Hammer's Frankenstein Films Ranked from Best to Worst

Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein.

1. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - The series' fourth film finds Victor Frankenstein performing a brain transplant to "cure" a fellow scientist's insanity. No, it's not an act of compassion; Victor's sole motive is to gain his colleague's research data to further his own work. At this point in the series, Baron Victor Frankenstein has become the Monster--his obsession with creating life makes him willing to do anything. Director Terence Fisher's best set piece involves a water main that breaks in the backyard of a Victorian boarding house...where a corpse has been buried in a shallow grave. (Actress Veronica Carlson discussed this scene in our interview with her.) Cushing is superb as the now-cruel, heartless Frankenstein and gets great support from Simon Ward and Carlson as a young couple being blackmailed and Freddie Jones as the sympathetic "creature." The fiery climax would have been a fitting way to end the series. 

Susan Denberg as Christine after surgery.

2. Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) - This film marked Terence Fisher's return to the series after passing (wisely) on Evil of Frankenstein (1964). His visual style grabs the viewer with an opening scene featuring a guillotine silhouetted against a dark, rural sky. This time around, Victor is consumed with harnessing the soul after it leaves the body. However, as a character, Frankenstein takes a backseat to a story about a ill-doomed couple: Hans, a peasant lad haunted by his father's execution as a murderer, and Christine, the tavern owner's daughter who is crippled and scarred. The film's final third turns into a revenge tale, but most of Frankenstein Created Woman is both a literate, bittersweet love story and an essay about life and the soul. Veteran British actor Thorley Walters gives one of his finest performances as Frankenstein's assistant, a physician with an affection for alcoholic beverages. And James Bernard contributes one of his best Hammer scores, which includes a melancholy melody for Christine. For the record, Frankenstein Created Woman counts Martin Scorsese among its fans!

Cushing in his second appearance.

3. The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) - The first sequel to the previous year's Curse of Frankenstein tones down Baron Frankenstein's vicious streak. In fact, Victor is relatively reserved, though obsessed with transplanting a brain into another body. He finds a willing volunteer in his lab assistant Karl, whose body is deformed. Written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Fisher, Revenge of Frankenstein is a solid, well-crafted effort and one of Hammer's best-reviewed films. It also features the best ending of the series and establishes the brain transplant premise that is revisited later in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

4. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - Hammer's first Frankenstein film is a bold, colorful reworking of Mary Shelley's novel. Peter Cushing's Victor Frankenstein is an zestful intellectual burning with the desire to learn the secret of creating life. As screenwriter Jimmy Sangster's plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that Frankenstein--not his creation--has become the real monster. The emphasis on the Baron, along with Peter Cushing's compelling performance, is what will keep Hammer's Frankenstein saga going for seventeen years. Curse of Frankenstein also introduces the blueprint for the Frankenstein sequels: vivid color photography, Gothic-inspired settings, and Terence Fisher's willingness to show the gory details. The only major disappointment is Christopher Lee's creature, which is physically imposing but devoid of any emotion. Note that the gap in quality between the films we rank 1-4 is relatively small. All of them are vastly superior to 5-7.

Kiwi Kingston as the Monster.

5. The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) - After a gap of six years, the series resumed with a subpar outing in which Frankenstein finds his creature encased in ice and revives it. There is no connection to the previous films other than Peter Cushing playing the Baron. Evil of Frankenstein is more of an homage to Universal's horror films. In fact, for the first time, Hammer was allowed to employ the famous make-up design used in the Universal movies. The screenplay veers from the established formula by introducing another villain: a wicked hypnotist named Zoltan. The result is a less interesting role for  Cushing's obsessed scientist. The great cinematographer Freddie Francis takes over as director and, while Evil is visually interesting at times, Francis would fare far better with Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968). Additional footage was shot in 1966 to expand the running time for American broadcast television.

Ralph Bates as a young Victor.

6. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) - With its box office profits starting to dwindle, Hammer made the unprecedented move of allowing veteran scribe Jimmy Sanger to mess with its Frankenstein franchise. Sangster wanted to create a Victor Frankenstein for the 1970s, so he recast the title role with the younger Ralph Bates (later a villain on TV's Poldark), emphasized the sexual elements, and injected a dose of black comedy. The plot is basically a remake of Curse of Frankenstein and, while it's interesting at times, the parts never gel. David Prowse portrays the Monster, which looks like a wrestler from a Santo movie. Prowse would played the Monster again in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell and go on to portray (but not voice) Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies.

Cushing in the role for the last time.

7. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) - At the age of 70, director Terence Fisher returned to the Frankenstein saga one last time in what would also be his final film. Peter Cushing also returns as Baron Frankenstein, who is now the resident physician in an asylum. Once again, Victor is obsessed with a brain transplant and assisted by a young surgeon (Shane Briant), whose own experiments have gotten him sentenced to the asylum. It's a lackluster outing that verges uncomfortably on black comedy and shows how far the impressive series had fallen in the five years since Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. The ending is amusing, though. In the U.S., it was released on a twin bill with the much superior Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.