Young Frankenstein

The movie I chose to watch was Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974). After viewing this film, I notice many themes to two different genres. They also reference many of the old classic monster films in the Frankenstein series.  

            Young Frankenstein is a mixture of two different genres; the two depicted in the film are horror and comedy. It follows the horror genre by following these few tropes for example the jump scare, in many scenes when Dr. Frankenstein (pronounced Frankensteen) goes through the lab and finds many of the skulls being buried after several months then the camera moves with the doctor until we see Igor (pronounced eyegore) and he says boo and makes us jump. Numerous scenes include when the monster sees fire he jumps and gets frustrated which also causes jump scares as well. We see it follow the genre of comedy because it has slapstick in most of the film. There is a scene where they do a musical number of “Puttin’ On the Ritz” which is a late 1920s song that involves tap dancing. When the monster speaks, all you hear him do is moan, groan and roar; he then tries to keep up. Another scene is the monster attacking Dr. Frankenstein. He chokes him and the doctor plays like a charades sort of game so the characters can understand what he wants.

            The film also takes three traditional tropes from some of the earlier horror films of the 1930s and that’s the What’s in the Mirror, abandoned cemetery and science gone wrong. These three traditional tropes of the earlier monster films were reused again in this film because Mel Brooks wanted to stay true to the original film and make it comedic as well. Besides it being filmed in black and white, Brooks references the original Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) through the “what’s in the mirror” trope by having the monster sneak into a bedroom and is seen behind a mirror and kidnaps Frankenstein’s fiancée. That scene is an almost exact reference to the original Frankenstein. The abandoned cemetery trope is seen in the film as well from both Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935). Dr. Frankenstein goes through the cemetery and unburies the remains of a recent dead man. In the original film the viewer sees it in Bride of Frankenstein. The monster goes through an abandoned cemetery while he flees the mob of people after him. The final trope you see in this film from the originals too is the mad scientist and science gone wrong. There are two examples of this trope in the film that reference the sequels to Frankenstein. Another example is when the creature is created, we hear the famous line IT’S ALIVE. That is obviously a reference to most if not all the original Frankenstein films. The second example is towards the end. The doctor and the creature switch brains with each other and that also is an example from the sequel Ghost of Frankenstein (Kenton, 1942). In Ghost of Frankenstein at the end of that movie, brains get switched around with not the doctor and the monster but with the monster and Igor.

            The film itself emphasizes a lot of gags and footage into the funniest possible way. The film definitely is a horror movie, but Mel Brooks did try his best to put a lot of comedy into this film. It does have horror like moments like when the monster is alive, when he kidnaps Dr. Frankenstein’s fiancée, the little girl he teeter totters with and she flies into her bedroom and finally when he gets anxious about seeing fire. All these elements have funny parts to them like the monster choking the doctor and he is trying to speak to the other characters and the tap-dancing scene.

            To conclude, this film shows two different genres in one film. It also takes lot of references from the earlier monster films and you can clearly see Mel Brooks intention was to poke fun at the early Frankenstein pictures.

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Works Cited

BRENNAN, MATTHEW C. “Mary Shelley’s Cinematic Progeny: The Fidelity of Young Frankenstein.” South Carolina Review 48, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 195. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bgsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brb&AN=109579600&site=ehost-live&scope=site

BROOKS, MEL, and Jacoba Atlas. "MEL BROOKS." Film Comment 11, no. 2 (1975): 54-57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43752956.

Seminoff, Aaron. “7 Classic Horror Tropes and Why They Work.” 7 Classic Horror Tropes and Why They Work. Serial Killer Shop, December 20, 2016. https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/horror/7-classic-horror-tropes-and-why-they-work.

BRENNAN, MATTHEW C. “Mary Shelley’s Cinematic Progeny: The Fidelity of Young Frankenstein.” South Carolina Review 48, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 195. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bgsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brb&AN=109579600&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Seminoff, Aaron. “7 Classic Horror Tropes and Why They Work.” 7 Classic Horror Tropes and Why They Work. Serial Killer Shop, December 20, 2016. https://serialkillershop.com/blogs/horror/7-classic-horror-tropes-and-why-they-work.

BROOKS, MEL, and Jacoba Atlas. "MEL BROOKS." Film Comment 11, no. 2 (1975): 54-57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43752956.