christopher-underwood When I think of some of the barely visible 3rd generation copies of Jess Franco's films I've seen over the years and now here is a pristine, all bright and shiny Blu-ray. Also, this is a film that was very hard to get to see in any shape or form, for good or bad i will leave to you. Actually, considering what this sets out to do, a Universal Studios rip-off in full colour with full frontal nudity, some gore and a little S&M, this succeeds rather well. Dennis Price probably comes back to life a few too many times and I never did work out why the monster was painted silver but it is light hearted fun with some magically lit scenes. Neither was I sure why Howard Vernon had to stand by as many of his 'instructions' and guidance were spoken by his half bird, half woman side-kick but never mind. The film doesn't waste time getting going and keeps up for the duration with plenty of bloody scenes and lots of skin. The aforementioned S&M quota come curtesy of a fairly lengthy sequence where a completely naked man and women are tied back to back while the silver monster lashes them severely leaving rather theatric bloody stripes. Not bad at all.

morrison-dylan-fan After having seen my first ever Jess Franco title, (the fun,but very flawed Women Without Innocence)I decided,that with still having great memories from Danny Boyle's excellent adaptation,that I would take a look at Franco's take on Frankenstein's creature.The plot:Taking possession of a man's mind and body,a demonic spirit called Cagliostro decides to take control of a corpse,that has recently been re-animated by a local doctor called Frankenstein.Celerbrating his success,Frankenstein's cerebration's are cut short,when Cagliostro, (and a group of fellow demonic spirits that he has brought with him) take control of the creature,and force it to kill its creator.A few days later:Attending her father's funeral,Frankenstein's daughter Vera is told by a former friend of her dad's, (Doctor Seward) that he has fears that her fathers final,mysterious creation may have gone terribly wrong.Being determined to track down the person who killed her dad,Vera soon finds out that Cagliostro is planning to use her dad's creation,for a creation that her father could never have imagined.View on the film:For the soundtrack and distinctive appearance of the film,writer/director and co-star Jess Franco closely works with composer Daniel White to soak the movie in a hauntingly surreal atmosphere,with echoing voices and distorted screams rippling across the screen.Emphasising the soundtracks features,Franco gives the movie a strikingly avant-garde look,with Cagliostro's "cult" and the residence of the village being set a against a trance style backdrop,which help to give the film a wonderfully chilling feel.Despite Dennis Price giving a fun performance as Dr Frankenstein,and Lina Romay making her film debut, (in the composite cut) the screenplay by Franco is sadly unable to match the confident appearance that he displays in his directing,with Franco mostly leaving the creature/monster roots of the story behind,and instead trying to target everything from occult terror to murder mystery chiller, without ever really being keep in step with Frankenstein's creation.

lastliberal Doctor Frankenstein (Dennis Price) creates a man (Fernando Bilbao), but before he can fully enjoy his creation, Melisa (Anne Libert), a blind vampire with wolfman hands, steals him and takes him to her master Cagliostro (Howard Vernon) so he can use him to collect beautiful virgins. Not exactly the Frankenstein story we are familiar with, but one from the mind of Jesus Franco.Vera Frankenstein (Beatriz Savón) is on the hunt to find her father's creature and continue his work. Unfortunately, she falls into the clutches of Caliostro and must help him in his quest to create the most beautiful woman in the world. I don't know why he wants to create a woman when Lina Romay is close at hand, and she would certainly qualify on her own.The film was a great disappointment as it was basically a story of an evil genius, a strange vampire that served him and Frankenstein's creature. The creature didn't rape any beautiful virgins. In fact, there was nothing in the film that would get it more than a PG-13 rating - and that was all from the blood drawn by the vampire.

Chris-773 Once upon a time, I viewed a copy of Jess Franco's Virgin among the Living Dead. I thought the movie was slow, boring and utterly pointless. Henceforth, I made it my firm resolution to avoid any movie directed by Jess Franco again. However after catching "the Awful Dr Orloff" on tv I have over the years become an admirer of his unique filmic style and now suprisingly claim that Jess Franco can be considered an Auteur of Euro-trash cinema.The Erotic rites of Frankenstein is a very hard movie to track down. As far as I know it has never been released in the UK or America. Therefore, I was lucky enough to obtain a good widescreen copy on VHS from a car-boot sale. (These thing's always turn up in carboot sales!) The movie is a very imaginative and bizarre reinterpretation of Shelley's classic horror tale with and overtly sexual subtext.Dr Frankenstein finally bestows the gift of speech upon his creation. Unfortunately his triumph is short lived when he is attacked by a weird naked vulture woman who tears him to shreds in his laboratory. Vera Frankenstein investigating his death reanimates her fathers corpse and discovers that his murderer is none other than Cagliostro the Wizard who has stolen the monster to aid his plans for world domination. Vera sets out to revenge her father but alas falls into the clutches of the wicked and very perverse Cagliostro....This film contains many odd scenes and speeches from the characters. The oft mentioned scene of a bare chested and silver skinned Monster mercilessly whipping a naked couple over a spiked floor is suprising to say the least. The naked vulture woman's attack and slaughter of several naked men too is unexpected. As is the appearance of zombies at Cagliostro's castle. For once in a Frankenstein film it is the Doctor himself who is reanimated not less than three times and eventually becomes his own monster.I enjoyed this movie - Franco's obsessions with S&M and naked women provide a spice to a very tired tale.