FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL
Doctor Simon Helder, a follower of Baron Victor Frankenstein, is arrested and sentenced to confinement in an insane asylum for performing “unholy experiments”. Inside, he meets the earthy “Angel” of the asylum named Sarah, who is mute, and confronts the Baron, the greatest moment in the young doctor’s life. Believed dead, Frankenstein explains that he is to be addressed as Dr. Karl Victor among the inmates. Next morning, the doctor gives Simon a tour of the grounds. Eventually, Simon discovers the Baron is practicing his unorthodox experiments in the asylum. The Baron confesses, and together they bring life to the most grotesque and appalling creature. The beast appears more ape-like than human with hair-covered body, torn bits of flesh, stiches completely covering his forehead, and huge hands. According to the doctor, the Monster was once an inmate of the asylum, who was killed trying to escape. The Monster is kept in a cage with reinforced bars. Together, the two men replace the mangled tissue in the creature’s eyesockets. They are successful, and when the beast returns to consciousness, he springs to his feet and thrusts the Baron aside with his brute strength. Under anesthetics, the creature is again placed unconscious.
Frankenstein locks the Monster back into the cage and begins to contemplate the brain transplant he will soon perform on it. The scientist uses the brain of a convenient suicide victim to perform the delicate surgery. The two surgeons remove the creature’s old brain and replace it with the newer and more intelligent one. About ten days later, the creature recovers and calls out to the overjoyed scientists. They consider the experiment a success. The sobbing Monster becomes overwhelmingly hungry and its body overtakes the brain. The beast attacks Simon with a jagged piece of glass, but Frankenstein’s timely appearance saves him. The Baron wraps his ether-saturated coat around the creature’s head and the drowsy thing is placed back into his cage. Dementedly, Frankenstein suggests that he mate the Monster and Sarah together, but Simon refuses, calling the entire thing mad. To prevent the perverted plans of Frankenstein, Simon poisons the Monster and enters the cage to make sure the thing is dead. However, he overlooks the huge Monster’s strength. Within the grip of the creature, Simon struggles desperately to free himself when suddenly a horrified Sarah cries out to the Monster to release Simon. Bewildered, the creature releases Simon and both Simon and Sarah flee the hidden laboratory, leaving the Monster behind in a rampage. Now free, the creature runs rampant through the graveyard during an electrical storm, uncovering graves in search of his original body. The director of the asylum discovers the terrifying secret and sends his wardens and even the inmates to seek and destroy the Monster in the darkness of the night. Meanwhile, the beast is with Sarah. As the creature extends its arm to Sarah, the inmates savagely attack the Monster, ripping its body apart. The film concludes with Simon and Sarah sitting and staring at the Baron, who mad stricken, plans new experiments. (Thanks to Robert Marrero’s Horrors of Hammer book for the plot summary.
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