Flesh for Frankenstein [DVD] (D)

Co-produced by Andy Warhol, this film was directed by Factory stalwart Paul Morrissey with mostly Italian funding. In a broad interpretation of the ever-popular gothic horror story by Mary Shelley, Baron Frankenstein, a necrophiliac, has created two creatures, male and female, intending that they produce a super-breed of the human race. Permeating the narrative with incestuous and sado-masochistic overtones, the story recurrently features disembowelling, torture and brutal sex acts. Reading the film as wickedly pure camp is probably the best way to derive pleasure from its deliberate sensationalism, violence, gore, cheesy production values and bad acting. But despite its artistic short-comings, some interpreted the film as a comment on American excesses, particularly sexual, that will be undeniably passed onto the next generation (represented by a pair of souless children, products of an incestuous and loveless relationship) who will revel even more joyously in extravagant and amoral degradation and corruption. Starring Udo Kier as Baron Frankenstein. Originally filmed in Spacevision 3-D, this is the flat version. Only loosely based on the novel by Mary Shelley, this film presents the erotic, horrific, gory and outrageous adaptation of the, by comparison, rather sweet novel. It is a cult classic enjoying a camp status similar to other Paul Morrissey films. There are zombies, silent children, incestuous relationships, necrophilia and gruesomeness set in the familiar mad scientist laboratory. A black comedy, a schlock horror. Cast includes Joe Dallesandro (Andy Warhol’s factory star), Udo Kier, Monique Van Mooren, and Arno Juerging.