Flesh for Frankenstein

This is the only film in our constellation in which you will see Udo Kier in a laboratory, delightfully having sex with a dead girl pieced together from parts of various bodies, while digging around the insides of her ripped-open abdomen and admonishing his assistant not to look at him like a pervert and delivering the philosophical post-coitus addendum “To know death, you have to fuck life”. Produced by Andy Warhol (!), the controversial Flesh for Frankenstein has a horror-movie theme, but there is no sign of horror here. It’s only explicitly gory, but in a highly artificial way that today comes across as rather comical. And over-the-top actors and their strained placement in the scene are almost theatrically unnatural. In one scene, two conversing characters even stand side by side, facing the camera. That said, the plot, with supporting characters like the sex-crazed MILF wife and her lover and the children who secretly observe all of the impropriety happening in Frankenstein’s castle, is well thought out, even with the haughty aristocratic tone that runs through the whole story (the well-filmed dinners at the long castle table). But the overall directorial execution... It’s almost Ed Woodian in places. (01/11/2020)

Sleazy trash. (10/09/2013)

Andy Warhol's Frankenstein is essentially a trash film, and I understand that it won't appeal to everyone, but the portrayal of the mad scientist, who is perverse, similar to his assistant, revitalizes this story and gives it a slightly different dimension than what is usual in the "Frankenstein" concept. This is no small thing from such a film, and it is very explicit, both in its violence and its nudity. (03/05/2017)