Paperback review: The Revenge of Frankenstein, By Shaun Hutson

The Revenge of Frankenstein is a play-it-straight novelisation of the 1958 Hammer horror film.

Baron Frankenstein escapes execution for his misdeeds in the previous film, with the help of the hunchbacked prison warder Carl, and sets up a hospital in a new town where he harvests organs from the hapless patients in order to continue his experiments. His goal is to transplant Carl's brain into a new body .... It's fair to say that this book is not terribly well-written. Hutson has a weakness for pleonasm ("his brain and his intellect"; "inevitable and unavoidable") and is not averse to cliche ("ungodly hour"; "biting cold"; "not a pretty sight"). But then, this naive, formulaic style is entirely suitable for this classic kitsch tale. It's impossible to read about Baron Frankenstein without seeing Peter Cushing in the role.