Editorials
‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ – The Good Doctor Gets Naughty in This Must-See Exploitation Adaptation
Oh boy. This movie.
Paul Morrisey’s 1973 feature Flesh for Frankenstein (AKA Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) is quite the dip into genre absurdity. Initially the film may look like a more sexed up Hammer production, but it quickly establishes itself as something far more perverse and darkly comedic than any of Hammer’s stately, gothic curios.
The plot is standard Frankenstein fare, just with a nice dollop of exploitation sleaze thrown into the mix. Played by indomitable international icon Udo Kier, Baron Frankenstein is an openly fascistic figure who is determined to create two perfect “zombies” from pillaged human remains. Once these zombies are complete, he plans to have them mate to create the perfect master race that will obey his every command.
Little does the Baron know that all is not well in the house of Frankenstein, as sexual deviancy and twisted desires work to undermine his grand designs.
Flesh for Frankenstein is campy with a capital C. The dialogue is exceedingly silly and the delivery from the cast is more than a little hysterical throughout.
Considering the film’s tone however, this Grand Guignol of near-farcical proportions feels largely intentional. Morrisey is keen to have you squirm as much as possible and giggle at the absurdity being displayed – sometimes both at once.
The sexuality in Flesh for Frankenstein is the driving theme. Phallic and yonic imagery abound in the film – one particular visual gag during the climax involving a wooden pike and an internal organ is so loaded with meaning I genuinely laughed out loud.
The good doctor is married to his own sister Katrin (Monique van Voreen) in a loveless relationship that bore them two children. Neither party are particularly interested in fulfilling their carnal desires with each other and seek it through other means – all the while casting damnation and judgment on everybody else’s sexual choices. Katrin lords her status about the castle, chastising hired hands for their sexual proclivities all the while indulging in her own under the nose of her husband-brother.
Frankenstein isn’t just interested in building his master race, he is also interested in screwing it. Literally. “To know death, Otto – you have to f**k life! In the gallbladder!”
For 1973, the sexual acts depicted in the film are enough to give you the vapors if you weren’t prepared beforehand.
While hardly the most explicit or shocking genre film to deal with the themes of death and sex, Flesh for Frankenstein still packs enough queasy perversity to make you uneasy.
Underneath the nudity, overacting, and vibrant splashes of gore – just what is Flesh for Frankenstein about?
Paul Morrisey hailed from Warhol’s Factory, so it’s safe to assume the social satire present in this film is no fluke. The narrative plays as one big piss take on the hypocrisy and moral decay of the wealthy elite.
Throughout the film both the Baron and Katrin are seen exploiting and manipulating the working class for their own gain. The two quite literally see these people as nothing but flesh to do with as they will. The Baron is convinced of his own ethnic and intellectual superiority and feels it is his innate right to conquer and rule. Morrisey takes the principle Frankenstein conceit Mary Shelley introduced in her seminal novel and stretches it to its extreme conclusion with all the trimmings lovers of exploitation cinema groove to.
If you haven’t seen Flesh for Frankenstein, do yourself a favor and seek it out. It’s full to bursting with camp entertainment, delightful gore gags, and enough satirical merit make it stand severed heads and maimed torsos above many other Frankenstein adaptations.
You can grab Flesh for Frankenstein in 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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