[James Whale] is to be complimented upon his handling of the incidents chosen from the book, and the artistry with which he has built up the picture.

| Jan 18, 2023

[Boris Karloff's performance] is a skillful but unsavory bit of imaginative and grotesque portraiture that the delicately constituted will dream about through many haunted nights.

| Jan 18, 2023

It's a study of a chemical experiment -- one which clutches at you icily and holds you until the romantic ending guarantees satisfaction after an hour's worth of gripping, intriguing horrors.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 18, 2023

It is nothing to shout about esthetically, but thrill stuff does the trick. Whoever thought up the makeup for Boris Karloff is the real star of the film. One look from those leaden-lidded eyes and the audience is ready to believe anything that happens.

| Jan 18, 2023

One of those movie attempts to turn out a weird mystery meller which never quite clicks with an audience which doesn't believe in Santa Clause.

| Jan 18, 2023

If you want to see something "skeery" -- see Frankenstein -- but for pity's sake leave the children at home.

| Jan 17, 2023

Everything in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel that lifted it above the level of a penny-dreadful has been omitted.

| Jan 17, 2023

Probably the most famous of all horror films, and one of the best.

| Jan 17, 2023

There is not a dull moment in it, but we never were horrified. Instead, it seemed the monster was only a man dressed up to scare us. It is about as effective as other thrillers of this type but can not be said to be a world beater.

| Jan 17, 2023

For horror, terror and the atmosphere of Edgar Allan Poe at his most gruesome it is hard to recall any former film surpassing Frankenstein. James Whale has handled his ghastly material in a manner which makes the most of its morbid and grim possibilities.

| Jan 13, 2023

Splendidly directed. One could wish that an equal artistic sincerity were lavished more often on films of finer dramatic calibre.

| Jan 13, 2023

There is good sensationalism and there is also good art in Mrs. Shelley's "shocker," qualities rarely found in combination, but Mr. James Whale has made no serious effort to reproduce them... His version is at all points inferior to the original.

| Jan 13, 2023

Remarkably mild and unfrightening... What was a daring feat in Mary Shelley's day has become almost a commonplace in the achievements of the screen.

| Jan 13, 2023

James Whale, director of the picture, may congratulate himself on making a talkie that wont be forgotten, even in those dark midnight moments when one awakes from a sound sleep to feel a prickling of the scalp and a cold sweat.

| Dec 8, 2020

The most influential horror film ever made, this stark and stylish work has a weird fairytale beauty.

| Oct 20, 2016

James Whale has done a great job in his direction. This is not an easy thing to direct -- just how far to go in playing upon an audience's credulity, it's sympathy, it's nerves. Whale seems to have gone far enough, but not too far.

| Nov 16, 2014

Frankenstein is a horror film that turns (miraculously) into an existential tale of man's fear of abandonment

| Original Score: 87/100 | Aug 10, 2010

[Whale] did it in the Grand Guignol manner, with as many queer sounds, dark corners, false faces and cellar stairs as could possibly be inserted.

| Oct 7, 2008

Maximum of stimulating shock is there, but the thing is handled with subtle change of pace and shift of tempo that keeps attention absorbed to a high voltage climax.

| Sep 24, 2007

Beautiful photography, a heartbreaking story, and iconic moments from beginning to end. Absolutely unmissable.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 24, 2007