The last installment in Hammer Film Production's Frankenstein series, released in 1974. The sequel to 1969’s Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, but NOT connected to 1970’s The Horror of Frankenstein (which is a remake/parody of The Curse of Frankenstein)
One Simon Helder is caught trying to replicate the works of Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), and is sentenced to spend five years in the state asylum for the criminally insane, where Frankenstein himself was sent to several years ago. Upon arriving there, he finds out that Baron Frankenstein now works under the name Dr. Karl Victor and has taken the place over. Frankenstein takes Simon under his wing to aid him in his official, and later, private work. Work that involves creating a new monster (David Prowse)...
This film has examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Late in the movie it is reveled that the asylum director is Sarah's father and that he attempted to rape her. This was the event that caused her muteness, and caused her to be consigned to the asylum.
- Bedlam House: The state asylum, where patients are brutalized for fun by the orderlies and are sexually abused by its director when Baron Frankenstein isn't overseeing things. Frankenstein also implies that things were much worse before he took control of the place.
- Big Guy Rodeo: The Baron saves Simon from the monster by jumping on the monster's back and holding his ether-soaked coat over the monster's head till he passes out.
- Career-Ending Injury: Baron Frankenstein has suffered burns to hands which render him incapable of performing delicate surgery. When a talented young surgeon (and fan of the Baron's work) is committed to asylum alongside him, Frankenstein recruits him as a protege and uses him as a proxy set of hands for surgery.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The title of the film.
- Clothing Combat: Baron Frankenstein smashes a bottle of ether inside his coat and then jumps on to the monster's back and wraps his coat around the monster's head: holding it there until the monster passes out from inhaling the fumes.
- The Dreaded: Baron Frankenstein holds the asylum in an iron grip, and workers and patients alike are afraid to go against him.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Frankenstein got a hold of the caveman-like Schneider's body when he tried to kill himself by jumping through a window.
- To get access on Professor Durendel's brain, Frankenstein arranges him to kill himself by leaving notes about his insanity's incurability in his cell.
- Eye Scream: When Simon finds the partially stitched-together Schneider in Frankenstein's private laboratory, he takes note that his eyes are missing. Frankenstein then tells him that Schneider lost them when he leapt to his death from his cell, and was impaled on the spiked railing beneath.
- Faking the Dead: Officially, Baron Frankenstein is dead and buried on the asylum grounds.
- Grave Robbing: The film opens with Simon's alcoholic assistant digging up a specimen for his studies. A constable catches him on the act, leading to Simon's capture and trip to the asylum.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: While he was alive, Schneider had a fascination with broken glass, which led him to stab people with broken bottles. He continues to do so even when another man's brain is put inside his head.
- Here We Go Again!: The film ends with Baron Frankenstein cleaning up his ruined lab and musing about where the last experiment went wrong: already planning his next experiment and intending to drag Simon and Sarah along with him.
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Baron Frankenstein takes over the asylum for the criminally insane to which he has been committed and uses it as a base from which to continue his fiendish experiments.
- Napoleon Delusion: Muller, one of the inmates in the asylum, believes that he is God.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It was learning that the asylum director attempted to rape Sarah that drove Professor Durendel into a homicidal fury in which he attempted to murder the director. After his brain is placed in the monster's body, he tries again and succeeds.
- Real Name as an Alias: Baron Victor Frankenstein fakes his death and returns under the alias Dr. Karl Victor.
- Secret Path: Frankenstein has a secret laboratory next to his practice, entrance to which is hidden behind an anatomical chart.
- Shovel Strike: The bodysnatcher (played by Patrick Troughton) is stealing a body from a grave when his surprised by the local police sergeant. He throws his shovel at the sergeant, knocking him into the open grave.
- The Speechless: Sarah, Frankenstein's personal nurse in the asylum, doesn't speak due to going through trauma of her father trying to rape her. The shock of seeing Frankenstein's creation attacking Simon gives the ability back to her.
- Throwing Off the Disability: Sarah—who has been mute since a childhood trauma—regains her voice when she sees Simon being attacked by the monster.
- Torn Apart by the Mob: The monster is overpowered by the inhabitants of the insane asylum and ripped to pieces after it attacks Sarah.
- Wardens Are Evil: The director of the asylum is a weak man who has surrendered running of the asylum to Baron Frankenstein and uses his position to force himself on female inmates, while his two chief keepers are sadistic thugs who enjoy tormenting new arrivals.
