Interview with Director Leigh Scott about his upcoming dark take on Frankenstein.

By Patrick Luce May 15, 2005, 13:50 GMT

Asylum's Frankenstein

A die-hard fan of the Hammer Studio horror films of the 50’s and 60’s, Scott purposely drew a lot of inspiration from the British company that produced a string of Frankenstein and Dracula movies often casting actors such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Both actors grew into icons in the horror genre and the success of the Hammer Studios films went on to re-write the way many view these classic literature characters - such as Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Count Dracula.

In an interview with Monsters and Critics, Scott, who also wrote the screenplay, said he hopes to do the same thing when the public receives his dark vision of Frankenstein and he intends on accomplishing this goal by using many of the same tricks that Hammer used. This is being done as a way to pay homage to the horror movies he loves and as well as giving other Hammer horror fans a treat.

“Stylistically, there is a lot of Hammer stuff that I drew from. For example, I used the same color palette that they did in the 1958 version,” Scott said. “The only reds in the film are on Elizabeth and blood. It really works. Hopefully, audiences and Frankenstein fans will notice all the small details and nods to other films.”

Scott's Dr. Frankenstein is not as innocent as other film's versions

He hopes that this Hammer style to his film will help win audiences over to the movie, and he believes the film’s style might help draw the eye’s of viewers that might be burned out on the horror genre and how it is so mass marketed.
 
Scott also designed his Victor Frankenstein’s personality in the same way that many of the Hammer Studio pictures portrayed him. Gone is the scientist with a good heart that is trying to conquer the mystery of life and death for the betterment of man.

Scott’s Frankenstein is much more of a villain who is driven by an addiction to drugs and a kinky sex life. The director felt it was important, in today’s modern society, to redesign the scientist and remove that sense of innocence and “dabbling in matters over his head” that is often associated with Victor Frankenstein.

At the same time, Scott’s take on the story does closely follow the Mary Shelley novel that gave birth to the horror legend. It also doesn’t stray too far from the James Whale Universal film, that stared Boris Karloff as the monster, and set the tone for all adaptations to come.

“I tried to stay close to the book in terms of structure and tone. It's set in the modern day, so a lot of the medical terminology has been updated and made to be more realistic,” Scott said. “I also took the Hammer studios take on Victor Frankenstein and made him a villain instead of a naive scientist who's in over his head. In order to give insight into Victor's mentality, I added a sub plot that details his twisted and very kinky sex life.”<!--page-->

The film promises to have the gore needed for a modern dark horror story.

Part of this darker feel will be due to the amount of gore, a requirement for any modern horror film, and also because of the amount of detail that will be given to Frankenstein’s drug abuse and deviant sex life than what would be allowed in the ‘30s and ‘50s. He also believes a lot of the footage may wind up on the cutting room floor in order to let the film receive an R rating.

It was important to Scott not to hold back on the amount of abuse Frankenstein puts his own body through in an attempt to help the audience understand how the doctor thinks and operates.

“Audiences are really desensitized these days,” the director said about his feeling on the movie’s gore. “We shot a lot of stuff that we probably can't use in order to get an R rating, but I would rather have to scale back then not make something really horrifying.”

Writing a Frankenstein epic for a smaller studio like The Asylum presented its on problems for Scott, but, again drawing inspiration from the Hammer Studio films, he believed Asylum was the perfect place to bring his vision of the story to the life.

Like Hammer Studios, The Asylum is a very busy independent studio that makes several films at the same time. For Scott, who wrote the first draft of the film a year ago, getting a chance to make the film for Asylum was just a matter of waiting for the right time to shoot it.

He also had to deal with the pressures of shooting such a film, which has seen big budget productions of the tale such as Kenneth Branagh's 1994 version, on a much smaller scale with less money.

Instead of letting that pressure get to him, Scott focused on making a better version of the story that focused on the characters and the acting.

Scott's monster will be darker than other versions of the creature.

To accomplish this goal, Scott set about trying to find actors, which include Joel Hebner, Rhett Giles, Tom Downey, Eliza Swenson, that he knew would be into making the film, and narrowed down the scope of his script to fit the tight budget.

“For me, the way to do that is to know the limitations and plan for them. I know that we can't afford tons of extras, so I didn't write any scenes that would require them,” he said. “We all watched the other versions of Frankenstein and we talked about how to make ours unique, yet still fit in to the Frankenstein universe.”

Although some may question the need for another Frankenstein movie, the director/writer feels that Shelley’s novel is a tale that continues to have influence in the modern world even if it is harder to see a literal adaptation of the story – such as in comics like The Hulk and in films like Robocop.<!--page-->

Scott is also too big a fan of the Hammer films and those classic Universal Studio monster movies, like the Wolf Man and Dracula, to stop with just one telling of Frankenstein.

He is already set to direct a werewolf movie called The Beast of Bray Road – which is based in part on a true story that took place in Wisconsin about a decade ago. Further down the road will be a vampire movie that he is planning on now, and after that only Scott knows.

“It is part of my idea to do classic movie monsters in a row,” the director teased. “I'm still looking for a mummy script. Mummies are tough!”

For more information about Scott's Frankenstein visit The Asylum or visit the film's database