It seems the sci-fi/horror genre is generally best used when addressing man dealing rashly with the unknown. Alien and, Creature from the Black Lagoon are good examples of this, but Frankenstein, the classic of classics, is probably the best. Frankenstein is a little different, though. Instead of dealing inappropriately with one particular creature (even if that creature is representative of something bigger), this main character, Dr. Henry (not Victor, as in the novel) Frankenstein, blunders with the power of life itself. The process and the consequences are equally unforgettable. Frankenstein is haunting, intriguing, and is a blast to watch.

Half-ironically, the movie begins with a burial scene. The atmosphere is so bleak that the sky itself seems to be dead. Immediately after the burial, the on-looking Dr. Frankenstein and his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz, exhume the corpse. The theme of the story is set immediately. Death, placed at the front of the film, becomes emphasized as being always ultimately the point of life, but Frankenstein's immediate exhumation shows his determination to change that aspect of the world, and to make death the beginning, as it is the beginning of the movie.

As I'm sure you know, Frankenstein's goal is to bring the dead back to life. Forget the ramifications for now; the process itself is enough to drive one mad, and this scientist is about as mad as they get. He labors tirelessly, secluding himself from his soon-to-be wife and all other family. When they do decide to intrude upon whatever experimentation it is that he's involved in, he lets them into his castle only because of the violent thunderstorm. (Perhaps the storm is nature's fury at what it knows is about to happen.) When his experiment succeeds, interestingly only with the help of a bolt of lightning, he maniacally yells those famous lines, "It's alive. It's alive! It's alive! IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!" as well as the less famous line, "In the name of God, now I know what it feels like to be God!" Frankenstein has reached the end of science. He has harnessed the power of God. If you're familiar with these Babylonian tales, you know what comes next: He's about to go through hell.

At first, Frankenstein takes great pride in his creation. When the creature reacts violently to its first encounter with fire, however, Frankenstein realizes he can't control his monster, and he realizes he has made a terrible mistake. His impeccable genius has created an abomination unlike anything the world has seen. From here, his life spirals wildly and uncontrollably. The doctor, horrified at his own creation, at first leaves the creature locked away in its dungeon. He then gives up on it and attempts to have it killed. When the monster gets loose and terrorizes the townspeople, not all of whom Frankenstein is unfamiliar with, Frankenstein finally decides to personally and actively deal with the problem he has created. "I made it with these hands. And with these hands, I'll destroy him," he says.

The film's commentary on our reaction to the unknown is important. Just as the monster, in its infancy, responds violently to that which it does not understand (fire) the degenerate Fritz overreacts to the monster's rage, terrorizing the monster relentlessly, beating it with a rope and waving a torch in its face. The monster's first experiences with the world require it to fight and even kill in order to survive, so, for him, that is how the world works. The only character that gives the monster a fair chance is a child, and by this point the monster does not know how to respond even to kindness. Society reacts to its unknown in the same infantile manner as Fritz and the monster itself, only worsening the monster's character, forming a mob to hunt it down as soon as its misdeeds are known. Of course the monster is an abomination, but it's not his fault he's an abomination. Just as Frankenstein tried to lock him away in the dungeon, society tries to lock him into nonexistence, but, that just is not possible. And even if he were to die, his existence could never be forgotten, and the science could never be denied.

I have so far neglected to mention Boris Karloff's astonishing performance as the monster. Karloff perfectly becomes the hideous thing that haunts the ends of science. His deathly stiffness and pathetic moans confront us with death itself. A zombie is one dead person approaching us, but Frankenstein's monster is a conglomerate of bodies. It is like all of death approaching us. This is certainly the highlight of Karloff's career. The perfect imagining and acting bring the monster to life, and make for a movie that is still today a little unsettling.

The film also uses fantastic imagery elsewhere. Karloff's role as the monster was crucial, but so was the makeup design. The flat head and neck electrodes (not screws) provided the template for nearly all future portrayals of the monster. The laboratory was so magnificently realized that Mel Brooks would use the very same props over forty years later in his homage, Young Frankenstein. James Whale's expressionism was the perfect mode for this visual story.

The greatness of this film lies in the fact that it draws us in with all it has, and once it has us, it horrifies us. It pulls us up to its ghastly face and warns us against playing God because men make for poor gods. If we are ever able to reach the height of being, we are destined to quickly fall because there's nothing to hold onto at the top of the world.