather than finding out for themselves, they could learn and view in a theatre. What this movie did great was use the nation wide fear and exploited it through who we view as a generally good/nice, caring guy. They took him and turned him into what we view as a monster. This showed the audience that if werewolves do exist, it could be anybody out there. That is what made the movie great is played with what we thought we knew, and added a whole new sense of fear about werewolves.

The Invisible man (Jack Griffin), a man whose face is swaddled in bandages and his eyes are covered by dark glasses, rents a room at a British Inn. Immediately he seems suspicious, because of the way he acts. When Mrs. Hall comes to check in on him and even offers to take his jacket, he rejects and the audience immediately realizes that he is not going to be an easy-going man. A pivotal moment in the movie is when Mrs. Hall walks in the room and realizes that Dr. Griffin has unwrapped some of his bandage and is apparently invisible. A little background on Dr. Griffin is that he is a scientist who has been experimenting with a drug called monocane. In a following scene when Mr. Hall comes in the room to inform Dr. Griffin that he is being evicted, because he has failed to pay rent, Dr. Griffin admits what he has been doing with all of his scientific experiments. He explains that if he rubs a little bit of the stuff on his arm, soon enough it will absorb the color out of your skin, eventually turning invisible. The problem began when he realized that he couldn’t reverse the invisibility. After terrorizing the hotel, and leaving he returns to his old partner’s (Dr. Cranley) and while confronting Dr. Cranley he informs him of his plans on how he can now dominate the human race. Not only did the monocane make Dr. Griffin invisible, it also drove him insane. Dr. Griffin soon realizes that he will need his notes in order to reverse the invisibility, he and Dr. Cranley need to break into the old hotel and get his books back, while there Dr. Griffin, The Invisible Man, takes it upon himself to cause havoc at a town meeting discussing how to catch him. Things turn for the worst when Dr. Griffin strangles an officer and leaves him there dead. Dr. Cranley realized that he couldn’t do this alone, people needed to know what was going on, he took it upon himself to call his onetime partner Dr. Kemp and his past fiancée, Flora. They arrive at the estate and enjoy a brief moment before having to separate once again. The police arrive due to the report from Dr. Kemp and Dr. Griffin approaches about the police arriving. Kemp has now marked himself for death and Griffin takes this time to describe how he will literally kill him, he is given a time, and method. Dr. Kemp is not the only person who will experience the wrath of the he also caused havoc in the city, even flipping over a baby carriage. Dr. Kemp is soon placed in protective custody and the police and he develop a plan to get him out of the country. They (the police force) escort him to the police station, dress him as an officer, put him in a car, and drive him to his car so he can drive to the mountains 100 miles away. Dr. Kemp is driving away sure he has gotten away from The Invisible Man. However, as he is driving, Dr. Griffin appears in the back seat and announces that it is 10 o’clock and he has kept his promise. He ties up Dr. Kemp and has him drive his car over a cliff and Dr. Kemp and his car explode immediately on impact. The Invisible man is finally caught after he is found sleeping in a barn and is smoked out and eventually shot and put in the hospital. While in the hospital the invisibility wears off due to him slowly dying. The Invisible Man dies with his former fiancée near his side. This movie fits the genre perfectly; like in all horror movies, it seems to me that the main character always has no remorse for the other surrounding characters.
They, or in this case, The Invisible Man (Dr. Jack Griffin) is found out, and goes on a rampage breaking anything in his way, attempting to physically harm people and even goes out of the way to push over a baby. This is something that happens in a lot of horror movies; there is always a scene that is intended to make the audience cringe, and it happens again at the climatic end of the movie. These films however, are a lot different than the horror films of today. When watching it is important to watch with an open mind that this was all new to the time period, having people die on screen, never mind be murdered, by imaginary, people that could not actually exist in the real world. These are movies that every movie buff should see due to the fact that it has an interesting story. What is most intriguing is that that you don’t find out until the middle of the movie and you don’t ever know what to expect next. That lack of predictability is what makes this a scary/horror
movie. These films are all great examples and pinpoints of the horror genre. They leave us wondering the entire time about what will happen next or even how the movie is going to end. The horror films always leave the possibility for a sequel, because with these villainous characters, we can never be too sure if they are actually dead or not. These films did their job; they scared, shocked and left us speechless at some points. There are many other movies that can fit into this genre but these are the staple pieces. There will always be one part in a horror movie where we are literally left shocked and can’t believe it actually took place. Horror films should make it so we can’t sleep at night, and these films (at that time) definitely made it hard for people to sleep.
Works Cited: http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/horror http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring05/Sanchez/horror.htm
Netflix – The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Bride of Frankenstein