Depraved

A joy of an indie horror film. Reaching beyond the ideology of Shelly's work, there is no preoccupation here with God and Prometheus but instead a focus on trauma leaving voids forever unfulfilled. (What is God when science can work miracles?) Fessenden shows real compassion for the Doctor and real compassion for the Monster, which means when it ends there are no torches and pitchforks - the Monster slips right into the maddening crowd and blends right in, scars and all.

a fessenden FRANKENSTEIN (by way of MICE AND MEN) which bleakly posits that the only way of escaping human cycles of exploitation, trauma and violence is to withdraw outright, such is our essential depravity and hopelessness. the final gesture is crushing in its compassionate, dignified resignation; if one can only ‘bring the war home', it's best not to go home at all.

Slow and plodding at times. The overall premise is sketchy at best. The interesting parts take too long to get started. I disliked the kooky overlaid special effects. The dialog is very poor and most of the acting performances were dispassionate and ordinary. There were a lot of missed opportunities to be better. The plot is insufficient and frequently unconvincing. However, the basic subject is quite interesting.

watchable

Engrossing, well-crafted and well-imagined contemporary take on Mary Shelley's horror classic. I'm not sure how that clumsy editing closes the whole thing, and some of the acting -- specially Polidori's character -- seems too on the nose, but the title character hits home every time he's on screen and this is either way more than just a "Frankenstein of the Hudson", but a real melodrama of how lonely and traumatic would be for a man to be born old in such wicked, money/brutality-driven world.

The dialogue is unbearable--endless exposition and bloviating.

Were it not for its bad-faith misrepresentation of serious things like war trauma and the field of biology, this would be an abysmal Frankenstein anyway. But that makes it even worse.