Ew, that comparison sucked. So does House of Frankenstein, but it's all the better for it. This movie has it all: Boris Karloff not as the Monster, but this time as the mad scientist; Dracula in a pulse-pounding carriage chase; cheesy Dracula-to-vampire bat transformation effects; cheesy Larry Talbot-to-Wolf Man transformation effects; and a love triangle between the Wolf Man, the hunchback, and a gypsy girl! The best thing about House of Frankenstein is that every character speaks entirely in terms of exposition. It's almost as literal as "Hey, I'm a werewolf, and you are a mad scientist!" In fact, at one point the hunchback complains to the Monster: "She hates me because I am an ugly hunchback!!!" Karloff is fucking awesome as the mad scientist who escapes from prison with his hunchback assistant (hunchbacks seemingly in huge supply over in the Tyrol), and who knocks off the proprietor of a traveling "Chamber of Horrors" which claims to exhibit the actual bones of the real Dracula! Karloff discovers this is true when he gets angry at a heckler and removes the stake from the skeleton's heart, just to show him! Dracula (John Carradine!) thereupon comes to life, though he is killed within five minutes or so. Karloff then finds his way to Henry Frankenstein's original castle, where the Monster and the Wolf Man are frozen in subterranean ice following the tragic events of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Apparently all you need to do to bring a frozen corpse to life is to melt the ice. Karloff, incidentally, looks and speaks almost exactly like Jeremy Irons, and Lon Chaney, Jr. comes off like Chris Noth. Will someone please do a Gods and Monsters-esque treatment of the later Universal "monster mash" movies just so this casting can be used? House of Frankenstein sucks, and therefore rules, on so many levels, that it's a good deal more fun to watch than any of the "classic" films on which it builds its storyline. Perhaps the sheer fact that trying to combine the sixth entry into the Frankenstein series with the third in the Wolf Man series was bound to result in delightful disaster is what makes this one so wonderful, whereas the original movies are almost not even noticeable in all their familiarity. The fact that this film does not at all take itself, or its audience, seriously is a huge point in its favor.
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