Foolish Mortals Beware… It’s the House of Frankenstein

Foolish mortals beware…

The summer is coming up and you may be looking for trips and activities to spend the lovely hot days of the summer season.

If you are fans of haunted houses and horror attractions, I suggest you visit the House of Frankenstein in Toronto. Yes, going to Toronto for a haunted house may sound crazy but it is worth the trip as you can also visit different attractions and haunted houses on the same street as the House of Frankenstein.

Your love for Frankenstein will be duplicated as you will encounter the famous creation as well as many “monsters” inside of this terrifying house. Be prepared to face and see the abominations that will make you scream!

Be warned guys… this is not for the weak of heart!

Click here to have more information about the House of Frankenstein.

Are you considering visiting this house this summer? Let us know in the comments!

Picture’s credit: House of Frankenstein, http://www.houseofrankenstein.ca

Part 1: Evolution of Science-Fiction

Science-Fiction has a lot of history. The first antecedents from this genre were found out by Historians from the 2nd century. In this era, they were using speculation and storytelling to understand the world and creating a dividing line between the mythological and historical tends. Thus, they were trying to make the difference between actual situations that happened and others that were only based on beliefs and had not enough possible facts to happen.
After a while, Science-Fiction continued to evolve after the 2nd century, but its bigger development occurred in the 19th century with the arrival of the first science fictions novels. This development occurred mostly because of the arrival of some significant technological advances such as electricity, telegraph and so on, in modern societies, which ultimately change science. An excellent example of the use of these new technologies was in Frankenstein. Moreover, the genre continued to evolve and became what we are used to seeing nowadays, which is mostly works that demonstrate potential innovation and new technologies.
Furthermore, the genre nowadays mostly consists of speculative fiction, which is a narrative based on supernatural and futuristic elements. It also deals with original concepts such as futuristic science, technology and extra-terrestrial existence that are most of them based on science and theory, instead of only creative thoughts.
Finally, the genre became so popular and so diversify that Sci-Fi needed to include sub-genre. Thus, it was divided into two significant sub-genres: Hard Science Fiction and Soft Fiction. Their primary differences are that hard science fiction usually includes attention to detail in the natural sciences like physics, astrophysics, and chemistry. On the other hand, soft science fiction is based on social sciences such as psychology and economics.

Here’s the link for PART 2:
Credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/SF-Defined.htm

3 famous rock artists that made a song about Frankenstein

Throughout the last few decades, horror has often been an important part of the culture of rock, metal, and punk. Thus, several songs have been written referring about Frankenstein. In this case, here are 3 popular rock artists/groups that made a great song about this well-known monster.

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SOME KIND OF MONSTER BY METALLICA

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TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN BY ALICE COOPER

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MUTTER BY RAMMSTEIN

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 Let me know what is your favorite song about Frankenstein!

Credit: http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10-28/the-10-best-songs-about-frankenstein

Note: These videos are used for scholar purposes. I do not own any copyright of these songs.

SparkNotes’ Summary Video

Hello guys! Today I give you the best summary video on Mary Shelley’s novel that I have been able to find on the Internet.

The SparkNotes team has done an impressing work producing this summary video. The video covers the important parts of the novel while offering a quick synopsis, analysis, and discussions about the major themes and characters of the novel.

I hope you guys enjoy the video and may it help you understand the novel even more!

Credit: SparkNotes, channel: VideoSparkNotes

Frankenstein in Real Life

In 1940, Russians scientifics made an experiment where they kept a dog`s head alive for few minutes. The head of the dog reacted to sound, touch, taste and light.

Even if it is disgusting for the average citizen, it is quite incredible from a scientific point of view.

For a long time, we thought of bringing the dead back to life as imaginary, fantasy and science-fiction, such as Frankenstein’s monster.

Even if it lasted only for a few minutes, it is incredible results, considering that it has been performed in 1940.

Science never stops evolving, as the first human head transplantation is scheduled for December 2017.

It is interesting to consider how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is seen has one of the greatest horror stories of all time, and how its main plot might become reality in years to come.

Credit to jonesdavy72 for the Youtube video

Letter to Victor Frankenstein

Dear Victor Frankenstein,

We say that with intelligence does not come maturity.

 

You made me,

But you also destroyed me

 

You are my creator,

But who is, between us two, the real monster?

 

You are a great scientist, no doubt,

But I had to make my own route

 

When you put something to life,

You don’t abandon it,

Maybe that is why you lost your wife,

As a father, you must commit

 

At my creation, you left me. You should have think twice,

And maybe I would have been nice

 

 

 

 

The Conception of the Igor character.

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Many are familiar with the hunchbacked assistant of Doctor Victor Frankenstein known as Igor, however most people fail to realize that he was not part of the original novel. Indeed, Igor was not even present in the widely successful 1931 film Frankenstein. The original hunchback assistant of the infamous doctor was named Fritz, who unfortunately met his demise at the hands of the Monster after tormenting it with a flaming torch. Sequels of the film, notably Son of Frankenstein, featured a character named Igor, though he was neither hunchbacked nor a lab assistant but rather a blacksmith.

The confusion behind Igor’s role as a hunchbacked assistant may come from the 1953 adaptation of the classic horror film House of Wax. In this movie, the museum curator’s assistant was named Igor, though he was not hunchbacked, but rather deaf and mute.

The similarities between Gothic horror films at the time all took inspiration from the classic Frankenstein movie, and over decades morphed an idea of the original source material which was separate from the novel.

 

 

Sources:

http://www.scifiscripts.com/cartoon/nightmare.txt

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2517033/Daniel-Radcliffe-set-Igor-new-Frankenstein-movie.html

http://screencrush.com/daniel-radcliffe-frankenstein-igor/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090206230249/http://hyel.thedanamark.net/trumpets/dwinfo/dictionary/igors.htm

Victor Frankenstein as a Prometheus Figure

In the Note section in the beginning of Mary Shelly’s book, it mentions that the novel has the subtitle: ‘The Modern Prometheus’. After reading the book, I can definitely agree with the relevance of this subtitle.

Just like Prometheus in Greek mythology, Victor Frankenstein does something no one else dared to do. For Prometheus it was giving the human race the secrets of fire. For Frankenstein it was creating life out of death. They both thought to achieve their purposes for the sake of the development and betterment of humanity and both their creations brought them suffering. This suffering comes from Zeus for Prometheus in the form of being chained to a rock and having his liver eaten by an eagle every day. For Frankenstein, it could be said to be worse as it is his whole project, his own creation, that makes him suffer. His creature destroys him by ruining his family and murdering his friends and family members but the creature also ends up being the death of him.

Frankenstein’s Survival

Frankenstein’s monster has never been able to place himself in the world. When he was created, he was severely rejected by his own creator and was forced out into the world which he did not ask to be brought to. Lost and alone, he fled where he knew no one would come looking for him, into the forest. Since he was not born a human from the beginning, the monster was lost and did not know what life was or how to prepare for it. He never had a family and never had someone to guide him.

The monster had one thing in mind since the beginning, survival. He wanted to learn how to think like a human and be like a human so that he could survive in this world which he did not belong. He had taught himself to read by listening to the family at the cottage. This helped his survival a lot and this is where he began to reconsider what he wanted his life to be. An event that proved that he wanted to survive was when he asked Victor to make him a female lover. He wanted to continue living in the forest all alone only with this female monster which Frankenstein would create. The monster was looking to be able to survive in a world that would not accept him but Victor would not let him.

Frankenstein’s Video Games?

As we all passionately know, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an important novel in American literature. It has influenced many authors, singers, and artists and it is still an influence on our popular culture today. Many movies have been made from it with a count of approximately 50 films.

Not only movies have been made from the novel, but there are video games too. Yes, you read it right, there is some video games based on Frankenstein.

Here is a list of five of those video games:

Dr. Franken: The Adventures of Dr. Franken

Dr. Franken is a single-player video game originally launched on the Game Boy in 1992. It was also released in 1993 on the Super NES. It was developed by Elite Systems and published by Kemco and DTMC.

The game is about Franky, a Frankenstein’s monster that is on a quest to collect the sprinkled body parts of her girlfriend. The game also consists of seven floors where Franky could find various items and parts of her lovely girlfriend. To resurrect his girlfriend Bitsy, keys and special items are necessary to access new areas and to find all the missing parts of Bitsy.

A sequel to the original game was released on the Game Boy in 1997 and was called Dr. Franken II. In this game, Franky must escape the castle in which he finds himself trapped to search for pieces and gold tablet.

Frankenstein by CRL

Frankenstein by CRL is an interactive fiction game released in 1987 by CRL for the Commodore 64, the Amstrad CPC, and the ZX Spectrum computers.

In this game, the player incarnates Dr. Frankenstein who must find and destroy his unleashed monster. On the other hand, the monster must remain free and learn and understand the reason of its creation.

This game was declared an intelligent, gigantic text adventure with a few magnificent illustrations by Sinclair User.

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns is a single-player Nintendo video game published in 1990 by Bandai. The game was released exclusively in North America.

The game takes place after the Frankenstein story. The creature returns from the dead and lead, by the way of magic, a supernatural army. With its magic, the monster has been able to control mythical entities such as Death and Medusa. In this game, the player incarnates a swordsman that is determined to stop the unleashed monster and its army to rescue Emily, a beautiful maiden that was kidnaped by the monster, a slay the unstoppable thing for good.

Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster

Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster is an adventure game that stars Tim Curry as Dr. Frankenstein. The game was developed my Amazing Media and Tachyon Studios and was published by Interplay on PC, Mac, and Sega Saturn in a span of three years between 1995 and 1997.

The player is controlling a newly created monster and tries to resurrect Gabrielle, a disappeared child that was killed in an explosion caused by Dr. Frankenstein. The monster that the player incarnates is the late Philip Werren that is brought back to life by Victor Frankenstein and Gabrielle is Werren’s daughter. There are two possible endings to the game, which give different choices to the player that will branch the game into one ending or the other.

The game received an average of about two stars.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a single-player video games that was launched in 1994 for multiple platforms such as the Super NES, the Sega CD, and the Sega Genesis. The game is based on the 1994 film of Frankenstein and was developed by Bits Studio and published by Sony Imagesoft.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein video game, the player controls Frankenstein’s monster as it walks through the streets of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. The game takes place in 1793. The player, controlling the creature, seeks revenge against its creator Victor for rejecting him.

The game received a 5.8 out of 10 score from Electronic Gaming Monthly. The magazine called the game a challenging game that includes awkward fighting actions.

 

Now that you know more about those Frankenstein video games, are you willing to try them out? Will you take the fight as the monster or play as the doctor to stop his own creation? Let us know in the comments!

Sources : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_Frankenstein