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Top Critics (6)
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Fresh (42)
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DVD (12)
Screenwriters Hurlbut & Balderston and Director James Whale have given it the macabre intensity proper to all good horror pieces, but have substituted a queer kind of mechanistic pathos for the sheer evil that was Frankenstein.
Karloff manages to invest the character with some subtleties of emotion that are surprisingly real and touching.
Whale added an element of playful sexuality to this version, casting the proceedings in a bizarre visual framework that makes this film a good deal more surreal than the original.
Another astonishing chapter in the career of the Monster.
Seen today, Whale's masterpiece is more surprising than when it was made because today's audiences are more alert to its buried hints of homosexuality, necrophilia and sacrilege. But you don't have to deconstruct it to enjoy it.
The Bride of Frankenstein has an in-your- face audacity that hasn't dimmed all that much after 63 years.
A riveting, funny, and suspenseful horror classic.
This was to be [director James Whale's] last horror film. Small wonder; what could he possibly have left to prove?
A must for anyone with even a passing interest in horror, this not only confirms Karloff as a master of the genre, but also shows, more than any of Whale's subsequent films, the influence of his vision.
Whale's erudite genius brings it all together. He sculpts every nuance of self-parody, social satire, horror, humour, wit and whimsy into a dazzling whole, keeping every one of his fantastical plates spinning until the tragic, inevitable finale.
one of the greatest movies i've ever seen
The greatest of all the Frankenstein films.
Whale's most perfectly realised movie, a delight from start to finish.
Classic - the pinnacle of Universal horror
My Big Fat Monster Wedding.
[The film impresses] with its painterly and dramatic lighting, beautiful dissolves and tracking shots, sophisticated effects, and unexpected eccentricities.
One of those extraordinary films that transcends genre and period to provide fresh, untold pleasures year after year.
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