Resurrecting HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1997

In 1997, NBC aired a mini-series remake of Universal's 1944 HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. It's little-remembered today, never seems to get much of a mention, so I thought I'd offer a few words about and images from it here (I apologize in advance for the quality of the images; they were capped from an old VHS rip, as this has never had a proper digital-era release).

Helmed by prolific tv director Peter Werner, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN '97 was the network's Halloween project that year. It ended up--for whatever reason--airing over 2 nights in early November.

TV Guide promo.

Adrian Pasdar stars as homicide detective Vernon Coyle, who, working a series of bizarre murders, is led into a world of monsters operating in contemporary Los Angeles.

The always-excellent C.C.H. Pounder is Dr. Shauna Kendall, a professor up on the monster lore who becomes Coyle's Van Helsing. In horror movies, this kind of very well-worn ambulatory exposition encyclopedia can be a really thankless part but Pounder tackles it with sincerity.

And then, there are the monsters. Crispian Grimes (Greg Wise) is a modern-day Dracula, a wealthy vampire who owns a club called "House of Frankenstein," has his own wolf-man henchman (Carsten Norgaard) for carrying out dirty work and finances an ultimately-successful Arctic expedition to find the long-lost Frankenstein's monster (Peter Crombie), which he intends to keep on ice and use as, no kidding, an attraction at his club (yeah, it's that kind of movie).

The Frankenstein monster on ice...

...and thawed.

Vampire Grimes in more-or-less human form...

...and in full monster form.

Grace Dawkins (the breathtaking Teri Polo) survives a werewolf attack, becomes involved with Coyle (who is investigating that attack) and becomes a werewolf herself. Grimes is soon infatuated with her as well--who can blame him?--and proves a particularly pernicious suitor.

Grace Dawkins (Teri Polo), flashing werewolf eyes.

The werewolves of HoF97 can be seen as a bit of a cheat. Screen werewolves are typically presented as some sort of human/wolf hybrid, a make-up job or something the production's other creature creators cobble together, but here, the humans just shed a lot of mass and, through the "magic" of crude CG morphing, change into regular wolves. In a bit of ham-handed symbolism, Dawkins becomes a white wolf. On the evening of her first transformation, Grimes, in his bat-man form (which proves the creators had seen BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA),[*] carries off her monster-form wolf.

The Frankenstein monster doesn't much care for the modern world. When Grimes tries to enslave him, he likes that even less. The mini spends a lot of time setting up these conflicts, then throws the characters against one another. Images:

Rubber-suited Grimes confronts an enchained Frankenstein monster.

A POV "vampire-vision" shot of Grimes as he flies around L.A.

One of Grimes' undead henchmen.

Grimes at the throat of Dawkins.

Coyle's police captain (J.A. Preston), reacting to the film's plot.

The 1990s were a great era for cinema but generally a poor one for horror movies and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN '97 sort of conforms to that stereotype. It puts together a lot of talent and manages some noteworthy moments, but it's definitely not a special movie. It's played entirely straight and while irony, in such a terminally self-amused age, really can begin to feel like the shackles of youth, this could have benefited from a lot more of it. It takes a modicum-or-more of creative spark to mold something memorable out of this kind of rubbed-to-nubbins material and there just isn't much of that here. Character motives are weak or non-existent, the characters themselves are rote and uninteresting, visual flare is fleeting. A lot of what the mini gives us is stuff we've already gotten from other movies. And gotten. And gotten. And gotten. The original 1944 picture of the same name was the 2nd of Universal's "monster mash" flicks, a point when the studio had already skied over the Selachimorpha when it came to its once-formidable horror movies and, its glory days of Gothic gloom mythogenesis fading, it was cutting budgets and creative corners while trying to maintain box-office receipts by matching against one another their still-profitable monsters--letting the gimmick itself be the grunt-work. Oddly enough, the remake fits comfortably in that milieu. One could argue it merits its obscurity but if, like this writer, one keeps warm a special, dark, cobweb-bedecked cavern in one's heart for this kind of monster mythology, mileage may vary.

For the curious, there are multiple versions of both parts of HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN '97 on Youtube. Here's an NBC promo for the first night of the mini.

--j.

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[*] Make-up effects artist Greg Cannom, who died only last month, worked on both this and, a few years earlier, BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.