31 Days of Horror Reviews 2018: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Before The Avengers. Before Alien vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason. Before King Kong vs Godzilla, there was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.

REVIEW

The film acts as a direct sequel to The Wolf Man and the fourth sequel to Frankenstein, but focuses more on Wolf Man. The film starts out in a cemetery where two men rob Talbot’s grave. Unfortunately, they decided to rob his grave on a full moon which revives Talbot and he kills one of them. He’s found on the street and taken to a hospital where he tries to explain to the doctors about his curse, but they think he’s insane. He goes to the gypsy woman Maleva from the first film in hopes of finding a cure from his curse so he can stop suffering and rest in peace. Maleva points him in the direction of Dr. Frankenstein. They find out that he’s dead and make to leave but Talbot transforms and hides in the ruins of the castle where he finds the Monster trapped in ice.

From here, it’s a slow build up to the fight between Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man: Talbot can’t find Dr. Frankenstein’s notes so he meets his daughter, Elsa, during the night of a festival. The night is interrupted by Frankenstein prompting Elsa and the rest of the townsfolk to finally destroy it and rid the village of Frankenstein’s curse. Elsa along with Dr. Mannering, who followed Talbot throughout Europe, agree to help him. Elsa gives Talbot and Mannering the notes to which Mannering studies them. They gather that the best way is to drain the energies within Talbot and Frankenstein getting rid of both curses. Unfortunately Mannering is fascinated by the Monster and decides to make the creature stronger so he can see him at his full power. Frankenstein is revived and goes on a rampage and captures Elsa, but Talbot changes into the Wolf Man and both of them start fighting in the last five minutes of the film. Meanwhile, the townspeople decide to blow up the dam that overlooks Castle Frankenstein drowning both monsters. The film ends with both the Wolf Man and Frankenstein being drowned in the castle ruins.

The first half of the film is well put together focusing more on Talbot. Once Frankenstein enters the picture is when it starts to fall apart. Talbot finds Frankenstein in ice when he was actually burned at the end of the last movie. Elsa Frankenstein was never mentioned in the last two films and the castle was demolished to the ground in the beginning of Ghost of Frankenstein, not burned down as stated in this film.

What’s funny is that Bela Lugosi plays Frankenstein thirteen years after he was offered and turned down the role. He played Ygor opposite Lon Chaney Jr. who played the Monster in Ghost of Frankenstein who reprises his role as the Wolf Man in this film. Lugosi’s portrayal of Frankenstein staggers around with his arm stretched out because the Monster became blind at the end of the last movie, but there’s no context for it because originally Frankenstein was supposed to speak and references the end of the last film before the studio cut out and destroyed much of the dialogue footage. There are still moments where you can see Frankenstein speak, but there is no sound.

By far the best scenes in this are the beginning and the ending scenes. The scene with the grave robbers is atmospheric and decently paced giving us a good view of the cemetery set and builds to the Wolf Man really well. The final scene is the fight between Wolf Man and Frankenstein and shows both their strengths and weaknesses. Frankenstein is strong yet slow while Wolf Man is agile yet weak. It’s short, but worth the wait.

It may not be a good first attempt at a crossover film, but it’s entertaining and decently paced.