"My son, herein lies my faiths, my beliefs and my unfoldments. A complete diary of my experiments, charts and secret formulas. In short, the sum total of my knowledge, such as it is. Perhaps you will regard my work with ridicule or even with a distaste. If so, destroy these records. But if you like me burn with the irresistible desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on. The path is cruel and torturous, carry on. I put secret after truth, you will be hated, blasphemed and condemned. You have inherited the fortune of the Frankensteins, I trust you will not inherit their fate."
— Henry Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein
A Sub-Trope of Spin-Offspring specifically for relatives of the Mad Scientist Victor Frankenstein (or Henry Frankenstein in a case of Adaptational Name Change in the Universal Horror series), sometimes referred to only with titles like Dr. Frankenstein or Baron Frankenstein. It does not refer to just any relative of him featured in a story, but specifically those that have also chosen a career in Creating Life or continuing experiments on the original Frankenstein's Monster.
Although sometimes the story will focus on a descendant of Frankenstein who actually knew him and for whom Frankenstein's actions and legacy actually meant something, many times they are a character that outside of a throwaway mention of their ancestor has no relation to him other than being a mad scientist that creates flesh golem abominations and has the Frankenstein surname. These characters will pick up the monster making family business after being inspired by their ancestor's work and trying to prove him right. Most often they will meet the same fate as their progenitor and end up slain, either by their own creation or by the protagonist of the story.
Most often this trope is used because the writers have a character similar to Frankenstein and wanted to use his name in the title but either due to it being set after the nineteenth century or because the characters were too different from Victor for the audience to accept, they simply made their own deranged doctor a descendant of him. It's no coincidence most of these examples come after Hammer Studio's Frankenstein series of the '60s and '70s reinvented Victor as a Darker and Edgier Villain Protagonist.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Marvel Universe: A number of Frankenstein descendants exist in the Marvel universe, as does Frankenstein's Monster himself:
- Doctor Strange: Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #37 reviews the entire history of the Frankensteins as they appear in the Marvel universe.
- The Frankenstein Monster: Vincent Frankenstein is the great grand-nephew of Victor. Like his ancestor, he is a scientist and has a hunchbacked assistant named Ivan. He finds the original Monster, still alive in this universe, and tells him he can transfer his brain into a more typical body, while promising to transfer Ivan's brain into the Monster. However, miscalculating the dose of anesthesia for the Monster causes everything to go wrong.
- Subverted with Veronica von Frankenstein, great-granddaughter of Victor (Ludwig's daughter), who become a scientist, but not a mad one — she gives the Frankenstein Monster an operation so he can have a normal speaking voice.
- Downplayed with Baroness Victoria von Frankenstein, Veronica's elder sister. While she has used science to slow down her aging and is known to experiment on the dead, she has tried to take care of her ancestors' creations, however strange.
- The Invaders: Vincent's son Basil became a Nazi scientist during World War II, creating his own monster in hopes of building an army for the Axis Powers. The monster, when freed, goes on to kill his creator.
- Silver Surfer: Ludwig von Frankenstein, grandson of Victor, appears as a villain in the series, creating a duplicate of said hero in one issue.
- X-Men: Baron Maximilian von Katzenelnbogen is an orphaned prince, Child Prodigy, and the last descendent of Victor Frankenstein. He created his own monster to be his friend, but sacrificed the monster to get away from an angry mob, which he deeply regretted. He eventually joins the Hellfire Club as Black Bishop, but leaves and claims his family name of Frankenstein after escaping Frankenstein's Monster.
- Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!: In issue #17, a Pig-Iron solo story, "House of Frankenswine", features Hector Frankenswine, "descendent of Victor's younger brother", who has recreated Frankenswine's Monster. He is very surprised to learn that the monster didn't want to be recreated, and immediately tries to kill him. The monster also implies he had previously killed all of Victor's direct descendents for precisely the same reason.
Films — Animated
- Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy: Velma is revealed to be a descendant of a monster-making mad scientist in the vein of Frankenstein. She ends up nearly following in his footsteps thanks to some hypnosis, ready to cut out Scooby and Shaggy's brains for a monster.
Films — Live-Action
- The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein: By the time Doctor Frankenstein is killed by Cagliostro's minions, his daughter Dr. Vera Frankenstein is already working on her own reanimation experiments.
- Flesh for Frankenstein: After Baron von Frankenstein is killed by one of his experiments, his children Erik and Monika pick up his scalpel. It's unclear if they're going to use it to free one of Frankenstein's test subjects or continue his experiments.
- Frankenstein 1970: Baron Frankenstein is said to be the last of the Frankenstein lineage.
- Frankenstein's Army: Viktor Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein's nonspecific deranged descendant makes Zombots for the Nazis during the end of World War II.
- Frankenstein The College Years: A college professor, Dr Lipzigger, has somehow got his hands on both the baron's experiment and book documenting it. He dies before he can do much with it, bequeathing his research to his two best students who promptly reanimate the subject and attempt to pass him off as a normal student, "Frank N. Stein".
- Frankensteins Daughter: Curiously, the eponymous Frankenstein's daughter is not related to Frankenstein. but her creator, Victor's grandson Oliver Frankenstein, is.
- Frankenstein General Hospital: Dr. Bob Frankenstein is Victor's great great grandson.
- Frankenstein Island: Sheila Frankenstein has her own private island where she turns shipwrecked sailors into mind controlled, sun sensitive zombies.
- Frankenstein Reborn: Anna Frankenstein is Frankenstein's niece.
- Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter: Dr. Frankenstein's grandchildren Rudolph and Maria move to America to continue their experiments in the wild west.
- King Kong Vs Frankenstein: This unmade movie that got turned into King Kong vs. Godzilla had Frankenstein's grandson make a Kaiju out of animal parts that tours alongside Carl Denham's King Kong.
- Lady Frankenstein: Tania Frankenstein accompanies her father Baron Frankenstein during his last experiment, which ends in his death at the hands of a monster. Later she kills the brain-damaged Thomas so she can put her older lover Marshall's brain into his young, healthy body. Seemingly dies at the hands of Marshall as the castle is set in flames.
- Santo vs. la hija de Frankestein: Dr. Frankenstein's female descendant Frida Frankenstein is an old woman who discovered that the blood of the wrestling hero, El Santo, is a youth elixir. For years she has been periodically injecting herself and her henchmen with a serum made from the blood she wiped from Santo's nose. But her body becomes so saturated with the serum that she needs frequent painful injections to maintain her youth. She sets out to get more blood from El Santo by kidnapping his girlfriend and luring him to her.
- Santo And Blue Demon Vs Dr Frankenstein: El Santo and Blue Demon team up to defeat Dr. Frankenstein's grandson Irving Frankenstein, who is making his own deranged brain transplant experiments.
- Universal Horror: The third and fourth films each starred a son of Henry Frankenstein (from Frankenstein (1931), renamed from the book's Victor Frankenstein).
- Son of Frankenstein: Baron Wolf von Frankenstein is the Trope Maker and Trope Namer. He finds his father's monster buried in the family crypt and revives it in an attempt to prove his father was correct and to restore honor to his family.
- The Ghost of Frankenstein: Wolf's older brother Ludwig Frankenstein is a reluctant example, who is first blackmailed into helping Ygor heal the creature under threat of his lineage being found out. Later he is visited by his father's ghost who implore him to give the monster a good brain. Killed by the monster after Ygor put his own brain into it.
- Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man features Ludwig's daughter Elsa Frankenstein. However her Love Interest Dr. Mannering is the one playing Mad Scientist as she has no medical or scientific training.
- Young Frankenstein: Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Dr. Victor's grandson, is initially ashamed of his grandfather's claim to fame; having become a famous surgeon in England, he states that he works on serious science instead of chasing superstitions, describes his grandfather as a cuckoo, and insists that his surname is actually pronounced "Fronkensteen". However, after being left the family's ancestral castle per his great-grandfather's will, he returns to Transylvania, becomes increasingly drawn to the idea of creating life from lifeless matter, and ultimately chooses to embrace his family legacy and continue his experiments anyway. In a twist on the matter, this is one of the few positive versions, where Frederick manages to avoid the tragedy that affected his ancestor by treating his creation with kindness and decency...though not without copious amounts of silly shenanigans and near misses in the process.
Live-Action TV
- Supernatural: The secondary antagonists of Season 10, the Styne family, are descendants of Victor Frankenstein who changed their name to go into hiding, turning into an Ancient Conspiracy that's manipulated world events for their own gain ever since, while expanding on Victor's experiments; rather than building monsters from piecemeal parts, they've learned how to perfectly transplant limbs and other body parts onto each other to prolong their own lives. Unfortunately for them, when they kill the Winchesters' ally Charlie in order to get ahold of the Book of the Damned, Dean (who is being corrupted by the Mark of Cain) goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and kills the whole family.
Theatre
- Young Frankenstein: The musical adaptation includes a dream sequence song, where Frederick is visited by his ancestors, including the infamous Victor, imploring him to become a mad scientist (Played for Laughs, since this is Mel Brooks).
Join the fam'ly bus'ness,
Learn the fam'ly trade
Make yourself a monster,
Make the world afraid!Join the fam'ly bus'ness,
You must take the fam'ly name,
Follow in our footsteps,
And you'll win eternal fame!
Toys
- Monster High: Victor Frankenstein was an orphan in this continuity and just wanted to create a family. Frankenstein's monster and his bride created their child, Frankie Stein. They, in turn, created their younger sister, boyfriend and pet.
Video Games
- The 1980 text adventure game Frankenstein Adventure
aka Frankenstein's Legacy by John R. Olsen Jr. had the player as an heir of Dr. Frankenstein who has to complete the creature and bring it to life. Then, after realising your mistake, find a way to destroy it.
Web Videos
- YouTuber Dark Corner Pictures attempted to make a Frankenstein Family tree, which became convoluted once examples of this trope started popping up. He sums up this trope quite well:
"For generations, the Frankensteins have gone into the family business of stitching together the dead, electrifying them, and being killed by the result. Never letting the lack of any real success or high mortality rate stand in their way. But the truth is, as horror fans, we appreciate their boneheaded and pointless self sacrifice. Where would horror be without the clan of Frankenstein, at once so smart and yet so apocalyptically dumb. Never learning from their mistakes, each new generation charging in, with contempt for their forebears and misplaced optimism as they commit what amounts to needlessly elaborate suicide in the name of our entertainment."
