The Revenge of Frankenstein

Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) escapes the gallows and resumes his experiments while working in a hospital for the poor.

The Revenge of Frankenstein is the second entry in Hammer’s Frankenstein series, following The Curse of Frankenstein, and picks up right where the first one leaves off.

The production values are up to Hammer’s usual standards, and director Terrance Fisher does a great job of framing his shots and creating great atmosphere, but the movie just can’t escape its lackluster script.

Cushing’s Dr. Frankenstein is bit more hardened this time around, and a good evolution from the first film; indeed it seems that frequent Hammer screenwriter Jimmy Sangster wants to move beyond the typical “mad-scientist creation gone amok” formula that pervaded the later Universal Frankenstein movies and focus on Cushing’s character, but in so doing, he forgets to include any kind of real monster and, as a result, fails to deliver any kind of payoff in the third act.

This wouldn’t have been such a large problem if The Revenge of Frankenstein was the middle volume of a trilogy, and given the movie’s ending, perhaps that was the plan. Although, since the next entry Hammer’s Frankenstein series wouldn’t come for another 6 years, the plan obviously changed.