Gena Radcliffe

After catching Lisa Frankenstein this weekend, check out some of these weird & wild spins on the legendary tale.Now that we've all established that Frankenstein (or Fronkensteen, whichever you prefer) is in fact the name of the doctor, and his creation is just the Creature, we can sit back and enjoy a revival in appreciation for Mary Shelley's landmark story that skillfully wove together body horror, science, and existentialism. Following the critically acclaimed Poor Things is Zelda Williams' 80s-set comedy Lisa Frankenstein, opening in theaters tomorrow, which acts as a nice appetizer before Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited adaptation on the story and Maggie Gyllenhaal's version of Bride of Frankenstein, both set for release next year.While often overlooked in favor of the cooler, sexier Dracula, there's plenty of media dedicated to Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, starting with James Whale's unimpeachable 1931 adaptation and its even better sequel, 1935's Bride of Frankenstein. It's been lovingly parodied (Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein), given a family-friendly treatment (Tim Burton's Frankenweenie), turned into a musical (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and even made into porn (more movies than you can possibly imagine). Here now are a list of some of the more notably unusual (and non-pornographic) takes on the story, offering gore, laughs, romance, or just general weirdness.Poor Things (2023, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos): One of the most critically acclaimed films of last year, while not a direct adaptation of Frankenstein, the bones of it serve as the base for a unique, memorable and mature story. A fearless Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, brought back to life by a mad scientist and initially with the mind of a child, but with a thirst for knowledge and life that thrills, intimidates, and repels everyone around her. Even after learning how to be a civilized member of society despite her horrifying origins, Bella rejects a conventional life. Tony McNamara's script acknowledges that Frankenstein's creature is not a monster so much as a misunderstood miracle, brought into a world that simply wasn't ready for it. (Currently in theaters)Poor Things (TSG Entertainment)Frankenhooker (1990, dir. Frank Henenlotter): Hi, wanna date? That phrase will be burned into your brain after you watch Frank Henenlotter's likably trashy Frankenhooker. After his fiancee is killed in a gruesome lawn mower accident, grief-stricken Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) tries to bring her back to life, starting with parts of various sex workers who die after smoking an explosive strain of crack. The movie itself is, to put it politely, a product of its time, but what makes it worth watching is Patty Mullen as the titular Frankenhooker, who gives a no-holds-barred performance, mugging, stomping around, and adding some slapstick charm to the whole thing. (Streaming on the Criterion Channel and Peacock)Bride of Re-animator (1990, dir. Brian Yuzna): Released the same year, Bride of Re-Animator would make a perfect (if not very gooey) double feature with Frankenhooker. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is back and more arrogant than ever before, not having learned a thing about tampering in God's domain after Re-animator. Despite his last experiment resulting in a series of horrific deaths (and one gruesomely memorable act of oral sex), now West is determined to build an entirely new person out of spare parts. Though the majority of Bride of Re-Animator continues the same over the top, body parts everywhere vibe of the original, his creation (played by soap opera actress Kathleen Kinmont) proves to be an unexpectedly tragic figure, who literally didn't ask to be born. (Streaming on Tubi)Flesh for Frankenstein (1973, dir. Paul Morrissey): Originally released under the title Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (until someone realized that Andy Warhol had absolutely nothing to do with it), Flesh for Frankenstein isn't for the faint of heart. Adding incest, eugenics, and the interplanetary stylings of one Udo Kier to the proceedings, plus gratuitous sex scenes and a laughably excessive amount of gore, pushes an incompetent script (in which one character says To know death, Otto, you must fuck life in the gallbladder!) into something unforgettable. It's not good, but it's unforgettable. (Streaming on the Criterion Channel)Flesh for Frankenstein (Bryanston Distributing Company)I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957, dir. Herbert L. Strock): After the success of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, starring Pa Ingalls himself Michael Landon, Hollywood demanded give us more of that, and Herbert L. Strock answered the call with I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, released barely five months later. Though it's a fairly straightforward adaptation with a modern (well, 1957) angle, it's worth watching for the surprisingly gruesome makeup on star Gary Conway, the teenage Frankenstein ('s Creature) in question. This Dr. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell) may be a mad genius, but he's a sloppy worker, leaving his experiment's face looking like a burnt pizza with one single, staring eye. So his design needs a little work, do you get everything right on the first try?? (Streaming on Plex)The Bride (1985, dir. Franc Roddam): Well, they can't all be winners. They can occasionally be entertaining failures, as is the case with 1985's The Bride. What it lacks in excitement, horror, existential angst, tragedy, and everything else that makes Frankenstein such a remarkable story, it makes up for in camp melodrama, as Sting plays a version of Dr. Frankenstein whose God complex is turned up to 11 on the dial, as is Sting's acting. In contrast, Jennifer Beals, as his rebellious creation Eva, is dialed back to a lite FM 3. Take a drink every time Sting furrows his eyebrows in anger (though you may end up on the floor), and enjoy an unrecognizable Clancy Brown as Dr. Frankenstein's original creation, saving the day and on his way to better things. (For rent on Amazon Prime).HONORABLE MENTIONGothic (1986, dir. Ken Russell): Not a Frankenstein adaptation so much as a story about the creation of Frankenstein as a story, if you want weird, baby, you'll get it right here. Ken Subtlety? Never Heard of It Russell directs a sweaty, creepy, insane tale about Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson, R.I.P.) and her husband Percy Shelley's (Julian Sands, also R.I.P.) fateful weekend trip to the palatial estate of one Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne), their close friend/shared lover/who knows what the hell else. Along with fellow writer John Polidori (Timothy Spall, eating the scenery with his bare hands), and Byron's lover/Mary's stepsister (Miriam Cyr), the group engages in a Dionysian affair of drugs, weird sex, and storytelling, before they spiral into nightmarish hallucinations. Supposedly these events inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, which suggests there might be better living through chemistry after all. (Streaming on the Criterion Channel & Tubi)

Season 4 of True Detective wasn't perfect, but it treated a hard subject with empathy & realism.(CW: suicide. Spoilers ahead.)The finale of True Detective: Night Country aired this past Sunday, and it was met with the usual measured response. Those who liked it thought it was pretty good, those who didn’t were convinced it was the worst thing to ever happen to eyes. Nic Pizzolatto, the original creator of the series, was particularly petty and uncharitable, taking to Instagram to repost some of the harshest criticisms of the season, which, unsurprisingly, he was not involved in.Funnily enough, most of the complaints about Night Country could be applicable to the three earlier installments: lots of interesting ideas with not nearly enough follow-through, occasionally overwritten dialogue, too many characters with too little to do, sacrificing plot for atmosphere, etc. I’ll leave it to speculation as to why this season, in particular, is getting so much hostile pushback.One criticism I’ve seen ties into the closing episode, which (more or less) finds justice for Annie K.’s murder, but leaves the fate of Navarro (Kali Reiss) ambiguous. It ends one year after the research station deaths, which have officially been declared accidental, and Silver Sky has closed. Things have returned to as normal as a godforsaken place like Ennis can get, except that Navarro has left at some point. No, not left, disappeared, with no forwarding address or phone number, with no nothing.Danvers (Jodie Foster), when talking to some state investigators who have a vested interest in where Navarro might be, is cagey at best, only saying “You won’t find her out on the ice.” The last we see of Navarro, she appears to be wandering a much sunnier world than the one she was in before. She even pays a visit to Danvers, as the two of them share a cup of tea and enjoy a pastoral view. Given how much of the season was devoted to Navarro’s struggle to hold herself together, and her family’s history of mental illness, it’s not unreasonable to interpret that this free and happy version is how Danvers has chosen to think about her, and that, in fact, Navarro has committed suicide.True Detective: Night Country (Max)Again, this is very much open to interpretation. Navarro really could be alive and well, chilling with Danvers in Lake Tahoe or wherever. Reiss and showrunner Issa Lopez aren’t confirming either way. What some are finding fault with is that, if Navarro is actually dead, to portray her as being in a happier, better place irresponsibly “romanticizes” suicide.Hollywood has long had a strange relationship with suicide. Mostly it’s portrayed as an impulsive act meant to startle the audience, like Little Bill’s death in Boogie Nights. Sometimes it serves as a tragic turn of events, like the doomed Daisy in Girl, Interrupted. Or, occasionally, it’s meant to condemn a cruel and unjust system, like Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. If you really want an irresponsible take on suicide, there’s Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, a series that inaccurately portrays it as an act of revenge, and reinforces every harmful stereotype of suicidal people as manipulative ad narcissistic.As someone who’s struggled with suicidal depression, I don’t believe that Night Country romanticizes suicide. It’s honest. Rarely does a single event in one’s life trigger a suicidal spiral. It’s slow-growing, accumulative. One day it just occurs to you: I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s not the events of the show that drive Navarro to the edge, she’s already been teetering for a long time. Her violent temper puts her at constant risk of losing her job. She’s haunted by the mental illness that took her mother, and eventually her sister, the one person who was tethering her to the world. Even knowing what really happened to Annie K. brings her cold comfort at best, because at least she knows she wasn’t foolishly grasping at straws. But she’s still alone, and the thing that took her only blood family is close behind her.True Detective: Night Country (Max)Navarro spends much of the season hinting that one of these days she’s going to walk out on that ice and not return. It’s in the way she interacts with people, like Qaavik (Joel Montgrand), her bartender friend with benefits who wants to be more, but she keeps him at a firm distance. It’s not that she doesn’t care about him, but that she doesn’t want anyone keeping her around. It’s a common thing for suicidal people to quietly withdraw from friendships and romantic partners, out of a desire to not cause anyone pain (though of course that part never works), and for no one to talk them out of it.Quite the opposite of irresponsible, Night Country shows tremendous empathy for people who struggle with such thoughts. Navarro isn’t a coward, and she’s not trying to teach anyone a lesson, or drag anyone down with her. Because we struggle so much with the concept of what it means to end one’s life, we create these scenarios where someone is “sending a message” or lashing out when they hurt themselves, when in reality they just want to stop hurting. In imagining a peaceful life for Navarro far away from the murky chill of Ennis, rather than be angry Danvers is honoring her: in another time, and another place, things would have been different. I’m sorry they weren’t.I’m not saying “it’s a good thing Navarro committed suicide.” I am saying that giving her a happy and optimistic ending betrays her as a character, a character who seems like she can’t remember the last time she woke up glad to be alive. There’s no such thing as inevitable in these situations, but there is resignation and acceptance of the idea that sometimes the monster wins, and sometimes people just don’t want to keep going. It’s neither “romantic” or irresponsible. Irresponsible would have been if wrapping up the Tsalal case suddenly made everything better for Navarro, if the weight had been immediately lifted off her shoulders and she settled into a peaceful life, maybe with Qaavik, or forever trading wisecracks with Danvers. It doesn’t always work like that. It would be so nice if it did.

Which ones are actually good? Which ones deserve their anti-acclaim?

Michael Keaton gives a subtle & empathetic performance as a hitman in his waning days.

This dull horror retread should be hidden away in a basement too.

Not really, but it's part of an issue that's becoming bigger & more concerning.

Jane Schoenbrun writes & directs a haunting story of loneliness & obsession.

Richard Linklater directs Glen Powell in a star-making performance.