Frankenstein

Benny Davis

"Frankenstein"

"Frankenstein" is a piece that connected to me on a visceral level. I first read it back in freshman year, and reading it a second time senior year was twice as insightful.

I had been writing a script since 2009 entitled "Manfred Kahn's Eating Disorder" about a cannibal going to rehab and learning to eat vegetables and animal meat as opposed to that of a human. When I read "Frankenstein" the first time, it gave me a treasure trove of inspiration for that script. Though it is not yet finished and I have a lot of work to do on it, I feel like without Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, I would never be able to complete that script.

If I had to put the story into short, easily relatable terms, I would have to say it would be a cross between “Silence of the Lambs” and “Young Frankenstein” yes, the Mel Brooks movie. It’s a film that is tragic, yet comedic. Much like “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil”, in the sense that it is tragic and comedic simultaneously.

I wanted to adapt “Frankenstein” into a film, but then the new film “Victor Frankenstein” came out, and now I have to wait at least 20 years before a new “Frankenstein” movie can be made. The troubles of being a filmmaker…

-Benny Davis