Frankenstein is perhaps the greatest monster movie ever made. It tells the tale of a scientist, possessed by a dream of creating life from unanimated matter. Needless to say, he achieves this but to his surprise the creation proves to be a monster. After the monster begins to acclimate himself with his awkward body and strange surroundings, it becomes very upset and violent. Frankenstein, now mortified by this abomination, locks the monster away in a cell. Once there, the monster becomes the victim of taunts and beatings at the hand of Frankenstein's toad of an assistant, Fritz. The monster retaliates and eventually frees itself from bondage to finally embrace its freedom.

In almost no time, the creature is experiencing the wonders of nature and even temporarily befriends a little girl. The girl hands him a flower and the two take turns picking flowers and tossing them into a river. Meanwhile, Frankenstein is preparing for his wedding. He has all but forgotten about the monster by this point. Then, the monster is discovered and chased out of town by an angry mob. It flees into the light tower where it was born. The creature is finally defeated in as the tower is set ablaze by villagers.

To be honest, I didn't appreciate this film the first few times I'd seen it. Somehow, I developed a respect for the movie when I focused more on the monster's plight. It was reborn from the dead, which has got to be a bitch to get used to.  Since it's birth, it was teased, frightened and whipped like a circus animal. When that became unbearable, the creature lashed out, if only to save itself. Then, the monster experienced the beauty of life for a few hours before it was destroyed by xenophobic townspeople. All the while, the monster's looks and brain were the results of negligence and carelessness. So much could have been avoided had Frankenstein simply planned ahead. In a metaphorical sense, the moral of this story might be: "Be a responsible, loving parent when you decide to have kids.

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