A strange, almost surrealist take on Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein’s Bloody Nightmare, marks the first but hopefully not the last feature from writer/director John R. Hand. Far from a traditional take on the source material, Hand’s film is as unique as it is unsettling as it borrows from the seventies in its approach without feeling like a retread or an homage. 

Victor Karlstein (played by Hand himself) looks to be an up and coming force to be reckoned with in the medical world until his girlfriend (Amy Olivastro) passes away while under his care in his hospital and his mind starts to crack. Grief stricken, he decides to use his knowledge to bring her back from the dead using a variety of body parts to improve her in certain ways. Sadly, this doesn’t go quite as planned and her re-animated self needs a steady supply of replacement parts in order to keep on going. The victims/donors start to pile up and Karlstein finds himself with a man sized predicament (and it’s a big one too). 

Borrowing from obvious sources like Frankenstein, Frankenhooker and Re-Animator,  hands film could have very easily turned out to be little more than a rip off of what has come before. Thankfully, that’s not the case. Yes, Hand has definitely been influenced by Cronenberg (the body horror aspect), and probably Shinya Tskuamoto (the frantic pacing and bizarre camera work) as well but by combining these influences and regurgitating their themes and ideas as his own he’s managed to create a different kind of film that wears its influences on its sleeve without pulling from them too much. Considering that he not only directed by that he also stars in and wrote the picture, this is definitely his vision all the way through. 

While characterizations are minimal, what this movie has going for it in spades is freaky-deaky atmosphere and otherworldly tone. The choice to shoot bulk of the film in 8mm gives it a genuine retro look while opting to shoot the scenes seen through the monsters eyes in DV so that heavy optical effects could be applied gives those bits an appropriately skewed appearance. Hand uses both types of footage very effectively and it’s extremely impressive to see what he’s cooked up considering that, as stated, it’s his inaugural feature. The performances are a bit rough in spots but the direction is sold and the cinematography is very impressive. Hand also uses sound very well here, allowing certain scenes to build up very intensely towards the later part of the picture.