FRANKENSTEIN VS. THE CREATURE FROM BLOOD COVE

FRANKENSTEIN VS. THE CREATURE FROM BLOOD COVE
By M. Jarvis

When I first saw the DVD packaging for this film I incorrectly assumed it was a send-up in the vein of LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA. But FRANKENSTEIN VS. THE CREATURE FROM BLOOD COVE or FVTCFBC for short, is a completely different animal. Self confessed lover of all things Universal Monsters, director William Winckler decided to go old school and make his own black and white Frankenstein spectacular.

Mad Scientist Dr. Lazaroff has hopes of resurrecting the original Frankenstein monster in order to help create some super force to fight terrorism (or something like that). Things don’t work out as planned and Frankenstein is on a rampage pausing only to do battle with Dr. Lazaroff’s other, more unruly creation, the so called Creature from Blood Cove. Caught in the middle are some photographers who just want to photograph bathing beauties on the beach.

While I appreciate Winckler’s love for the genre, I fail to see what he accomplishes here. Without some degree of budget and/or production design, it’s difficult to pull of a Frankenstein story. And the locations for the film made it play more like some bad 50’s movie like GOG or something as opposed to the old school Universal Monster films of the 30’s. The dialogue and characterizations add to this 50’s sensibility. But as the setting is clearly the present day, even that choice seems odd. Add to that the very low budget effects and monster make-up and it’s all just too much…or rather too little. And what was up with the ghost of Dr. Frankenstein? The 30’s story, with the fifties look in the modern setting with no budget was tough to sit through. This mix of style played like amateur hour. Was it just that Winckler knew he didn’t have the resources to really do what he wanted so he made it tongue in cheek cheesy so that he could make it work?

I feel for William Winckler. But if you want to be James Whale, you have to be James Whale and not Herbert L. Strock. Winckler’s heart is in the right place. I hope he gets a budget to do a better execution of some of his ideas because I thought the premise and story were good. The execution left me puzzled. At least there was plenty of gratuitous nudity. James Whale never got to have the Bride of Frankenstein go topless but then again he didn’t direct the DOUBLE-D AVENGER.