Gothic here gothic there gothic everywhere. There has been a rise in mainstream gothic horror. Recent and upcoming movies such as Nosferatu, Werwulf, Dracula, The Bride!, Wolf Man and the just released Frankstein all dig this rich seam. Some find gothic horror over the top or overly demonstrative (Emphasis on the demon) I find that it allows for interesting costume and set design, inovative character concepts and lashings of heaving bussoms, lust, tragedy and blood.
I have always found Victor Frankenstein and his monsterous creation fascinating and it is one of the stories strengths and longevity that the question it poses is "which one is the monster?"
Victor is clearly a narcissist with a god complex, while the monster is pretty much angry most of the time; let's be honest, wouldn't you be? They have a fraught father and son relationship and they both need each other. Victor knows that without the monster he is a one man band. A Laurel without a Hardy, a Ray Allen without a Lord Charles, a Del Boy without a Rodders.
The portayals of the monster have been similar, by and large he's presented as an abomination with a face only a mother could love, but surely Frankenstein would have wanted to create a perfect specimen and in that case wouldn't he have been on the lookout for heads with faces that have good bone structure or cheek bones to die for? Wanting to improve on God wouldn't he have made the monster akin to David Gandy? wouldn't he want his creation to be more like Superman than a shambling oaf?
These questions are answered in Guilermo Del Toro's adaptation of The Modern Prometheus as his monster is a cross between Wolverine and a very tall Brad Pitt.
Were he to exist today, Victor Frankenstein would have been on social media as he would probably have had a weekly podcast about makeovers. He would be the celebrity scientist on BBC, he would have written some books about self improvement and he would most likely have had a serial killer character based on him.
Victor and his monster are the ultimate odd couple and I await further takes on these two amazing literrary characters conjured up from the mind of the 20 year old Mary Wollstonencraft Shelley
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having said that;