- Directed by Roger Corman
- Written by Brian Aldiss, Roger Corman
- Stars John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puyxj7inCiE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Combine the classic Frankenstein story with time-traveling science fiction, and you get this mash-up which ended up being really entertaining. As long as you suspend a lot of disbelief. The acting outshines the special effects and story, but it still gets the job done. Thumbs up overall.
Synopsis
Joe Buchanan wanders through the frozen wasteland, and he says a record must be kept. “I’ll start when the timeslips were just beginning.” In the year 2031, Buchanan was a scientist who invented a new weapon that simply makes the enemy disappear. Suddenly, outside, weird things have been happening: time slips, missing people, and weird weather. Could this project be causing the problems? “When the weapon takes something out of time, it sort of leaves a door open,” he explains. The targets apparently aren’t destroyed, they are sent away to some other time and space.
He goes out and gets into his science-fictional self-driving car. He arrives home in time to find children holding a funeral for an obsolete bicycle. The storm gets worse, and a Mongol warrior rides through. It soon vanishes, however. The portal closes and sucks Buchanan through to the other side along with his car. The car can’t access the mainframe anymore. “There are no satellites,” it explains.
He hides the car and walks toward the town in the distance. On the way, he finds some mutilated animals. When he arrives in the village, it’s not what he expected. He sits at a table and notices the year on the newspaper is 1817. He introduces himself to the other man at his table, who is impressed with Buchanan’s digital watch. His name is Dr. Victor Frankenstein. “I’ve heard of your work,” says Buchanan, who jumps on the back of Frankenstein’s carriage. Buchanan soon watches from the shadows as Victor and his monster argue.
The next morning, Buchanan returns to his car and gets it calculating a way to return to the future. He walks back to town and buys a less noticeable suit of clothes. He spots Victor once again and follows him to a courtroom, where he meets Mary Shelley. The man on trial says there was a huge brute who killed his sheep, not the girl who is on trial for killing William Frankenstein. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang.
Buchanan follows Frankenstein once too often and finally encounters the monster in the daylight, and he’s… something. He wants a mate so he won’t be alone, but Victor refuses. The monster runs off, and Buchanan tells Frankenstein what he knows about “the work.” Buchanan tries to guilt Victor in helping the doomed girl. He shows his car to Victor, who is just as impressed with a ballpoint pen.
Buchanan goes to see Elizabeth to get her to help with the girl’s conviction. That doesn’t go the way he expects, so he drives to the Shelley estate. He sees the timeslip cloud in the sky. He talks to Mary Shelly, Percy, and Lord Byron, who thinks the cloud is a “gateway to a distant world.” He could be right! He rushes to the gallows to save Justine, but he’s too late. The villagers throw Buchanan into the river for interfering.
Buchanan has a vision about the future. Mary pulls him out of the river, so he shows her his talking car. He explains about being from the future and that he’s read the book she just started writing. The car gives her a printout of “Frankenstein.” They talk about the real Frankenstein, who lives up on the hill. He really did make a man up there. Buchanan and Mary have some personal time.
Buchanan confronts Victor about killing the monster, but Victor has decided to make it a mate after all. He asks Buchanan for help with the electricity. Buchanan shows him the book too, as a sort of warning. Elsewhere, the monster goes after Elizabeth and tears her apart. The villagers blame Buchanan, but the monster attacks them before they can take revenge.
Back at Frankenstein’s castle, Buchanan refuses to help Victor, but the monster encourages him. They bring in the car to process the electricity, and the car says that time and space are coming apart, and it’s probably not reversible. It might be possible to transport somewhere else though.
Buchanan sets up his laser-implosion gun that’s luckily in the car and hooks it up to the electrical cables that are running up to the lightning rod. Inside, Victor has dug up and “improved” Elizabeth’s body and plans to reanimate her tonight.
Lightning strikes, and both Buchanan’s laser-implosion device and Frankenstein’s lab get the energy they need. Just as Elizabeth wakes up, the laser goes off, opening the portal and sends the whole castle, and everyone inside, to somewhere really, really cold-looking.
Elizabeth wakes up and doesn’t like the looks of her mate. Victor shoots her, sorta-kinda by accident, and the monster breaks Victor in half.
Buchanan pursues the monsters through “this frozen tomorrow,” and finds remnants of a future civilization. Buchanan finds a tunnel in the ice that leads him to a bunker full of technology. Technology that recognizes him. Somehow it’s his own lab in this alternate future and alternate timeline. The monster calls it “the last refuge of mankind.” Buchanan shoots him in the head, but that’s not enough.
The monster tears off his own arm and chases Buchanan around the lab with it. Finally, Buchanan cuts the monster to pieces with his lasers. Buchanan then walks off toward the futuristic city in the distance. ..
Commentary
Time-traveling to meet a fictional character doesn’t seem to phase John Hurt in the least, almost like he expected it. How does he drive all over the countryside and not be burned at the stake or something. No one seemed to really say anything about the car when they did see it.
There’s a lot here that doesn’t work. The visions/dream sequences don’t really go anywhere or mean anything. Percy and Byron don’t go anywhere or do anything relevant. Even Mary is only there for a brief love interest distraction. Why was Buchanan so invested in saving Justine in the first place? Yes, he knew her innocence, but he ought to know about getting too involved with past events. And why, if Buchanan knew his weapon was causing that level of environmental damage, would he continue testing it?
The standout thing about this film has to be the casting. John Hurt and Raul Julia steal the movie. The design of the monster looks more like something out of “Hellraiser” than a Frankenstein movie, but he’s definitely unique and interesting.
It’s an interesting take on the old story, and it’s not exactly what I’d call very good, just a weird story with good actors.