Look Ma, No Wrapping

The Curse of Frankenstein & Horror of Dracula

1957's The Curse of Frankenstein and 1958's Horror of Dracula remain significant as much for what they ushered in as for what they were. Horror films had been dead for years, relegated to TV skits and reruns, when Hammer Studios put horror back on the map with fresh, highly stylized "gothic horrors." At the time they were quite daring and gory, and both starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Both take place in that strange world we call the Hammerscape, a weirdly burgundy and pastel German-English "Un-Europe." In the 1957 Frankenstein, Cushing is Baron Frankenstein, a sociopathic gentry genius who wants to make a man and is willing to lie, cheat, and kill to do it. The man he finally makes, sadly marred by a damaged stolen brain, is Lee, in a very different, very disturbing version of the creature. With his pasty face and mismatched eyes, Lee's creature seems far less whimsical and far more dangerous than the universal monster. Even today, he's a sickening creation. Proving that Dracula is far more interesting as a predator than a lover, 1958's Dracula put Lee in the role of the vampire and Cushing in the role of the almost-swashbuckling Dr. Van Helsing. Unlike recent incarnations, Lee gives us a statuesque, baritone-voiced dark leader who really might have once been Vlad the Impaler, a dangerous, fuming force to be reckoned with: not a victim, not a romantic, and certainly not a fool.