Film Review
Too mad to be taken seriously? Roger Corman's return to directing
after a twenty year intermission at first feels like a private joke but
ten minutes into this juvenile mishmash of cheap horror, sci-fi and
tacky erotica it suddenly becomes apparent that someone expected to make
money out of it. If you're a teenager of modest intellectual ability
and a stomach for this kind of puerile nausea-inducing schlock
Frankenstein
Unbound is probably just about bearable; for most other cinemagoers
it's only slightly less aggravating than having your toes filed down to the bone
with coarse grained sandpaper. If you should happen to find yourself
stuck in a cinema with this unedifying atrocity projected onto
a screen in front of you, the chance is you'll be hurtling towards door
marked 'Exit' within five minutes. And to think it
was directed by the man who previously brought us
Pit and the Pendulum (1961)...
So just why is this film so awful? It can't be the fact that it
was made on a shoestring budget, since Corman is renowned for
making an art of turning out respectable films on a low budget.
The film does look cheap, but that's not the issue. Neither is it
the concept which, supremely dotty as it may be, is at least original
and moderately amusing. No, what kills this film is a combination
of bad screenwriting, bad acting and some excruciatingly self-conscious
direction on the part of Corman himself.
Perhaps we can excuse the acting because the script is so awful.
Even John Hurt, an actor who is usually beyond reproach, has difficulty
saying his dialogue with anything like conviction. A child of ten
could hardly have done a worse job on the script. If it weren't
for the film's horror content and sexual allusions (which earned it an
18 certification in the UK), you'd swear this was intended for the
children's afternoon telly slot.
Frankenstein
Unbound is the abyss of low budget
horror.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Roger Corman film:
House of Usher (1960)
Film Synopsis
Dr Joseph Buchanan is developing a weapon which he hopes will put an
end to war. Unfortunately, a test run with his atomic
disintegration beam has some unexpected side effects, such as the
creation of time rifts all over the planet. Buchanan falls
through one of these rifts and finds himself in Switzerland in
1817. Here, at a village inn, he makes the acquaintance of a
scientist named Dr Frankenstein. The latter reveals that his
younger brother has recently been murdered and that his nanny is to be
hung as a witch. Buchanan realises that the real killer is a monster
created by Frankenstein and makes an attempt to save the girl charged
with the murder. At the trial, Buchanan meets a young woman
named Mary Godwin, who is writing a novel based on Frankenstein...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.