The Opening Sequences of James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein and the Opening sequences of the 1994 film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The Opening Sequences of James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein and

the Opening sequences of the 1994 film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelley, creator and author of Frankenstein. Mother to thousands

of different versions of the original text, first put pen to paper in

1818. Thousands of directors have since embarked upon producing their

versions of Frankenstein.

James Whale. Kenneth Branagh. A mere two directors to produce their

versions of the gothic horror tale. The two directors versions are a

prime example of the different ways in which Frankenstein can be

portrayed.

The James Whale introduction has a theatre manager introducing the

film to the viewer. He is dressed formally and in a slightly scary

fashion of a suit, with a flower in his top pocket. This tells the

viewer that although the film is horror, there will be a slightly

comical side to it. He speaks in a low, scary tone and uses words that

convey the genre and scare the viewer. He uses words such as 'thrill',

'shock' and 'horrify' which ,as well as revealing the genre, hook the

audience into the film by making them intrigued into what the man

believes is so bad and sinister. My first impressions of this were to

wonder what the man was meaning and kept me interested in the start of

the film.

The 1994 Kenneth Branagh version on the other hand adopts a completely

different approach to introducing one to the film. A woman's voice

briefly introduces us by reading a scroll, which appears on the

screen. The woman's voice is meant to be that of Mary Shelley. This

tells us that this version will link closely to the original text. The

words spoken by Mary Shelley are...

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...daptations of Frankenstein, I feel

the recent 1994 Kenneth Branagh version was more enjoyable than the

James Whale version. I believe this is because it was produced more

recently, therefore the filming and graphics were profoundly better

than the 1931 James Whale version. Also, Kenneth Branaghs version

links more closely to the text. One can establish this just by looking

at the films title " Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" Having read the text

I was able to familiarize with Branaghs version, whereas I found that

more difficult with the Whale version and I found myself responding

negatively it for this reason and pointing out where it had been

different and what it had done differently. If the viewer had not read

the text then perhaps they would not have had this problem and would

have found it more enjoyable than I did.