Lawbolisted Powerful

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Red-Barracuda Back in the early 70's there was a spate of very strange cinematic versions of the famous Frankenstein tale. There was Frankenstein '80 (1972) which was a detective story where the monster was a serial killing sex offender; there was also Flesh for Frankenstein (1973), the schlock-fest produced by Andy Warhol, featuring delirious performances from the likes of Udo Kier and Joe Dallesandro; and then there was Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974) in which the good doctor was accompanied by an evil dwarf, a Neanderthal man improbably called Lugosi and a monster named Hulk. Well, given this fashion for sexploitation/trashfests based on the famous old story it surely comes as no surprise that that king of the Eurotrash horror film himself, Jess Franco, got in on the act and delivered his own take on this most specific of ideas. And so we have The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein. Oh, one can only wonder what Mary Shelley would have made of such adaptations of her little Gothic novel.Anyone experienced with Franco films must surely go into a new one with an element of trepidation. Old Jess certainly knocked them out fast and sometimes with hilariously little care, so you never know for sure if what you are going to get is going to be good or terrible. Well, pleasingly, this flick is one of the better ones. It's from his early 70's period when he was ludicrously prolific and naturally it has a very low budget. But this one contains lots of the very weird style that the director is perhaps most loved for. It also has a great deal of his more notorious techniques, such as copious zooms and lots of out-of-focus shots. While regular collaborator Daniel White provides one of his better scores, even if jazz does seem a little ill-fitting to a story set in the 19th century.I'm not going to recount the story as there simply is no point but needless to say this is a surreal, sexploitation costume horror with enough genuine strangeness about it to ensure it is always interesting. The most obvious thing to do will be to simply recount some of the strange highlights of this film. Firstly, we have a strange blind, vampiric bird woman who kills Dr Frankenstein within the first five minutes; she is so bizarre a character, a whole film could easily have been based around her. She is played by Anne Libert, who played another very odd character in Franco's A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973). She appears to be the muse of a sorcerer called Cagliostro played by legendary Franco regular Howard Vernon, who once again puts in a commendably serious performance despite the essential nonsense of the storyline. Then there is the unexplained fact that the monster itself is silver. I have no idea why this is but it's brilliantly bizarre. He even gets to viciously whip a naked couple who are tied together above some spikes. This constitutes one of the sadomasochistic erotic rites of the title I think. They all begin with the white gowned undead walking through a misty moonlit forest on their way to Cagliostro's castle; once there, these strange creatures observe the rites. All of this stuff is really great and show Franco at his best. While this rather strange stuff goes on other things happen too, such as Dr Frankenstein's dead body hilariously being periodically reanimated by his daughter simply in order to get information and then there are several scenes involving Lina Romay as a gypsy girl called Esmeralda who has several one-way discussions with a very old woman, these scenes seem to have no relevance to anything else really and are in here for reasons only known to Franco. And why is Dr Seward from the novel Dracula involved in all of this? Your guess is as good as mine.In summary, this is psychotronic nonsense of the first order. But if you have a taste for the bizarre and appreciate Mr Franco's eccentricities then I think this is one that you will get a kick out of.

Coventry Jess/Jesùs Franco (also known under approximately two dozen of pseudonyms) must be – hands down – the most audience-dividing filmmaker in history! Regardless which one of his more than 200 (!) movies that you research here on this website results in ultra-contradictory viewers' opinions. Some claim that he was a severely underrated visionary and progressive artist of surrealism, while others carelessly downgrade him to one of the most incompetent and perverted amateur directors of all times. And me? I generally tend to agree with the first bunch of people, although admittedly I can sometimes just enjoy a certain Franco movie when I'm in a very tolerant mood and/or under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. "The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein" is arguably one of Jess' most challenging efforts. It definitely contains several ingenious and innovative aspects, but at the same time you can't get passed the numerous 'what the hell' moments and almost laughable story development. Speaking of alcohol, I assume that good old Jess had to be quite drunk as well to come up with a scenario like this. Dig this: Doctor Frankenstein is busy minding his own business and joyfully creating a monster when, suddenly, a ferocious blind bird-lady invades his laboratory, kills him and takes off with his semi-resurrected monster. The bird-lady turns out to be an acolyte of the evil wizard Cagliostro who intends to build a whole race of super-monsters, males and females! I'm not entirely sure why, but I reckon it's primarily to organize massive S&M orgies and gradually obtain world domination or something. After all, isn't that the goal all evil wizards pursue? Anyways, Frankenstein's daughter Vera wants to avenge her father, but she's rapidly captured by Cagliostro and – through a lot of whipping – forced to fabricate the first female mate for the monster. What makes this film so unfathomable, I think, is the wide variety of colorful and flamboyant characters. The Bird Lady, impeccably depicted by Anne Libert, is a fascinating and disturbingly loyal shrew with bright green feathers on her arms. She's blind but sees through the hypnotic mind of her master. Cagliostro, played by Franco's shadow Howard Vernon, is a skinny freak with heinous eyes and he has a ridiculous bush of pubic hair glued to his chin. The Frankenstein monster here is, for whatever unknown reason, painted silver and stumbles around the sets like he doesn't really fit into the story. Vera Frankenstein disrespectfully brings her father back from the dead no less than three times, just to gain some additional information about his slayer and it is all for nothing, since she is soon captured and whipped. Franco does succeed in – occasionally - generating a genuinely macabre atmosphere, mainly through misty forests, uncanny costumes and sinister musical guidance. And regarding the psychedelic sexual content? Well, let's just state that Franco unquestionably was a provocative pioneer in this department. "The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein" is one of the few movies that actually make me wonder: what would Mary Shelley think? Footnote: there exists a heavily cut version entitled "The Curse of Frankenstein", not to be confused with the legendary Hammer classic starring Peter Cushing. In this version, most of the sexual content has been replaced with an additional sub plot about Lina Romay (in her very first appearance in a Franco movie) as a gypsy girl wandering through the woods and receiving mental messages from Cagliostro. The sub plot leads absolutely nowhere, but hey, what else did you expect?

MARIO GAUCI This one's undoubtedly superior to Dracula, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1971) – displaying a fair evidence of style throughout (notably some Bavaesque lighting).It utilizes a lot of the same cast as that film: Dennis Price, in fact, returns as Frankenstein but gets little to do (this is his least performance in a Franco film – especially embarrassing when his character is regenerated); Howard Vernon now turns up as Cagliostro (I had been underwhelmed by his performance when I watched the Spanish version a few years back, but he's actually quite commanding); Anne Libert gets her most impressive role as Melissa, the blind and eccentric "Bird Woman" in Cagliostro's service (though the mysterious zombie-like figures who witness the titular events from behind bars are just as grotesquely made-up); Britt Nichols is underused, but her luscious figure gets exposed this time around (and, in any case, she's perfectly cast as Cagliostro's proposed bearer of a new master race); Alberto Dalbes also returns as Dr. Seward where, again, he's the hero; ditto Fernando Bilbao as Frankenstein's monster (given a curious silver make-up here); Luis Barboo is on hand as well but, now, he plays Cagliostro's henchman rather than Frankenstein's (the latter role is taken all too briefly at the very start by Franco himself); Daniel J. White also gets more screen-time than in the previous film (where he was just an extra) as a Police Inspector.Missing here – consequently, the film runs for a mere 70 minutes! – is the irrelevant gypsy subplot (featuring Lina Romay) filmed some time later and eventually incorporated into the Spanish variant, dubbed LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN aka THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN...though the English-language edition I watched also bears this title!! Still, the would-be erotic rites (presented clothed in Spain) are silly rather than titillating: actually, there's only one (in which the monster is made to whip the naked figures of Barboo and Frankenstein's daughter in a dungeon with a spiked floor), as the intended procreation scene involving Bilbao and Nichols is ultimately interrupted by the heroes. Cagliostro's flight at the end, then, suggests that a further instalment may have been intended – but it never transpired.Opinions about this particular version seem to go from one extreme to the other: it's neither one of Franco's top efforts nor among his worst, hence the middle-of-the-road rating I gave it. On the other hand, everybody seems to agree that the alternate Spanish release is a lesser achievement – even so, it's not that the loss of the tacked-on footage (or, for that matter, the benefit of nudity) dramatically alters the quality of the finished product!

Paul Andrews Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein, or under one of it's other alternate titles like The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, La Maldicion de Frankenstein or The Curse of Frankenstein which was the title of the version I saw, starts in Dr. Frankenstein's (Dennis Price) laboratory where he & his assistant Morpho (writer & director Jesus Franco) have just transplanted a human brain into his silver skinned monster (Fernando Bilbao) that has been able to give it the power of speech. However, they are attacked by a blind half bird half human woman named Melissa (Anne Libert) who was created by a mad reincarnated scientist named Cagliostro (Howard Vernon) who attack Frankenstein & steal his monster, before he dies Dr. Frankenstein tries to tell Dr. Seward (Alberto Dables) about what has happened, along with Inspector Tanner (Daniel White) Seward decides to investigate. Shortly after Dr. Frankenstein's daughter Vera (Beatriz Savon) turns up & with the help of her assistant Abigail (Doris Thomas) reanimates her Father who begs her to save his monster as Cagliostro is a reincarnated madman intent on creating a perfect female using various carefully chosen body parts & have her mate with his monster to create a 'master race' to replace all of humanity! As the clues point to the 'Castle of Barna' can Cagliostro be stopped?This Spanish French co-production was written & directed by Jesus Franco who also appears in the opening sequence, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Franco fan usually but Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein isn't too bad & at least he tries to inject some horror amidst the nudity & surrealism. Apparently this film exists in a couple of different versions & the one I an commenting on is the 'hot' uncut version with all the nudity intact which probably consist of someone undressing, the naked female monster, Melissa's naked body getting a few camera pans up & down it & a few rituals involving naked people. The script doesn't play like an ordinary Frankenstein adaptation as you can probably tell from my synopsis, it's all rather strange, disjointed, nonsensical & downright bizarre at times but having said that it does entertain to an extent. What is Melissa all about? She is supposedly a half bird with blue feathers & sharp claws for no good reason as far as I could tell. Cagliostro uses 'Magnetic Waves' to control people's minds but has to do it through Melissa which again is just pointless. What are those zombie types doing just standing there doing nothing in particular? Why does the monster have silver skin? Why all the baffling incantations & rituals? In a odd sort of way these surreal elements work on a basic level & Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is watchable in a way I can't quite explain. It moves along at a fair pace & never becomes boring or dull which is one good thing about it. As far as the nudity goes there isn't much to talk about actually, one naked body is pretty much the same as another although the inclusion of naked breasts & vagina's isn't necessarily a bad thing & for the girls some bloke gets his wedding tackle out. Now in terms of violence & gore it could have been bloodier, there is a brain in a jar, a severed with a sword hand, a cheap decapitation & a scene where the monster brutally whips a naked man & woman whom are tied together (don't ask). Director Franco shows that he probably would be better off directing traffic as he uses the annoying day-for-night process & he puts constant Owl hooting on the soundtrack to try & convince us that it's the middle of the night! He uses plenty of zooms which seem to go in & out of focus at random & as a whole doesn't do much to add atmosphere to the proceedings apart from a couple of nicely lit shots. Technically Les Experiences Erotiques de Frankenstein is cheap & cheerful, some of the costumes look alright while others like bed sheets, some of the locations are decent, the cinematography is OK & I must admit that the music really got on my nerve's. The special effects are far from special, that lab skeleton is obviously plastic & the monster just looks daft. The acting is of low calibre by everyone involved. Overall I thought it was watchable in a daft & silly but entertaining & fun sort of way. Much better than most of the other stuff I've seen from Franco anyway although that in itself is far from a recommendation. Worth a watch for Euro horror fans if you can find a copy.