DPP72: Flesh For Frankenstein

So lattly I have been talking a lot about horror films, I went through the First 3 Hammer Horror Dracula films and then I was going to move on to some more Hammer, one of the first things that came to my mind were the Hammer Frankenstein films, mostly because Peter Cushing who played Van Helsing in those Dracula films played Doctor Frankenstein in them but then I rememberd it had been quiet awile since I had touched on the DPP72/Video Nasties list. So this led me to the 1973 film Flesh For Frankenstein which is one of the films on the DPP72 which also happens to sometimes go by the title Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and was advertised as being the goriest take on Frankenstien there had ever been.

The film had some very big shoes to fill being a Frankenstein film after all fans of Frankenstein had been spoiled with the 1930's Universal picture featuring Boris Karloff as the monster and then the Bride of Frankenstein and the awesome Hammer Frankenstein films, so does it fill them, well I could drag this out but no it doesnt, but that is not to say that it is bad or without merit, infact compared to some of the films it sits on the DPP72 with well its a work of art. 

Ok so in this film Dr. Von Frankenstein (played by B-movie actor Udo Kier) is obsessed with trying to make  a master race of Serbians who he will control. His plan to do this is basically to , manufacture his own pair of  Monsters a male and a female who he then believes will give birth to the first of his new super race. He actually refers to them at one point as Zombies, its clearly a bit weird as the average person is going to go ''zombies cant have babies'' or ''but how does the body parts put togther have anything to do with babies thats down to DNA not the random arms and legs stitched on to a monster'' Still thats the plot and if you want to get on with this film then just say to yourself when this was set no body knew what DNA was and the guys a mad scientist trying to test a crazy theory.

Now I am not going to do a play by play of everything that happens in this film as I like to try and keep things relativly spoiler free so that if someone was so inclined they could then go and enjoy the film after reading this, so instead I just want to talk about a few aspects of it and then give it a general sort of rating. For a start the film pretty much sticks to the promise of it being gory, it is a very gory film but there is a also a lot of sexual refrences and shots of flesh but its not just a gory smutty film its also quiet impressive artistically. Frankiensteisns laboratory is of partoiciular note, it is quiet simply a magnificent set, I also have to appluad the films music, taken away from the film some of it is actually quiet beautiful and kind of classical in nature, certain scenes are framed in a magnificent way and it certainly does tell a story even if it is kind of weird compared to your average Frankenstein piece.

I think there is an attempt at putting some sort of deeper meaning in to this film, if it has a message I would argue the message is that our wants and desires can lead us to very dark places and that if we repress them or channel them wrongly or let them consume us then we are likly to put ourselves and/or others in danger. I would give the film a 6 out of 10 and recomend that providing you havent been put of by the things I have told you about it that you give it a shot, its not something I could see anyone watching again or again like the hammer and Universal Frankenstein films but it is an intresting little chunk of cinematic history.