Ritos de Frankenstein 2005 Horror Movie Review

Let me start with the good news. The DVD is struck from a pristine print with beautiful clarity. It is in the original Spanish.The English subtitles are clear and coherant. The only extra on the DVD is alternative footage from different versions of this film. Here is where we get to the bad news. Franco was well known for shooting alternate footage for different markets. The Spanish censors were the harshest so he had to shoot scenes to pass their review. This DVD contains the mildest version of the film I have seen. All the nudity has been replaced with clothed actors and the already mild violence has been excised. By accessing the alternative footage section, you can view scenes that were shot for the German market containing X rated nudity and cruel violence. I have a bootleg VHS copy of this film under the title of “Erotic Rites of Frankenstein” and content wise the movie is the better for it. This movie runs 85 minutes. My VHS copy runs 91m. You can see there was some serious editing of this DVD version. In conclusion, if you have never seen a Franco film this is a good entry level. You have to excuse the low budget, his constant overuse of the zoom lens, his shaky hand held camera movements and the sometimes erratic lapses in script. You’ll also have to forgive the silver skinned Frankenstein monster when you see they forgot to cover behind his ears and armpit area. Oh well, it’s all a willing suspension of disbelief.