Review: The Frankenstein Theory (2013)

Review by Disgruntled Monkey

Director: Andrew Weiner

Starring: Kris Lemche, Joe Egender, Timothy V. Murphy

Writers: Vlady Pildysh, Andrew Weiner

What if Frankenstein was real? What if he had survived to the modern age? What if this was a really good movie? Well, first off I would have high praise for it; the core idea is extremely interesting. Unfortunately it’s not very well handled and what we are left with turns out to be a very boring movie that adds nothing to the found footage genre.

Frankenstein Theory starts things off on a bad foot by committing one of the greatest sins in horror movies, namely, cramming the film with unlikeable characters. Other than maybe one person, all of the characters come across as douche-bags. They are either so engrossed in scientific study they forget about the cost of human life, or jock arseholes more intent on making fun of people than doing their jobs.

So with the care factor at about zero for the characters, I was still hoping for a movie that delivered some scares. Regrettably the story takes a while to warm up and when it does start hitting its stride it doesn’t really add up to much. While the Arctic Circle plays well into the concept behind the movie - and its conceit that the book is based on fact - it ends up a very dreary back drop and only adds to the tediousness of the film overall.

The supposedly big pay off at the end is massively anti climatic and you can’t help but feeling disheartened by the whole thing. Investing so much time for such a shaky shot at the subject can really turn people off found footage movies as a whole. There was so much potential in this movie it’s just sad to see it ultimately squandered.

Shocked to discover this was done by the people behind The Last Exorcism.

One thing that I will give the film is the visuals, they are crisp and clear most of the time. If anything, this proves that just because you’re a found footage movie, doesn’t mean you’ve got to look like crap.

I can’t say that this is entirely a horrible movie, but it’s certainly not worth your time. Personally I think there is enough potential in the premise that perhaps another writer could be able to find an interesting story in it. If you must watch all found footage movies under the sun then I’m not really going to be able to stop you but for anyone else just avoid this one.