- 7 weeks ago
It's alive! Join us as we countdown our picks for the greatest adaptations of Mary Shelley's monster masterpiece! Our list spans over a century of cinema, from groundbreaking classics to quirky reimaginings. Which Frankenstein film stitched together the perfect balance of horror, heart, and iconic imagery? Let us know your favorite creation in the comments below!
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00:00A man of science who sought to create a man after his own image.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the greatest adaptations of Mary Shelley's seminal Frankenstein.
00:13Better not touch our friend here while I'm gone. Let him rest in peace while he can.
00:20Number 10. Frankenstein.
00:21Well, we might as well start at the beginning.
00:24The 1910 Frankenstein produced by Thomas Edison's movie studio is historic as the very first film adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel.
00:31Being just 16 minutes long, it obviously doesn't delve too deeply into thematic complexities of the story or scare audiences quite like later installments would do.
00:40That said, the film's special effects, especially the creature's creation scene, were groundbreaking at the time,
00:46showcasing inventive visual storytelling before editing and makeup became standard tools.
00:50It's not the most faithful interpretation of Shelley's vision, but it was the starting point for over a century of Frankenstein films
00:57and remains a landmark in both horror and movie history.
01:01Number 9. Lisa Frankenstein.
01:03Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no. Don't cry.
01:08Don't cry. Your tears. The smell is so bad.
01:11From screenwriter Diablo Cody comes this gloriously weird and modern take on Shelley's myth.
01:16Lisa Frankenstein reanimates the legendary gothic story as a dark teen comedy about a girl who literally builds her perfect boyfriend.
01:24Catherine Newton and Cole Sprouse shine in a film pack with 80s camp that trademark Cody dialogue in a surprising emotional core.
01:32Did you love her?
01:38I want that.
01:41But beneath its candy-colored chaos lies some sharp commentary on love, death, and the power of reinvention.
01:48Cody's script transforms Shelley's question about creation into a coming-of-age metaphor,
01:53one about crafting identity and embracing imperfection.
01:56It's not a traditional Frankenstein adaptation, but it's a good one.
02:00Why didn't you tell me?
02:03Well, that's okay. We can...
02:08I mean, you don't need one of those to be a man.
02:10Number 8. Frankenweenie
02:12When you lose someone you love, they never really leave you.
02:17They just move into a special place in your heart.
02:20He'll always be there, Victor.
02:24I don't want him in my heart.
02:26I want him here with me.
02:27Perhaps Tim Burton's most personal and charming film,
02:30Frankenweenie reframed Shelley's story as a boy's love letter to his dead dog.
02:35Expanding his short from 1984, Burton tells the story of young Victor Frankenstein,
02:39who resurrects his beloved dog, Sparky, after a tragic accident.
02:43Victor, what have you done?
02:46You said yourself, if you could bring back Sparky, you would.
02:49Yes, but that was different, because we couldn't.
02:52It's easy to promise the impossible.
02:54What you did was a very serious thing.
02:58Crossing the boundary between life and death.
03:00Reanimating a corpse.
03:01It's very...
03:03upsetting.
03:04Shot in gorgeous black and white, and featuring fantastic stop-motion animation,
03:09this is one of the most creative Frankenstein adaptations.
03:11There's the usual Burton-esque fun, but also something profoundly touching.
03:16A reminder that science and storytelling are often intertwined by their search for meaning.
03:20The director's vision captures the childlike wonder at the heart of Shelley's novel,
03:24while also spinning that trademark Burton weirdness that everyone knows and loves.
03:28To you, science is magic and witchcraft, because you have such, such small minds.
03:36I cannot make your heads bigger, but your children's heads.
03:41I can take them and crack them open.
03:45This is what I try to do, to get at their brains.
03:49Number 7.
03:50Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
03:52Flawed, but certainly grand, Kenneth Branagh's film is perhaps the most faithful adaptation
04:11of Shelley's novel, even if it sometimes drowns in its own operatic excess.
04:15Starring Branagh and Robert De Niro as the creature, it aims to be the definitive version
04:20of Shelley's novel, very literally.
04:22Very Shakespearean, and unfortunately for some, not very scary.
04:25I have loved in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine,
04:34and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
04:40In a fun twist on usual proceedings, De Niro's creature is intelligent and deeply human,
04:44which nicely reclaims the character's literary dignity.
04:48And for many, the movie's excessive melodrama is part of the charm, being a gothic tragedy
04:53at full throttle.
04:54Sumptuous visuals and Patrick Doyle's soaring score give the film a gravitas, while its moral
05:00question about life, death, and the divine spark remain powerfully intact.
05:04Call it over-the-top perfection.
05:05Come with us!
05:09I am done with man!
05:11Number 6.
05:12Frankenstein, the true story.
05:14You're afraid.
05:16I was afraid at first.
05:19The way we've been brought up.
05:20We've been brought up to fear.
05:23To fear the punishment of the gods.
05:27But Prometheus defied them.
05:29This made-for-TV movie gets closer than most to Shelley's philosophical and emotional essence.
05:34It's also probably the most underrated Frankenstein ever filmed.
05:38Frankenstein, the true story delivers a sweeping and tragic retelling that nicely emphasizes the
05:42main themes of Shelley's work.
05:44Mainly beauty, decay, and moral consequence.
05:46What a model parent you've been.
05:48You loved your creature so long as it was pretty, but when it lost its looks, huh?
05:52There was another matter.
05:53So much for your dainty conscience.
05:55It humanizes both Victor and his creation, and said creature begins his life beautifully
06:00only to decay as Victor's hubris grows.
06:02A brilliant visual metaphor that strikes at the heart of the story's themes.
06:06Lavish sets, emotional performances, and groundbreaking makeup effects elevate the movie into a near-operatic
06:12tragedy.
06:13While other adaptations are more cinematic, this one goes for realism, and we're certainly
06:17glad that it does.
06:18Victor made me.
06:20God has forgiven him for that sin.
06:23He has a child now.
06:25Our child.
06:29Child.
06:30What have you to do with life, you thing of death?
06:33Number 5.
06:33Frankenstein.
06:35Then I saw it.
06:38Your name.
06:45Victor Frankenstein.
06:48Coming from the visionary Master Guillermo del Toro, we knew that his Frankenstein wouldn't
06:54disappoint, and it didn't.
06:56We've seen this story a gazillion times before, but del Toro brings his gorgeous style and production
07:01design to the proceedings, giving it a life and a visual vigor we haven't yet seen on the
07:06big screen.
07:06My creator.
07:15I demand a single grace from you.
07:18This thing is a gothic epic.
07:21Lavish sets, wonderful costumes, rich cinematography.
07:24It's all here.
07:25Jacob Elordi's creature is also more than just a monster.
07:29Like De Niro's iteration, he's smart, sensitive, and tortured, much like how Shelley envisioned.
07:33He gives a standout performance, lending the movie a strong heart to go with in an assumptuous
07:38design.
07:39Del Toro doesn't reinvent the Frankenstein wheel here, but it's 150 minutes of sheer cinema.
07:44Now, run.
07:52Number 4, The Curse of Frankenstein.
07:54What do you think of it?
07:55It's horrible.
07:57Paul, the features are not important.
08:00What matters is I'm creating a being that will live and breathe.
08:04Once the scars on the face heal, it won't look so bad.
08:06Hammer films, The Curse of Frankenstein, didn't just revive the creature for a new generation.
08:10It basically reinvented cinematic horror.
08:12Peter Cushing's calculating victor and Christopher Lee's ghastly creature ushered in a bloodier
08:18and more morally complex era of gothic storytelling, with its level of violence being quite shocking
08:23for the time.
08:23It's no longer sufficient to bring the dead back to life.
08:26We must create from the beginning.
08:28We must build up our own creature.
08:31We live up from nothing.
08:33From what?
08:35Why, what on earth are you talking about?
08:37Forget the whole.
08:38Now we must take the part.
08:40Limbs, organs, and then we must build.
08:44Shot in lurid Eastman color, it was a bold departure from Universal's more black and white melancholy.
08:49This Frankenstein isn't a tragic visionary, but a cold-blooded egotist.
08:53A man whose pursuit of knowledge crosses every boundary known to man.
08:57Hammer's emphasis on Gord's sensuality lifted horror into modernity.
09:01And that laboratory set?
09:03Holy cow.
09:04What masterful production to sign.
09:06Have you ever been in that laboratory of his?
09:08No.
09:10You cannot possibly conceive the dreadful thing he's proposing to do.
09:15What are you trying to tell me, Paul?
09:17The dicta's wicked?
09:18Insane?
09:21I'm neither wicked nor insane.
09:24He's just so dedicated to his work that he can't see the terrible consequences that could result.
09:27Number 3, Young Frankenstein.
09:30Of course.
09:30I'm sure we'll get along splendidly.
09:32Oh, sorry.
09:34I, uh, you know, I don't mean to embarrass you, but I'm a rather brilliant surgeon.
09:41Perhaps I could help you with that hump.
09:44What hump?
09:45Mel Brooks' comedic masterpiece is the rare parody that somehow manages to equal the source material that it mocks.
09:51Starring Gene Wilder as Victor Frankenstein's grandson, the film perfectly recreates the tone, look, and the spirit of the classic Universal Monster movies while turning every gothic trope into comedic gold.
10:02In other words, his veins, his feet, his hands, his organs would all have to be increased in size.
10:08Exactly.
10:11He would have an enormous schwanstucker.
10:19That goes without saying.
10:21The black and white cinematography and authentic 30s lab props serve as wonderful cinematic throwbacks, and the razor-sharp script earned an Oscar nomination, a rarity in the comedy genre.
10:31Wilder's manic sincerity keeps the movie grounded, and the ensemble around him is sheer perfection.
10:37Somehow, in making fun of Frankenstein, Brooks made one of the finest versions of it, revitalizing the franchise for the modern age.
10:44Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, 54 inch wide gorilla?
11:01Is that what you're telling me?
11:05Number two, Frankenstein.
11:07Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous?
11:11Where should we be if nobody tried to find out what lies beyond?
11:14James Wells' Frankenstein is where cinema and mythology collided.
11:17With Boris Karloff's unforgettable portrayal of the creature, this adaptation transforms Shelley's philosophical tale into one of Hollywood's most enduring icons.
11:25Even to this day, when people think of the monster, they think of his giant forehead and neck bolts.
11:30The lab, the lightning, it's alive!
11:33These moments define cinema for generations.
11:36Well's direction brings expressionist flair, while Karloff infuses the monster with heartbreaking innocence.
11:54But yes, it's also absolutely terrifying, with the lake scene being legendary in movie history.
12:01That goes hard to this day.
12:03Never mind 1931.
12:05A landmark in visual design, makeup, and just basic movie storytelling, Frankenstein is still alive nearly a full century later.
12:12As I said before, I say again, here's, here's to a son, to the house of Frankenstein.
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12:36Number one, Bride of Frankenstein.
12:38James Wells' The Bride of Frankenstein isn't just a rare sequel that improves on the original.
12:48It's one of the greatest movies ever made.
12:50Expanding on both the 1931 original and a small subplot from Shelley's novel,
12:55Wells blends gothic horror, black comedy, and emotional pathos into something truly transcendent.
13:00Before you came, I was all alone.
13:03It is bad to be alone.
13:06Alone.
13:08Bad.
13:10Friend.
13:11Good.
13:12Boris Karloff gives a moving performance, turning the creature into a figure of loneliness and yearning,
13:17while Elsa Lanchester's electrifying bride became an icon of horror in mere minutes of screen time.
13:23That hair is just iconic.
13:25With striking visuals, daring themes of identity and creation,
13:28and even a fun framing device starring a fictional Mary Shelley,
13:32The Bride of Frankenstein remains not just the definitive Frankenstein movie,
13:35but the definitive monster movie.
13:37Period.
13:38Yes.
13:39Go.
13:40You live.
13:42Go.
13:45You stay.
13:47We belong dead.
13:50Are we forgetting one of your favorites?
13:52Come alive in the comments down below.
13:54And don't forget to like and subscribe for more WatchMojo videos.
13:57ныk.com.
14:13I'm sorry.
14:15I'm sorry.
14:15I'm sorry.
14:16I'm sorry.
14:19I'm sorry.
14:19I'll say it's fine.
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