E X T E N S I O N FRANKENSTEIN MANIA Mary Shelley s work has had great success all over the world and her monster is now part of everyone s culture. Over the years we have added details to him, and now he is easily recognisable1: a green, tall creature with clothes in pieces, and a square, flat2 head and black hair. Films and cartoons The text has inspired many films: One of the best of all time is 1931 s Frankenstein. It was this film which gave origin to the popular idea of the mad scientist helped by his hunchbacked3 assistant, and the image of the monster that we know today. The actor Boris Karloff, as the creature, doesn t talk at all during the film, but his performance and appearance made the monster iconic4. In Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks (1974), instead, a comical black-andwhite parody5 of the original work, the protagonist is Frederick Frankenstein, Victor s grandson. As a scientist, he rejects his grandfather s ideas and doesn t want to be identified with him, but in the end he creates a monster, too. The film shows us a different perspective6 in a funny way: what happens if Frankenstein accepts and loves his creature? Igor (2008) is a computer-animated horror comedy film in which the protagonist is the scientist s assistant. All the traditional film roles in the film are reversed7: the creature is friendly and not a monster, the hunchbacked assistant is intelligent, and the scientist is stupid. 4. iconic: being the symbol of something. 5. parody: a text/film which copies the style of another in order to be humorous. 6. perspective: a particular point of view or way of thinking about something. 7. reversed: the opposite of what something usually is. 1. recognisable: quality of being able to know someone because you have seen them before. 2. flat: level, with no curved parts. 3. hunchbacked: having a back with a large, round raised area on it because of an illness. 66