Frankenstein 2000 - Ritorno dalla morte

Generally speaking, I am a huge admirer of the late Joe D'Amato. His greatest films, "Buio Omega" (1979) and "Antropophagus" (1980) are absolute highlights of disturbing Italian Horror exploitation, and many of the other films that earned this highly prolific filmmaker his reputation as the King of Sleaze, are also essential for any fan of Italian Exploitation cinema. That being said, he is also responsible for a number of stinkers, and his latter day Horror film "Ritorno Dalla Morte" aka. "Frankenstein 2000" of 1991 is definitely one of the very crappy films in D'Amato's impressive repertoire of almost 200 films. D'Amato had his heyday in the 70s and early 80s, when the Exploitation cinema was booming. In the early 90s, when the great days of Horror and Exploitation were generally over, D'Amato's work had also become less valuable, and by the mid 90s he switched to directing porn only.

"Ritorno Dalla Morte" obviously had an extremely low budget, even for the standards of D'Amato, who usually knew how to make the best out of a low budget. Even so, D'Amato, a true master of exploitation, still manages to put in some gore (although it's very tame for his standards). The movie was probably shot within a few days and doesn't even bother to come up with logic in its plot. Nevertheless, the film is quite entertaining. It was a great treat to see Donald O'Brien, the great star of many Italian Westerns, Horror films and Exploitation flicks star in one of his last roles here. The cast furthermore includes another regular of Italian cult cinema, Maurice Poli, who is probably best known for his role in Mario Bava's "Cani Arrabiati".

Another funny point for me was that the movie is set in my home country, Austria, somewhere in the countryside. The many absolutely ridiculous aspects of this film make it therefore especially funny for an Austrian. An entire little town is run by a rich guy and his private security firm, for example, and there is a bizarre disco named 'Heil', decorated with swastikas, in the middle of town (the display of Nazi-symbols has been banned in Austria since 1945). Horror fans will also recognize some plot similarities to a true Gothic Horror great, the Hammer Studios' "Frankenstein Created Woman" of 1967.

D'Amato has directed masterpieces like "Buio Omega", but also many stinkers, and "Frankenstein 2000" definitely belongs to the latter category. Nevertheless, it is fun to watch for Italian Horror buffs even if only for its fun value and for its star, the great Donal O'Brien in the lead. 3/10

This is an inordinate special movie, so will be my review. Neither in a way it's terrific but nor it's awful. Same time can't say it's average. The grade is for this movie is hard to figure out. I can only say I loved it. To be quite sincere I'll encounter all the ingredients. It starts out very realistic, preparing more to a drama than horror (in a good way) First 30 minutes we get to known to the following three things: the city is under the power of governor Hoffner, Georgia (Monreale) is telepathic, Rick is a former boxer a bit sick in head but fairly a nice man and in love in Georgia (the most tragic circumstance of the movie), Georgia's gift gives her nightmares seeing a maniac after her little boy Stephen some time. Hoffner's son and his two friends make an attempt to rape Georgia. First one misses, the second time they manage. But first they knock off Rick that comes to Georgia's house with flowers. After they beat Georgia to coma, rape her and leave, police arrests Rick. Rick knows his sickness and even thinks he could do it. He doesn't talk, so nobody doubts it's his work. Then governor orders two guys from his security and the autopsy doctor to murder Rick in the cell make it like a suicide so that he never talks again… Then the atmosphere kicks in – Georgia brings Rick back to life. Rick is out to punish everybody involved in this case – three bustards, two cops and even the governor. Frankly I wasn't sure how I felt about this movie watching for the first time until I watch the second time and realized I'd love to watch it again. It seems a lot longer though it's only 93 minutes all because the script is rich and deep. Some moments are just great but there are some serious goofs unfortunately – straight after an excellent scene of resurrection follows the autopsy scene when you clearly see the corpse breathing and even winking (so does Monreale in the very end however the goof is saved by the unexpected final shot that will keep you thinking or at least watch the movie again). The Frankenstein make-up is very good but the others are not that compelling. The killing scenes start well, and even with very little gore they are nice because of the good acting. Especially I enjoyed the two security guys' murder scene. Acting provides a lot of great little moments that keep you inside it. The script is very good. Richly colourful, atmospheric, suspenseful, dramatic, dynamic, excellent score. Yes, the pleasure of this movie is the atmosphere. D'Amato is genius to shot that kind of masterpiece with such a low budget. The thing is you don't that see it the way the make-up is but the way it could be with a little more money. Really, I can assure you despite of "considered" one of D'Amato's wicker horror efforts, it surely involves Joe's talent the most (just like "Endgame" and "Absurd" – other two hard to get flicks, Joe's best, for me this is the third one) Decent movie, it's good as thriller and as drama and a little horror. It's scary not that scary as traditional but as dramatic horror, I mean it's more "Dead man's shoes" that other Frankenstein movies. 7 out of 10! Don't believe all the reviews making you believe it's crap. Genius. One word. Don't miss it. If you like being entertained be sure it's highly entertaining. I'd rather by the soundtrack. Love you Joe D'Amato. You were so good. R.I.P.

Frankenstein 2000 (1991)

BOMB (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato's last horror film is among the worst films I've seen from him. A woman is raped by two thugs but the police put the blame on her homeless friend. The friend is eventually murdered in jail but the woman, while in a coma, uses her brain power to bring him back to life so he can seek vengeance. This film runs 93-minutes but I could have sworn it went on for nearly four or five hours. Every second of the film is a complete bore with horrible performances, bad dialogue and incredibly bad special effects. For some reason the woman keeps seeing her son get his head chopped off, which leads to countless scenes of his incredibly fake looking head rolling on the ground. There are a few gory scenes but all of them are poorly done. Most Euro films like this are dubbed but this one here features the German actors doing their own English, which leads to a large amount of flubbed lines. Original title: Return From Death: Frankenstein 2000.

Until I checked here, I had no idea that Frankenstein 2000 was the work of Joe D'amato, the prolific director once again hiding behind one of his many pseudonyms; it all makes sense now, the inane script, the poor direction, the lousy acting, Laura Gemser as costume designer—all the evidence points to the King of Italian sleaze.

Sadly, this is far from prime D'amato, lacking the outrageous sex and gore that typifies his most popular flicks. The plot is both derivative and preposterous, a desperate mix of psychic and physical horror that rips off several other movies, most notably Aussie horror Patrick. D'amato's direction is at the lower end of his ability, years of working on hardcore porn having clearly dulled his artistic acuity. The film is also severely hampered by the foreign actors in his cast who fail to display any emotion in their lines and repeatedly stall while delivering them, sounding like Speak and Spell machines as a result.

Those who enjoy really crap Italian horror will undoubtedly glean some enjoyment from the sheer ineptitude of the whole thing and there is some fun to be had with the laughable gore—a few brief decapitations and a hilarious scene in which a guy has his head crushed, the eyes popping from the sockets—but hardcore D'amato fans will be severely disappointed.

Frankenstein 2000 gets a 4.5/10 from me, generously rounded up to 5 for several really dumb moments that beggar belief: a Mick Fleetwood lookalike chasing an irritating blond moppet with an axe; a fancy dress party at an Austrian nightclub adorned with swastikas; and a terrified woman, menaced by the 'monster', climbing onto a sofa for safety rather than legging it.

This movie is really boring, the most low budget B-horrormovies are pretty ok because there is something to laugh about, but in this movie nothing happens until after one hour or so!!

And just when you think the gore starts another disappointment kicks in, almost no gore! So why bother to watch? Only for hardcore collectors i think!