FRANKENSTEIN 80 - You'll have to be into real dross to get through this. About a decade ago I would've raved about the likes of 'Frankenstein 80', with its brash lack of concern for taste or sense. These days, I find my patience wears a little thin. Anyway, it's a contemporary (made in 1972) take on the Frankenstein thing, with a patchwork guy called 'Mosaic' who indulges in a bit of forced organ extraction. There's a police investigation, a journalist's search for truth and scientific feuds but none of the above hang together in any coherent fashion. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't so grating and dull, but unfortunately it has the specific feel of badly made early 70s Eurohorror ie manages to be both ploddingly linear and messily disjointed. It's really quite sleazy though, for better or worse, and there's a smattering of butchershop gore. In fact, despite the tedium, 'Mosaic' tends to be in rampage mode most of the time and can be quite diverting. Even though I'm kind of trashing it here, it's a film I keep coming back to for some godforsaken reason, and I just had to check out this recent, slightly better transfer (all previous DVD versions abysmal). Of course, for 70s psychedelic Frankensteinian sleaze the better options are 'Erotic Rites of Frankenstein' or 'Flesh for Frankenstein'.
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