Bride of Frankenstein

The Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American feature film directed by James Whale, a classic horror film with elements of comedy, a direct sequel to the film Frankenstein.

The film premiered in the United States on May 6, 1935. In 1998, the film, as having great artistic significance, was added to the US National Film Registry.

The film opens with a prologue set in 1816.

In a cozy room in front of a fireplace in an ancient castle, three great Englishmen are sitting: Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and his wife Mary. They discuss the novel "Frankenstein" that Mary has just written, while briefly recounting the contents of the original film. After a long discussion, the men declare that Frankenstein's monster should not just die. They require the writer to continue. At first she refuses, but then succumbs to persuasion and improvises the first lines of the sequel: "... no one could have imagined that the monster survived the fire…"

The prologue ends. The main action begins where the plot of the first film ends.

The mill burns down and falls apart. The surrounding residents of the town believe that the monster died, but the monster escaped in a half-flooded basement. When the people leave, he gets out of the basement, killing a careless peasant who turned out to be the father of the girl Maria who drowned in the first film, and runs away into the woods. Once again, the alarmed residents of the town pursue the monster, overtake it and tie it with chains to a post, intending to burn it. However, the monster manages to free itself and escape, but in doing so, it accidentally injures the hand. The monster finds shelter in the secluded house of a blind hermit. Not knowing who his guest is, the old man nurses his burned hand, teaches him to speak simple words, explains their meaning, and plays the violin for him. The monster is enjoying the lessons. But as soon as the two hunters appear at the door of the hut, the monster has to run again.

Meanwhile, to Frankenstein, who has decided to abandon the continuation of dangerous experiments, is the mad scientist Dr. Pretorius, who is conducting research in approximately the same direction, trying to revive dead matter. He even managed to create living likenesses of people – only very small ones. In order to bring his experiments to a logical conclusion, he needs the assistance of Frankenstein. Pretorius demands that he continue his experiments. Frankenstein refuses. However, Pretorius manages to capture the monster, and he blackmails Frankenstein into creating a girlfriend for the monster. In the end, Frankenstein agrees and creates a woman from fragments of dead bodies.

However, the "bride" is frightened by the monster and rejects it. Out of desperation and frustration, the monster sheds a tear, blows up the laboratory, the bride and Pretorius along with him, but before that releases Henry Frankstein and his bride Elizabeth with the words: "Go… You Are Alive!"

In addition to the monster created by Frankenstein in the original film, the living dead can be considered a woman ("bride"), assembled from body parts and revived by a pair of mad scientists. The process of reviving the "bride" is similar to the process of creating the first monster and requires a large amount of energy that scientists get from lightning during a thunderstorm.

The monster itself, as in the first film, is characterized by great strength and aggressive behavior. At the same time, during the film, he develops as a person: he learns what friendship is, and also learns to distinguish good from bad and say simple phrases.

The "bride" created by Frankenstein does not speak and only screams in horror at the sight of the male monster. At the end of the film, the monster sacrifices himself, becoming disillusioned with his own existence.

The film shows a whole group of creatures created by Dr. Pretorius. The doctor keeps each of them in a separate jar, like museum exhibits.

One of the creatures turns out to be a small mermaid – the result of Pretorius ' experiments with sea creatures. The creature is in a jar of water and looks like a classic mermaid (a woman with a fish tail) of very small size (about the size of a normal person's palm). It is not clear whether it is reasonable.

The film shows a whole group of creatures created by Dr. Pretorius. The doctor keeps each of them in a separate jar, like museum exhibits.

The creatures look like ordinary people, but are very small in size (about the size of a normal person's palm). It is not clear whether they are intelligent, and whether they can speak – they utter sounds similar to a squeak, but it is not known how meaningful they are.