Most versions of the Frankenstein story focus on the science of the body. Mary Shelley’s 1818 sci-fi novel follows a well-intentioned doctor obsessed with harnessing the god-like power of sparking life in inanimate flesh.
After painstakingly sewing together scavenged limbs and organs, he channels the lightning of a thunderstorm to bring a monstrous man to life. Rejected by society, this creature demands a female companion who will be similarly resurrected from the dead. While Shelley merely hints at this disturbing extension of the experiment, most adaptations take that logical next step, presenting a feminized version of monstrosity. They center the mechanics of biology and the Promethean task of creating life, but Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman concerns itself with the human soul.
Released in 1967, this Hammer Horror is a sequel to Fisher’s 1958 film The Revenge of Frankenstein, which reunites us with the notorious doctor while introducing his faithful, if angry, assistant Hans (Robert Morris). This chapter begins with a troubling childhood memory as Hans witnesses his father’s execution by guillotine. Fast-forwarding to adulthood, Hans rushes to the laboratory just in time to pull a metal coffin out of dangerously cold storage. Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) himself lies inside waiting to be resurrected by Hans and his fellow assistant, Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters). Moments later, the effete doctor is musing on the experiment, insisting that he is still himself. It seems he was dead for a full hour, and hypothesized that he could trap his own soul, then later restore it to his reanimated body.
Pleased with himself, the arrogant doctor begins looking for ways to continue the study. Unfortunately, his materials will be close at hand. While not working in Dr. Frankenstein’s basement lab, Hans has fallen in love with a barmaid named Christina (Susan Denberg), despite her father’s disapproval. Though kind and patient, the shy girl is extremely self-conscious about her disabilities and hides extensive facial scarring behind long sweeps of her brunette hair. She also takes great pains to mask partial paralysis while waiting tables in her family’s pub. But a group of wealthy young men begins drunkenly harassing her. Not only do they demand she push past her physical limits, but they intentionally cause her to spill wine on their clothes, then threaten her father with the bill. Hans makes a public show of defending her honor, an understandable gesture that will wind up sealing his fate.
Later that night, the arrogant men continued their cruel harassment. Anton (Peter Blythe), the ringleader, stands outside Christina’s window singing a song about her ugliness. Next, break into the restaurant and murder her father, framing Hans for the act. He’s quickly convicted and sentenced to death on the very guillotine that once killed his own father. While Hertz attempts to save his friend, Dr. Frankenstein sees an opportunity. He sends his subordinate to retrieve Hans’ body, hoping to subsequently trap his soul. Meanwhile, a devastated Christina throws herself into a river, and her body is also brought to the lab.
After this elaborate setup, we finally see the bizarre meaning behind the film’s evocative title. Hertz and Frankenstein spend months painstakingly repairing Christina’s body after similarly securing her soul. Fisher skips the science behind these treatments, instead focusing on her transformation. The giddy doctors peel away a cocoon of bandages to reveal a strikingly beautiful woman. They’ve healed Christina’s facial scarring and seemingly corrected her disability. What’s more, she is now a voluptuous blonde, the epitome of conventional beauty. While this reconstruction could be explained away as a doctor hoping to heal his patient, there is no medical reason to lighten her hair. Rather than an unwieldy, electrified tangle, Christina’s honeyed locks are smooth and styled, reminiscent of Brigitte Bardot’s Juliette in Roger Vadim’s 1956 film And God Created Woman.
We quickly see that the industrious doctor still has no interest in his creation’s quality of life. He will not tell Christina who she is or how she ended up in his lab, nor will he allow her to leave the house. While Hertz treats the young woman with gentle kindness, Frankenstein orders her to cook and clean. A perfect specimen of physical beauty, she has lost her autonomy and has become an object to bolster the doctor’s inflated ego. When he finally does allow her to go outside, it’s only for a specific errand. Blindfolded, she’s driven to the guillotine and shown the place where Hans died. But her reaction is unusual. In horror, she wails, “Papa,” and faints, revealing that Dr. Frankenstein did not just restore Christina to life, but placed Hans’ soul inside her body.
From here, the film morphs into a strange sort of revenge/possession tale. Hans gains control of the body they share and begins amplifying its sexuality. As Christina, he sneaks out of the house, dressed to the nines, and seduces the ringleader in her father’s death. No longer a shy, yet beautiful girl, this Christina is a weapon of sexuality. Clever, confident, and manipulative, she easily attracts the smitten Anton and murders him in an act of revenge. Next up is Karl (Barry Warren). The gorgeous blonde feigns helplessness and lures the man back to her restaurant, then slaughters him with a meat cleaver.
Filmed in ominous red shadow, we watch Christina pick up the massive blade while hearing Hans’ voice reveal his identity. But as the cleaver strikes, we cut to Christina chopping wood in Dr. Frankenstein’s house. More modern body swap horror films, particularly Christopher Landon’s 2020 film Freaky, explore the juxtaposition of a man’s persona in a woman’s body. This seems to be Fisher’s intention, with Christina showing markedly more confidence when controlled by Hans. But it’s only surface-level empowerment and comes at the expense of the real woman whose mind is being overridden.
As Hans continues his quest for revenge, the story drifts into grisly strangeness. We learn that Christina has retrieved his decapitated head and has been honoring it like a god. After killing the final man on her list, she holds his face in front of her own and says — in his voice — that she has fulfilled her task. With his own needs now met, Hans releases her body, and Christina rushes to the nearest cliff. Only then does Dr. Frankenstein address her like a human being. He tries to explain these mysterious deaths, but Christina insists that she already knows. She’s always known. This simple sentence is perhaps the film’s most devastating revelation. She’s been fully aware of Hans’ possession, existing as a passenger in her own body as it’s used in a vicious murder spree. Horrified, she jumps into the crashing waves far below, reversing Dr. Frankenstein’s dehumanizing experiment and finally reclaiming her power through death.
The doctor walks away in disappointment, and we’re left to consider what we’ve watched. Throughout the film, Christina has been objectified and used by every man who crosses her path. Her father has refused to let her marry the man she loves, more concerned with his own reputation than his daughter’s happiness. Anton and his cruel friends first ruthlessly mocked her appearance before pursuing her as a sexual conquest. Only Dr. Hertz has treated her with a modicum of kindness, yet he is complicit in Frankenstein’s plans. The arrogant doctor could have given her the gift of life and renewed physicality, but instead, he facilitates her possession. But what Hans does is arguably the worst of all. He has stolen Christina’s power from within her own body and forced her to comply with his will.
Frankenstein Created Woman is a striking variation of the Bride folklore. Physically perfect in every way, Christina is made monstrous by her masculine actions, which originate from the male soul implanted in her body. Fisher’s Bride is not a companion made to match another undead creature, but a puppet controlled by monstrous men. His Dr. Frankenstein may be a mad scientist using human beings as pawns in his work, but he exists in a world filled with similar predators thriving on the dehumanization of women. In her one act of autonomy, Christina rejects this world, choosing death over a lifetime of patriarchal control.
Here Comes the Bride; Maggie Gyllenhaal’s spin on the Bride of Frankenstein arrives in March. We’re celebrating with a look back at the various iterations of the classic horror icon.