October 12th, 2011 
James Shotwell 
Under The Gun is continuing our efforts to bring you more original and engaging content with REASONABLE REMAKES. Written by film-nerd Justin Proper, this column aims to highlight Hollywood’s forgotten gems and spark debate.
You see, we’ve grown tired of Hollywood rehashing ideas we’re old enough to remember. Why remake something the majority of the planet still remembers and loves deeply when there are tons of films that deserve a chance to be as great as modern technology and skill can make them? If you agree, this column is for you.
Horror movies these days are about shock value and gore. Before this was the case directors used tension and fear of the unknown to scare audiences. Even the silent film Nosferatu has more scare value than the cheap scare movies of today due to it’s great lighting and visuals that set a mood that doesn’t just jump out at you, it gets under your skin and crawls up to your brain. A return to moody, atmospheric horror would be a great change of pace in Hollywood to get out of this Paranormal Activity induced bad horror slump that has plagued our cinemas for the last few years. A great way to start this new trend would be remaking a horror classic, in this case, Frankenstein.
I’m not just talking about remaking any one particular Frankenstein movie (in fact, that one with De Niro should be stricken from the record completely). This would be a whole new take on the story we all know. With today’s technology and science I think we all would almost believe a true Frankenstein story. I know a lot of indie films have gone in to this topic, but the closest we got to a mainstream movie like this was Splice and no one wants to remember that. This new Frankenstein movie could focus more on the doctors guilt and question of life than just a monster running around killing people. Don’t worry though, there definitely needs to be some great monster running around killing people action as well. The key here is getting the right person to give the movie a scary mood without resorting to “jump scares” and other cheap tactics.
The best director for this job is Nicolas Winding Refn. This guy is a master of telling a story through images instead of words, as demonstrated in Valhalla Rising and Drive. He’s the perfect choice to bring back the old Hollywood horror method while still keeping things fresh and entertaining. His visual style has been described as breathtaking and I’d love to see him take that to a darker, scarier place than ever before. He’s never really made a horror movie before so I’d love to see his take on it, and I’m confident the result would be phenomenal. I can just see his silent Frankenstein’s monster lurking around, lit just perfectly, with just the right music to really build the tension right before a big payoff kill as memorable as the elevator scene in Drive. Yeah, that’s the Frankenstein movie I want to see.
The monster needs to be handled well for this movie to work. I don’t want to see a giant person with bolts on there neck, and I certainly don’t want another whatever De Niro was supposed to be going on either. First off, if the monster was made from bits of other people, why is he so much bigger than everyone? Does the town Dr. Frankenstein live in have a giant population we never see? Second, we need this to be a science experiment gone wrong. The same way they made Freddy Kruger look more like an actual burn victim in the NIghtmare On Elm Street remake, we need a monster that looks believable. That’s going to make it more scary than anything.
As for who to play Dr. Frankenstein I would love to see Edward Norton in the role. He’s believable as a scientist (unlike James Franco in the newest Planet of the Apes) and his ability to play a character that goes through a serious emotional change (Fight Club, American History X) would be key. He starts out younger and ambitious but ends up a bitter, older, hopeless man who curses god and himself for what he’s done. I really feel that Norton would shine through and be very memorable. Casting the monster isn’t hard because this is a monster made up of different parts. It wouldn’t really look like any one person. As far as getting someone to act silently in prosthetics to look grotesque and still manage to get emotions across I think that Mads Mikkelsen would do an excellent job. His portrayal of One-Eye in Valhalla Rising was haunting and powerful and Frankenstein’s monster is a similar character, one driven by base human emotions and animalistic survival instincts. Plus, we already know he works very well with Nicolas Winding Refn.
That’s my take on what my perfect Frankenstein movie would be. Hollywood needs to get away from their current horror trends, and I think this would be a great way to do it. Agree or disagree, let me know what you think below in the comment section. We’ll continue on with our horror theme next week, so get out there and get creeped out, it’s October.
Written by: Justin Proper
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Well I agree with most of of this,specially the updated setting, just a few concerns. One, they should follow the novel more closely than anyone of the countless movies have. That’s why we have Igor, bolts in the neck, the monster being called Frankenstein, and it running around killing a bunch of people. None of that happened in the book. It only killed 4 people total, the first of which was an accident. Second, the reason the Monster was so big was because Dr. F had trouble creating the smaller parts of the human body, and the Monster wasn’t just created from human parts either. Third, on a smaller note, the Monster isn’t mute in the book either. After Dr.F abandons it upon creation, it spends a year studying a family where it learns and becomes self-aware. This is were most of the Dr’s angst comes from as the monster is able to share it’s experiences and feelings of abandonment and loneliness to him.
I read the book awhile ago, after learning how much Paradise Lost had an influence on it, and no movie, with maybe the exception of Young Frankenstein ^.~ has done it justice.