Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Do you love Frankenstein movies? Are you a big Frankenstein movie buff? If, like me you watched those great old movies with Boris Karloff and always felt more sorry for the monster than the mob, then you are a true Frankenstein fan! Now I freely admit I am a lover of all the old Frankenstein films, Boris Karloff, Bavarian castles - all the old spine chilling formulae. but Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was a masterpiece.

On the other hand, perhaps you are just looking for the best Frankenstein mask or where to buy a Frankenstein costume? We aim to please!

Intro image by Oliver Tadpole. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Or spoof horror?

There are so many spoofs of Frankenstein. Every one has their favourite. I loved Mary Shelley's Frankenstein best because of its closeness to the original story, but the vintage films were spoofs of themselves. Everything was so contrived, fantastic, gothic and completely over the top!

Would you like to buy a latex Frankenstein mask? Do you have spooky ideas? What is your favourite Frankenstein costume? If you don't see it, please add it to the list!

How did Mary Shelley come to write Frankenstein?

The movie Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is much closer to the original story! Incidentally, did you know it was Mary who made Shelley famous by promoting his poetry after he died? What triggered Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein? Simply a dare! Frankenstein is a Teenage Fantasy if ever there was one. Just imagine - you are just a teenage girl, home educated, staying in a spooky old building with your poet partner, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the wickedest man in all Europe - Lord Byron. Somebody suggests a ghost story competition and what do you come up with?

After a night scaring each other silly with Gothic nightmares, you write Frankenstein - Or A Modern Prometheus and in doing so, you become even more of an immortal, famous writer than Byron and Shelley, the two most famous poets after Shakespeare!

This all time classic Gothic novel has spawned many, many films, plays and books - some of them serious, some of them funny. Will you be dressing up as Frankenstein's Monster this Halloween?

Unholy Matrimony with the Bride of Frankenstein!

Anyone else feel that the Bride was scarier than the Monster? The only moment I felt like hiding behind the sofa was when she gave her first hiss at poor Frankie! She had such bizarre fashion sense too!

You can buy Bride of Frankenstein for Halloween or fancy dress here. Anything to do with Bride of Frankenstein on Amazon :)

A rhyme from the Immortal Bard - Oliver Tadpole that is!

Harriet thought the behaviour smelly

Of Percy Bysshe, the poet Shelley,

Causing her profound despair 'e

Galloped off with clever Mary!

This made Harriet weep and pine

And leap into the Serpentine -

In doing this because of him,

She overlooked the need to swim!

But Mary wept in time, they say,

When he imbibed Lerici Bay!

Did Mary take another look

At Shelley when she wrote her book

About a man, though meaning well,

In point of fact creating Hell?

He lives through her - or her design -

She brought him back as Frankenstein!

Anyone who saw those films, or the modern Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, will see in something oddly childlike in the monster. Think about those "Terrible Twos" you have known in your life, complete with superstore tantrums, make them eight feet tall and scary looking, and you get the idea. The story makes a statement about the death of innocence at the hands of the mob. Innocence is not always safe of course, though we like to think it is. Frankenstein's monster was soothed by the blind man's violin, but the baying of the mob made him fearful and very angry. Terror in someone so large could be nothing other than dangerous and lethal.

Ah, those early Karloff movies! Such classics! Were they scary in their day? As I remember I only hid behind the sofa when the townspeople had their meeting! Poor Frankie....