(1994) In the role of Dr Victor Frankenstein and as director (as well as co-producer) Kenneth Branagh created a monstrous movie, stitched together from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel and a screenplay by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont. From the broad outline of the original story and its characters, this frantic-paced (both action and musical score by Patrick Doyle), frenetic film of two hours becomes an abbreviated, cinematic comic-book of the much deeper, more subtle work in prose.

Similar to the book, the opening scene takes place in the Arctic Sea aboard the vessel of Capt Robert Walton (Aidan Quinn) on his ambitious voyage to find a north-sea passage in 1794. The ship strikes an iceberg before becoming encased in a sea of ice; coming upon the stranded crew in his pursuit of a terrible creature, Victor Frankenstein asks Capt Walton: "Do you share my madness?"

Shifting back in time - Victor narrates his strange history to Walton - to Geneva in 1773, the first born of Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein and a gifted physician (Ian Holm) is introduced to an orphan girl brought into the family to be raised as if she were his sister. His playmate Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) will become Victor's intended bride.

In giving birth to Willie - as a tree is blasted by lightning during a terrific storm - Caroline dies; three years later Victor demonstrates to Elizabeth and their companion Justine Moritz (Trevyn McDowell) the electrifying effect of lying on the ground beside a lightning rod when it's struck.

In 1793 Victor departs for Ingolstadt to commence his university study of the science of medicine toward becoming a physician like his father; he makes acquaintance with fellow classmate Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce, who provides an occasional touch of humor preceding the horror). There his youthful enthusiasm for the works of alchemy and pre-scientific philosophy are ridiculed by Prof Krempe; but Prof Waldman (John Cleese) - who has a reputation for having engaged in "illegal experiments" - takes serious interest in Frankenstein's zeal "to defeat death and disease," demonstrating the method from Asia of acupuncture to access the body's natural points of energy.

During a mandated program of vaccinating everyone in the city for small pox, a man resists and stabs Prof Waldman, killing him. Determined to cheat death by creating life, Frankenstein ("We don't know when life begins or death ends") gathers his "raw materials" (Waldman's brain along with the professor's journals and body parts from thieves and murderers) - "Evil stitched to evil stitched to evil," says Krempe - immersing the resulting cadaver in a bath of amniotic fluid and electrical impulses. "That's the combination!" he exults.

Just as he's about to proceed with the final phase of the experiment, Elizabeth, not having received any correspondence from Victor, appears during a cholera epidemic; refusing to flee the city, he tells her that his work comes before all else, including her.

The "reanimant" (Robert De Niro) erupts from its iron womb, his face and body horribly disfigured with sutured wounds. (Along with numerous other differences, Shelley's novel neglects mention of any details of what or how the creature was composed and came to life.) Suddenly realizing the enormity of his giving life to previously inanimate flesh and bone, as well as his curt dismissal of Elizabeth, Frankenstein cries aloud: "What have I done?" To Elizabeth he expresses regret, without explanation: "It should never have started."

The monster escapes into the plagued streets where he's chased (accused of being the cause of contagion) before finding refuge in a pig sty beside the cottage of Felix and his wife, two children, and blind father. Providing provender for the poor people from their fields, unseen for fear of causing alarm, his beneficence as the "good spirit of the forest" initially receives their quiet approbation; secretly watching and listening as the mother teaches her children their letters, he learns the rudiments of speech and reads Frankenstein's journals, which he took away with him from the lab.

However, when he attempts to make acquaintance with the sightless patriarch, his intentions are misunderstood when Felix returns and repels the fiendish beast. "I will have revenge!" he vows. By chance the creature comes upon Willie in the forest, who when he entreats the child to stay screams at the ghastly visage; a locket bearing Victor's portrait worn around the boy's neck incites the daemon to violence.

During a search for the missing child, found asleep in a barn with the locket on her person, Justine unjustly is accused of murder and lynched by a mob.

Chased into the Alps, the creature, demanding to know whether or not he possesses a soul, confronts Frankenstein on a sea of ice: "Who am I?" Endeavoring to resolve their mutual animosity, the creature offers a truce - "I would make peace with all" - in exchange for a favor: a female companion like himself.

Claiming to harbor more love than Frankenstein might believe possible, yet more rage than can be imagined, the daemon avers: "If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other." Reluctantly Frankenstein acquiesces to his creation's terms: "If it is possible to right this wrong, then I will do it."

For raw material the daemon brings Justine's body to Frankenstein, who when repulsed by the plan receives the monster's threat: "If you deny me my wedding night, I will be with you on yours." To Henry, Victor says: "There's nothing left to lose." "Nothing but your soul," replies his friend. From this point onward the movie loses its heart and head, becoming more fantastical with little connection to Mary Shelley's conception.

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