Frankenstein & The Monster From Hell [VHS]
Though it wasn't Hammer Studios' final film,Frankenstein and the Monster from Hellcan be considered its swan song, an intelligent, inventive, stylized reworking of the themes that had sustained the series for almost two decades. Dr. Frankenstein has buried his old identity and reigns over an insane asylum as Dr. Victor (Peter Cushing under a flamboyant blond wig in his sixth and final turn as the mad scientist) as if it were a live-parts yard for his continuing experiments. With the help of an ambitious acolyte he builds his latest creature, a hirsute apelike brute stitched together from the asylum's most promising inhabitants and turned into a sad, tortured slave. The film was shot at the end of Hammer's glory days, and the budgetary constraints can be seen in unconvincing miniatures and the rather bulky and stiff ogre suit, but the dark, claustrophobic sets create an effectively gloomy atmosphere. Director Terence Fisher effectively pulls out all stops for a marvelous sequence of the creature digging through the asylum graveyard in the middle of a flashing electrical storm, a demonic twist on the iconic gravedigging images that go all the way back to the 1931Frankenstein. This was the last reunion for Cushing and Fisher, who together gave birth to Hammer's gothic reign withThe Curse of FrankensteinandHorror of Dracula. Fisher retired after finishing the film.--Sean Axmaker