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Last week, I reviewed the biopic Mary Shelley, which directly led to watching the film that I review below.

We rarely watch horror movies, which is probably why we missed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1994. But given my current fascination with The Year Without a Summer and Mary Shelley, this October seemed like the perfect time to remedy that and write a review the week before Halloween.

Kenneth Branagh directed the film and played Viktor Frankenstein.

It took us a while to recognize Robert DeNiro as the monster, but that was our favorite role of the movie, played with equal parts tenderness and rage.

We also recognized Helena Bonham Carter, John Cleese, and other British and American actors.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read the book, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. If I did, it would have been a very long time ago in high school.

So, I can’t really compare the movie to the book, but the story seemed much more fleshed out than the old film that I remember with the villagers and pitchforks. I’m assuming that this 1994 film followed the novel more closely than the classic 1931 version where Boris Karloff played the monster.

Most critics disliked this movie, although for weirdly different and contradictory reasons. One reason, though, was that it wasn’t very horrifying. Since I don’t like horror movies, that was fine with me!

Have you seen this film? What did you think?