The Bride Revision

Ryan Kreps
Media Review Writing

The Frankenstein monster has always been a gut wrenching tale of a violent, masochistic, creature that terrorizes a small village. But what if the story has more too it than that, what if in actuality this is a tale, of compassion, of friendship, of the need for every living creature to feel close to someone. The film The Bride of Frankenstein delves deeper into this idea and shows that much like a nerd in high school the Frankenstein monster is just looking to fit in.
The opening sequence of the film recalls the villagers destroying the windmill and assumedly destroying the monster along with it, but the creature survives only to take more lives the minute he ascends from the rubble. He then goes on to run amuck once again with the spears and torches of the villagers close behind, this would lead you to believe that this beast is nothing more than devilish creature hell bent on destruction, but as the monster runs from his captors he comes upon a small cottage in the woods, the home to a lonely blind man praying for a companion, and when this giant behemoth walks into the house, instead of screaming and running, he thanks god that he has finally been sent a friend.
In one of the most memorable scenes in cinema history, the Frankenstein monster and an old hermit, sit together for a meal of soup, cigars, wine, and friendship. The smile practically never leaves the creatures face as he learns to speak and smoke as well. It softly coos while the hermit plays a haunting violin melody, and excitedly laps up the soup that has been offered to him. It seems that both the blind hermit and his unikely acquaintance have finally created a match, and neither of them will feel the stab of loneliness again, but sure enough a group of local towns people stop in to see this mad to party and as their screams echo through the woods, the destruction begins again.
Is the ogre like creature even capable of friendship or love? He happily ate with the bind hermit, but as soon as he met opposition he went back to smashing. Or is it like the famous last words the monster exclaims as the tower falls around him “We belong dead!”This is not a simple tale of a creature with no needs but to destroy, this is a story of a man brought back to life, and though his grotesque features inspire horror, all he really wants is a friend.