Lust for Frankenstein (1998 Video) User Reviews

The milftastic, craptastic, late-term Franco

[Groverdox · 3/10 · 21 November 2019]

What the hell was this movie about? What was the point of it? What were they thinking when they made it?

You should not - I repeat, NOT - spend a cent of your own money to watch this crap. But if there was some kind of a fly-on-the-wall documentary available, that might shed light on what they were thinking, I'd pay good money to see it.

What happened to Jess Franco? He started out with a classic horror film, 1961's "The Awful Dr. Orloff", and just drove his talent straight into the ground. This isn't even really a movie.

Ignore any "plot description" you might find online. This movie has no plot. It's also not related to the classic Frankenstein story in any sense at all. The movie basically just shows Lina Romay wandering around, often undressed, and Michelle Bauer naked with fake stitches on her body and bolts on her temples. It is amusing to see her stomping naked up to people and killing them by twisting their heads, which she does once or twice. What the hell did she think about her role in this movie? Some might say it's kind of degrading.

Who wants the sight of their naked body to be met with laughter? Especially a beautiful woman like Michelle Bauer.

The movie has minimal dialogue, and what it does have is weirdly filtered so you can't understand it. Much of the footage is also filtered, so that even on DVD, it looks like you're watching a decaying VHS tape. Actually, these visual effects are so weird and pointless and ugly that I wonder if they were even done on purpose. Perhaps Franco just spilled something on the lens, or accidentally pointed it at the sun and didn't realise until too late.

You know, the kind of mistakes you'd expect from a forty year veteran of the film business.

There are only two things you could possibly remember about "Lust for Frankenstein". One is the shocking ineptitude in its filmmaking, and I believe I have made that point strongly enough. The other is the fact that the movie features a liberal dose of sex and nudity from its two middle-aged stars. There are regrettably few movies in which we are given an opportunity to admire the beautiful bodies of 40+ year old ladies. It's such a shame, then, that they had to use such a crappy movie to provide us that.

Absolute garbage.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 2/10 · 28 April 2005]

"Lust of Frankenstein" is a worthless piece of garbage made by Jesus Franco.The incredibly old and unattractive Lina Romay plays Moira,the daughter of Dr.Frankenstein,who does not like her widowed stepmother.Anyway,Moira discovers the hibernating body of another of her dad's experiments,this time of a woman.The monster,whose name is Goddess is played by the aging Michelle Bauer.Moira falls in love with Goddess and goes on a wild sex-spree that includes killing a bunch of people.The film features tons of sleaze and nudity,but the sex scenes are absolutely unerotic and laughably unconvincing.The action is incredibly slow and there is no gore.Avoid this piece of trash like the plague-just watch again "Female Vampire","Barbed Wire Dolls" or Borowczyk's "The Beast".2 out of 10 and that's being kind.

Very annoying to watch.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 2/10 · 4 June 2005]

This erotic-horror movie is an extremely annoying one. There is absolutely no story and the movie is impossible to follow, also due to the horrible accents of the main characters.

Why on Earth did they ever casted two over 40 year old to play the main characters? They also managed to cast about the two least attractive 40 year old which makes this movie also a disgusting one. Yesterday I posted a comment for "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein" saying that the Frankenstein creature never looked worse, well I was wrong, this Frankenstein monster is even uglier and she doesn't need no make-up effects for that!

And what is up with the endings of Jesus Franco's movies? He always seems to put in a surprise ending in his movies but problem is that the endings never make any sense and are extremely confusing for all the wrong reasons.

Every time when you think you have figured the story out, it turns out to be totally different. Nothing about the story makes any sense and the movie therefor is almost completely unwatchable.

And what was with those high peeping sound during the 'resurection' scene's? I thought my head was going to explode and I seriously had to turn the sound off to not go completely mad.

Horrible, disgusting movie!

2/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

from Fringe Video Fanzine Issue #002

[fringevideo · 3 June 2001]

A sexy lesbian Frankenstein with large breasts. As in most of Jess Franco's recent work not much plot, just a very erotic and bizarre take on Mary Shelley's classic tale of Frankenstein (1931) with the nude Scream Queen Michelle Bauer [Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)], as the monster with a strange voice, and Franco favorite and aging life companion Lina Romay [Female Vampire (1973); Tender Flesh (1997)] as the sex-starved mad scientist. Her long dead father was of course Dr. Frankenstein, and he has been appearing in her dreams, which sets her off on a mission to make her own creature. The monster becomes jealous, and enraged at her masters sexual encounters, and destroys all who come near. Shot on video with a new American production company called One Shot Productions, it is great to see Franco still making films after all these years. Make sure to pay attention to the weird digital layering effects and the strange industrial metal music. The Shock-O-Rama DVD comes with both the US, and euro version, as well as a Michelle Bauer interview.

What a load

[lordzedd-3 · 1/10 · 3 June 2006]

Several little things bugged the hell out of me about this movie, but mainly the star Lina Romay. Her accent was so thick I hardly understood her at points. Then there was the fact that she's not very attractive. What's good is a hot lesbian scene, if you can barely watch it? Also, most of the acting was terrible, the whole look was very abstract and weird. It was hard to follow, they truly never explained who created Goddess and why hasn't she been seen before, she was just in the next room. Not locked up or hidden in a secret passage or anything. I think Franco has lost what little mind he had to begin with. After all we are talking about the same director that made DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE (See: DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE). I give this mess of a movie the NOOSE!

This Frankenstein monster should have never been created

[matoolz2 · 1/10 · 7 May 2001]

This film (and I use the term in the loosest way possible) is a piece of garbage from start to merciful ending. It is bad in every way that a film can be bad. It is poorly shot, the sound quality is poor (you can barely make out what most of the actors are saying) and the plot is made up as it goes along. I would`nt even recommend this piece of trash to Michelle Bauer fans. Even people who enjoy watching BAD movies would be hard pressed to get any kind of enjoyment out of this film. Don`t wast your time.

This movie stinks worse than exposed sewage.

[skullduggery · 1/10 · 12 September 2001]

This movie is absolutely, without a doubt, the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It shouldn't even be called a B movie because it isn't good enough to be a B movie. If there were a Z movie rank, it wouldn't even qualify for that. Watching this movie would be the biggest waste of 90 minutes of your life that you could ever conceive.

avoid this movie at all cost

[dasa108 · 1/10 · 2 July 2011]

Is a Jess Franco movie. Also, you can find here some actress who are icons in their field. But the mix is so poor, that you want to run outside your house. Franco is giving a chance to his experiment with lights and textures. Is not bad the idea. I know that when you have a low budget, you must to use your imagination. But the artistic experiment fails in the poorest script that I never see, and the actress try to show something that not exist. Lina Romay excellent in her rol. But even here, she is dealing with her husband who make me remember David Lynch (remember the movie when he destroyed his real life wife, Isabella Rossellini). I want to see something nice from Franco. In the next two years I want to fulfill my desire.

THE MOVIE STINKS!!

[dwpollar · 2/10 · 23 June 2001]

1st watched 6/24/2001 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Jess Franco): Despite it's attempt to create a real story around the sex scenes, this movie is basically about -- you got it "sex." The European flavor shows through in it's attempt to make the sex part of the story, but this attempt to use the Frankenstein story and replace the appetite for violence that Frankenstein had into a female version's appetite for sex(with violence coming only with jealousy) is about the same as those in this genre but with a different story. Basically, this and many movies of this type try to throw at you all the different ways that someone can have sex and try to fit it into the storyline. Please stop making this kind of trash!! Movigoers are not all sex-crazed teenagers, I think. Sure, they use a lot of interesting camera angles and lighting but who really cares... THE MOVIE STINKS!!

cheap, amateur garbage

[zuccozoid · 1/10 · 19 September 2008]

Franco's done some really, really bad stuff in the past, but there was a time where it seemed he at least tried to make a FILM, rather than a cheap camcorder shot, and this may be the worst of all - it doesn't even qualify as a movie - more like a high-schooler running around with his dad's camcorder hoping to make something "cool" - yes, it's that bad. Even if you got this movie for free you'd get about 10 minutes into it and throw it away.

Go back and check out his earlier EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN or SADOMANIA or WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 9 and you'll see at least some talent and bizarre creativity.

Pretty bad, but not without its strengths.

[brianberta · 4/10 · 2 July 2022]

I don't have much of any experience with evaluating these kinds of films (one could criticize the film for excessive nudity, but that's kind of the point of the subgenre), so I'll do my best at reviewing it. Its story wasn't the easiest to follow and the poor quality of the dialogue didn't help much, but I think I got the gist of what was going on. To get what I enjoyed out of the way, I liked the use of colored filters for several sequences, a few shots which obscured the actors in shadows worked pretty well, and the soundtrack was nice as well. Overall though, I was deeply unengaged with the film. I got that Moira had to lure victims for the monster to kill, but this premise grew thin rather quickly and that the film seemed half an hour longer than it needed to be didn't help much. So yeah, story was kind of just whatever, but the style made up for this to a degree as this is the kind of bizarre, risk-taking film that's hard for me to hate. Also, in spite of what I said about the story, I did enjoy the final scene with Moira's former husband as a confirmation that she had lost interest in him (I have no idea what was going on after that though). So yeah, I don't have a lot to say for this one, but I'm curious to hear what some other people have to say about it.

Grave event in the life of Frankenstein; Still a lot of fun!

[Albert_ODalby · 10/10 · 23 April 2003]

When critics start to use capital letters in an attempt to show their feelings, they are showing more childish emotion than critical savvy. Poking verbal sticks in Jesus Franco's eyes about over the ultra-low budget LUST FOR FRANKENSTEIN is pretty easy to do. Unfortunately, not one of the commentaries here have managed to give it a negative critique that is indicative of any intelligent thought. The gut reactions are real, though, and you have every right to hate this film once you've watched it. But when pudgy nerds try to belittle Lina Romay or Michelle Bauer, they are merely showing their inability to critique a film. The fact of the matter is that LUST FOR FRANKENSTEIN is so "out there" that it does stir emotions within the viewer. Whether that emotion translates into lust or disgust is for each viewer to decide but the film defies you to watch it dismissively. You have to react.

Franco, using his One Shot Productions team, captures every man's fantasy, the beautiful Michelle Bauer, and turns her into his garish ideal as a Frankenstein monster. Anyone who watches this film and declares Michelle Bauer as wasted in the role or not beautiful needs to push away from the dinner table once in a while and join the real world. Bauer is garishly gorgeous as Goddess, the monster in question, and Franco has truly achieved one of the singular incarnations of the Gothic creature. While she whiled away the '80s and early '90s in schlock goofy video fare, Bauer has finally creature a character here that is worthy to be remembered. And now she can be remembered for her acting ability and not just as a naked body and pretty face wasted away in countless Fred Olen Ray videos.

Lina Romay is way past her prime and she looks every bit of her 40-plus years. But she's not cast as a beautiful young thing here, so why does everyone want to fault her for acting her age? Is it a crime to age on camera? Sure, she has some embarrassing nude scenes but the point of the whole thing is that her character is the loser daughter of Dr. Frankenstein who finally discovers, at middle age, that she has a monster in her control who can possibly deliver the lust that her life has always been missing. I'm sure most of the people who have patheticly belittled Romay for appearing nude in this film probably have thrown blankets over their own bathroom mirrors. But they sure love to throw those stones.

Finally, the story is simplistic and straightforward with no twists or turns other than the omni-sexual creature created by Franco/Frankenstein and embodied by the wonderful Bauer. Once Romay's character sets the monster loose, the story just runs its bitter and disgusting course. But you'll have to admit, you will react viscerally to almost everything that transpires on the screen. When Bauer and Romay embrace as the monster couples with a tree (yes, it's true), you will know that you are deep inside the mind and world of Jesus Franco.

Boris Karloff would turn over in his grave. Universal fans will hate this. The average movie viewer will be disgusted. Fans of erotica, Euro horror and the Unusual will revel in Franco's ongoing nightmare of lust.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 7/10 · 23 June 2017]

"From now on I hope I never dream those stupid things again." Lina Romay plays Moira, who is in the midst of estranging herself from her husband Cyrus (a truly dreadful, one-note performance from Robert King). Added to that, she is regularly visited by the bloody, dishevelled spirit of her father, Frankenstein. Dubbed in a thick, almost impenetrable Spanish accent (possibly by Franco himself), he instructs his daughter (the timeline of this project is in a world of its own if we are to believe he is the character from Mary Shelley's novel) to revive his creation, named Goddess.

That Goddess (Michelle Bauer) is a nymphomaniac is no great surprise, but she is also a very possessive one. The insatiable, cocaine-addled swinger next door has a plethora of lovers too, and they all fancy middle-aged Moira (whether she likes it or not), which enrages Goddess. They enter into a sadomasochistic relationship of punishment and counter-punishment, with the creature wearing nothing but the trade-mark of many Frankenstein Creations: big boots. Shiny ones.

Written, produced and directed by Jess Franco for One Shot Productions, this is shot entirely on video which, along with the inherent special effects that medium provides, somehow manages to date this production far more than anything Franco produced in the 1970s. The soundtrack ranges from an effective, synthesised funereal rhythm to much-repeated rock music – provided by the band (The Ubangis) Moira plays to herself ad nauseam.

And yet amongst the atrocious film and sound quality, the often incomprehensible Spanish/English which scuppers performances (especially that of Romay, who is otherwise as wonderful and uninhibited as ever) there is … something compelling. Amateur home-made film-making this maybe, but Franco offers a genuine nightmare quality to all the disjointed moments and the ham-fisted (!) eroticism. Goddess explains, through a modulated voice, her heart is full of love (ie: sex) but her mind is full of hate. A definite contradictory creation, and an inner turmoil it is easy to sympathise with, especially when conveyed by Bauer's powerful performance.

As I see it, Franco was, by this time in his career, as far from populist film-making as he had ever been, and fulfilled by increasingly micro-budgeted but entirely personal projects such as this. Kudos to him for travelling down this road, and to wife, actress and film-editor Romay for remaining loyal and adding her talent to his vision.

Lesbian Francostein

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 1 March 2022]

Moira Frankenstein (Lina Romay) has returned to the castle home of her dead father. After catching her widowed stepmother (Analia Ivars) making love to a man, she remembers the sexualized torture that the woman once put her through. She also remembers that there's a sleeping female creature (Michele Bauer, who was once Pia Snow in Cafe Flesh, but is also a scream queen with credits in movies like Demonwarp and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) who she brings back to the living by feeding her blood from her breasts.

Did I mention this is a Jess Franco movie?

Amber Newman (Tender Flesh) and Rachel Sheppard (Vampire Blues) are also in this, but if you haven't experienced the 90s video movies that Franco did, you may want to not watch this. Sure, there's plenty of prurient content, but I feel that so many of Jess's movies of this era should have been thirty minutes long and left us all wanting more instead of the same song playing over and over while computer effects strobe over the footage.

Sexy version of Frankenstein saga with morbid overtones

[liudragon · 10/10 · 21 April 2003]

While plump untalented "critics" with a personal ax to grind might rail out against Jess Franco from their sofa beds, intelligent viewers with open minds will understand that Michelle Bauer, as the Frankenstein monster, is not supposed to playing the prom queen. She's the monster and she's darned good in the role too! Director Franco twists the Shelley tale into something unrecognizable yet oddly compelling. Lina Romay, who plays the plain and unattractive daughter of Frankenstein, gets her revenge on the world by manipulating the Bauer monster into killing her father's enemies as well as a few of her own. At the same time, she allows the monster to go on a killing spree so as to extract lifeforces from her victims to prolong the monster's vitality. It's all utter nonsense but it's done with the typical depravity of Jess Franco and that makes it all worthwhile when the day is done.

Yesssssssssssssssssss!

[dwaltz6969 · 10/10 · 5 February 2005]

It is always good to see Franco tackle one of the legends. A gold booted, amazonian Michelle Bauer as the last creation of Dr. Frankenstein (Carlos Subterfuge) is a full blown, erotic sex machine! Add to that the delectable Lina Romay as Frankenstein's daughter. What we end up with is a creepy, atmospheric tale of horror, jealously and insanity. I cannot stress enough how Lina Romay carries this film. Add to that the spooky presence of Carlos Subterfuge as Dr. Frankenstein's ghost. The image of his blood soaked face streaking across Moira Frankenstein's window, his ragged breath fogging the glass is frightening to say the least. This Franco film making at it's best and bizarre!

Frankenstein's monster is a lesbian

[flootz · 7 December 2000]

Hot, lesbian scenes starring an aging scream queen and an aging vamp (Michelle Bauer and Lina Romay) are the highlights of this direct to video take on the Frankenstein mythos. The he/she monster becomes jealous of her master's love affairs and take things in it's own hands (and other parts of it's body). Bauer's electro-altered voice is enough to rate this film "scary" and director Franco's Spanish scenery shots are always beautiful. Pick up the unedited version for the sex scenes.

Really Bad

[Michael_Elliott · 30 October 2008]

Lust for Frankenstein (1998)

* (out of 4)

Softcore take on the famous story has Moira Frankenstein (Lina Romay) seeing a vision of her dead father and bringing back his creature (Michelle Bauer). Franco had previously made two other Frankenstein films, both in the 70s and while neither of them are classics they certainly are miles better than this thing, which is just downright trash. The film pretty much brought a new style in Franco's career, which has become known as the One Shot years. I'm not a fan of this period and for countless reasons that could be seen here. For starters, the film looks incredibly cheap even by Franco standards with its digital video. The movie features all sorts of strange visual effects, which don't add anything. The worst thing is that the film is pretty much disgusting as it features the elderly Romay in all sorts of sexual situations. She's certainly seen better days and I'm not meaning to insult the elderly folks out there but when you make an erotic movie it's probably better that you show two young people making out the entire time. I think it's a sad state for Romay who really comes off bad in this film but it would get worse with future One Shot films. If someone can find an actual story in this movie then they'll win a dollar from me because I couldn't spot one.

Romay and the Bauer monster

[Dr. Gore · 10 June 2005]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

I rented "Lust for Frankenstein" because I saw that Michelle Bauer was in it. I'm not the biggest Jess Franco fan in the world but I figured Bauer could save the day as she usually does. I also saw that Lina Romay was going to play the mad scientist. Romay and Franco doing a movie together usually means that sex and sleaze will be the order of the day. So it was with high hopes that I rented this flick.

It takes a brave man to film Lina Romay having sex these days. It takes an even braver man to watch it. Romay gets the hots for Bauer and they go at it. I felt really dirty and confused watching this scene. Part of me was loving it, (the Bauer side), and part of me was baffled, (Romay…Why?). Some older women still have their looks and watching them get down and dirty can be a huge turn-on. Watching Lina Romay, with her double-wide hips and crew cut, smother Michelle Bauer was not what good times are made of. Bauer still has the body but Romay needs to step aside. She had a good run at being a sex star but it's time to stop.

As for the rest of the movie, Franco was up to his usual incoherent ways. Romay gets naked with some other people and Bauer gets jealous. It's all jumbled nonsense with a good helping of nudity. Even if you're a Bauer fan, this one will really test you. You'd be better off letting this one go.

A Waste of Michelle Bauer's Two Amazing Talents

[dancziraky · 29 December 2002]

Senile creator of celluloid crud Jess Franco is perhaps the only director inept enough to make gorgeous scream queen Michelle Bauer look unattractive. The star of THE TOMB & HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS might not be in her "prime" anymore, but here she looks bloated and dumpy. Yet, in films made around the same time, Bauer still looks GREAT!!! Plus, why on earth did Franco give her that ridiculous half-penis???? At any rate ... yikes, this film STINKS!!!! No, really, it's virtually UNWATCHABLE. Lina Romay -- DEFINITELY past her prime as a '70s sex symbol -- is a wretched descendant of Dr. Frankenstein who revives his hermaphoditic monster, "Goddess," and has frequent lesbian sex with it. These sex scenes are, perhaps, the LEAST erotic things ever committed to film!!!! Please, avoid this atrocity at all costs -- it's not even "so bad it's funny," it's simply PAINFUL!

Complete rubbish

[blue_demigod · 29 January 2004]

I bought this video used for $1 when my local video store was switching over to DVD's and getting rid of their never-been-rented videos. $1 was too much. The movie tries to be too artistic to be a good porn-esque video, and there's far too much pornography for it to be a good artistic film. The main actress (Frankenstein's descendent) is ugly, has saggy tits which, unfortunately, are shown prominently through the whole movie, and is way too old to be in a movie like this. I watched this a long time ago and haven't bothered with it since. All I can remember is waiting anxiously for it to get good, and then being continually disappointed. It's been so long since I've seen it, I'm having trouble thinking of reasons for people to NOT SEE this movie, but I pretty much blocked it all out of memory after watching it the first time. The only reason I was looking at this page is because I was browsing the 100 Worst Movies list on imdb and was surprised to find this one absent. Even Kazam had more entertainment value than this horrible...HORRIBLE piece of crap.