Frankenstein (1931)

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

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.

[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.

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.

One of the most deservedly famous and chilling horror films of all time.

The film is unique in Whale's work in that the horror is played absolutely straight, and it has a weird fairytale beauty not matched until Cocteau made La Belle et la Bête.

Shocking in its day and still a genuinely creepy experience, director James Whale's primitive yet enthralling interpretation of Mary Shelley's classic tale of man playing God is the most influential genre movie ever made.

...a watchable yet consistently uneven horror flick that feels long even at 70 minutes...

The film has a touching, almost childlike humanity that allowed audiences to actually identify with the monster.

Classic monster movie still electrifies.

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