The Frankenstein narrative is one of cinema's most durable, and it is often utilized by the studio system and the most renegade independents alike to reveal our deepest aspirations and greatest anxieties. The films have concerned themselves with demarcations of gender, race, and technology, and this new study aims to critique the more traditional interpretations of both the narrative and its sustained popularity. From James Whale's "Frankenstein" (1931) through Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (1994), the story remains a nuanced and ultimately ambivalent one and is discussed here in all of its myriad terms: aesthetic, cultural, psychological, and mythic.

Beginning with an examination of the narrative's origins in the myth of the birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus, "The Cinematic Rebirths of Frankenstein" goes on to consider each of the filM's many incarnations, from the Universal horror films of the thirties through the British Hammer series and beyond. Moving easily between the scholarly and the popular, the book employs both primary texts-including scripts, posters, and documentation of production histories-and a rigorous, scholarly examination of the many implications of this often-misunderstood subgenre of horror cinema.

The endurance of the Frankenstein narrative as a modern cinematic myth is undeniable. Its flexibility has produced classic and contemporary horror film-most notably the Universal films of the thirties-but it has also resulted in unusual hybrids, such as musical horror-comedy ("The Rocky Horror Picture ShoW"), hyperbolic parody ("Flesh for Frankenstein"), and science fiction (the "Alien" and "Terminator" series). This sourcebook provides a complete guide to all of the story's filmic incarnations-including essential information such as cast, creative personnel, and plot summaries-and also guides the reader to relevant primary texts such as scripts, posters, production histories, and newspaper clippings. Utilizing an approach that is both popular and scholarly, and including spotlight essays that deal with contemporary academic approaches to the subject, "The Frankenstein Film Sourcebook" reveals the depth of the cinematic range of interpretations of a classic modern myth.

Comprehensive in its scope, "The Frankenstein Film Sourcebook" provides an alphabetical guide to two hundred films that incorporate the Frankenstein narrative. It also delves into both primary and secondary perspectives and includes discussions of aspects of the films, such as their depiction of women, which is relevant to current scholarly critiques.