Video Review

Frankenstein Unbound (1991)

EW's GRADE
C

Details Movie Rated: R; Genre: Horror; With: Bridget Fonda and John Hurt

Frankenstein's makeshift body was nothing compared with the hodgepodge that is this movie. Director Roger Corman has stitched together elements of gothic romance, time- travel epics, and high-minded horror into a movie that is, if nothing else, unusual. In Frankenstein Unbound, a futuristic inventor (John Hurt) creates a war machine that has the side effect of making him tumble back in time. As a consequence, not only does he meet 19th-century poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and Shelley's wife, Mary (author of the original Frankenstein novel), he also encounters some of their fictional creations. Unfortunately, the Frankenstein monster of this movie (who looks like he's had too many bad face-lifts) has a bent for posing leaden existential questions, and Bridget Fonda plays Mary Shelley as a valley girl at a Halloween party. The movie does have flashes of originality, but ultimately it's nothing more than an episode of The Twilight Zone trying to pass itself off as Masterpiece Theatre.

Originally posted Feb 22, 1991 Published in issue #54 Feb 22, 1991 Order article reprints

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