CT 6: Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks

Remember that bit in Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein where two women cavort in a pool naked while a midget watches from behind a rock? Or how about the bit where a guy in jeans murders a caveman? Me neither. Turns out that ol' Frankie boy is now in some sort of Italian/Transylvania/England type setting in an unspecified time, see jean-wearing guy and the Confederate soldier for evidence, and has taken to experimenting on cavemen who live in the local area. Sounds like perfect riffing material for Cinematic Titanic's sixth effort and for the most part it is.

See the problem with the film is that although it's a great example of Eurotrash exploitation it's not really that much fun. Beyond some titillation inducing nudity (more of which in a minute) and the presence of a dwarf (what is it with hack filmmakers and dwarfs?) it's kind of boring. Sure there's an insanity to some of the ideas, the hunchback porking the wife of an associate who looks like she missed a glittering career in the pro wrestling circuit and a section involving a caveman and the dwarf that plays like an amateur dramatic take on Eegah, but for the most part proceedings are drab. At least there's a bad dubbing job and that wonderful feature of crap films from the 70's the use of modern for the time fashions even if the film is set 150 years previously to keep you visually stimulated.

The subject of visual stimulation takes us nicely to CT's treatment of the film, and something that has brought about some controversy. The Breast Blimp hasn't went down well with some viewers, mainly because again violence and gore have went uncensored whereas nudity gets covered up, literally in this case by a floating blimp that arrives whenever any of the females peel off. My personal problem with it stems from the fact that the woman playing Krista's front bags are clearly the only good thing in this film, apart from one of Frankenstein's servant's amazing shape-shifting hump.

The movie then makes this a strange installment of CT. On one hand it's bizarre and pretty awful leading to some killer riffs. In fact there are many laugh-out-loud moments in this one. We find out what Josh's last day at MST was like and that Joel's college roommate's adoption of fuzzy slipper wearing led to tragic events. There's also a lot of fun had with the odd, synthesiser led soundtrack "stop stepping on ducks". The problem is it isn't consistent. The movie's drab plot and general nature appears to win over in other sections and some of the parts are a bit of a slog. It's a bit of a shame given how good some of the material is, and the fact that again the performers have grown making for an altogether slicker riffing than previous efforts. The odd line still clunks but nowhere near the amount found in earlier editions.

As it stands Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks is destined to be a middling effort from the CT crew, along with Wasp Woman. So far they haven't made anything poor and that fact still remains. This is good stuff it's just not quite up to the level of a couple of the previous efforts. There are still some great moments to savour here but the movie is the real problem. It appears to be a godsend for riffers but is just too dull at times to make truly entertaining.