Often times when we think of horror movies as a genre we expect it to be full of blood, gore, zombies, vampires (the Dracula kinds not the Twilight kind), serial killers and even aliens. But rarely do we expect to find themes or story lines that fit into multiple genres at the same time. James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein branches out of the horror film genre and reaches into the comedic genre as well as the Romanic genre. Although Bride of Frankenstein is known as a horror classic it contains complex themes that allow the audience to connect to the films on different emotional levels.
In “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre” Rick Altman asks, “What is genre? Which films are genre films? How do we know to which genre they belong” (Altman, 6)? These questions Altman argues are rarely asked especially in regards to Hollywood classics cinema studies because we all know a genre when we see one…or do we? Bride of Frankenstein does a very interesting job of combining multiple themes and this is evident in the very beginning of the movie. Like any good horror movie Bride of Frankenstein begins on a stormy night with villagers gathered around a burning windmill rioting for the death of Frankenstein’s Monster. The lighting, background music and actors help to bring a terrifying scene to life. However the monster survives the fire and in turn kills Mr. and Mrs. Hans, the parents of the girl the creature drowned in the first Frankenstein film. There is something uncanny and sad about having an entire family murdered by the same creature.
After witnessing the brutal murder of two grieving parents the audience is given a comedic break when one of the villagers, Minnie, encounters the monster and begins to scream and flee in terror while managing to make strange and funny faces. As Minnie runs mad back to the village the audience is brought to a sweet scene in between Henry and Elizabeth in their castle. The love between the two is apparent as she nurses him back to health and he attempts to renounce his creation. Throughout the film Minnie brings comedy into the films plot while Henry and Elizabeth bring the romance.
Another scene in Bride of Frankenstein that shows the complexity of the films genre is when the monster greets his newly constructed wife. The monsters desperate desire for love and companionship goes against the murderous image of him that had been developing throughout the movie. When the creature’s heart is broken by his new wife’s terror of him it shows the density of his character. And in that particular scene audience members like me are emotionally connecting to the villain and wish him romantic success in what is claimed to be a classic horror movie.
The films complex genre placement is mirrored in the complexity of the monster and the characters. As stated in “The American Nightmare, Horror in the 70s” by Robin Wood “The Monster is clearly the emotional center, and much more human than the cardboard representatives of normality. The Frankenstein monster suffers, weeps, and responds to music, longs to relate to people; Henry and Elizabeth merely declaim histrionically” (Wood, 32). Although Bride of Frankenstein is a classic horror movie aspects of the film allow it to incorporate in other genres such as romance and comedy. The plot, point of view shots, the diegetic and nondiegetic sound as well as the lights and costumes help to allow this diversity.
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