Profile of a monster - Frankenstein

When it comes to movie bad guys, few have quite the street cred as the original patchwork monster - Frankenstein. 

Considered the most sophisticated of the undeads, Frankie can speak, learn reason, and feel emotion - in fact, his story is considered the genesis of the science fiction genre and his influence is profound, even today. Perhaps even more so today. In this age of stem cell research and advances in cloning, etc, there's no telling what the future holds.

According to legend, Frankenstein disappeared at the end of the first-hand account of his tale, right after murdering his re-animator, Victor Frankenstein. The creature said he was going kill himself, but no body was ever found - well, except throughout pop culture. Like everywhere.

While it was Mary Shelley's brilliant novel that started the Frankenstein phenomenon, his character has been twisted into all kinds of monstrous reiterations, and the concept is mimicked again and again, the most recent as portrayed in Timothy Burton's movie kid-friendly Frankenweenie.

Frankenstein is a key character in two of my stories, including Killer's Instinct, a Most-Wanted Monsters novel I am co-writing with Judith Graves, and in my short story, Death Echo, which was recently published in Monsterology, an anthology of short stories featuring classic film monsters.

I can't think of a more apt monster profile as we continue the Halloween countdown. Only 27 more sleep...bwahahaha.

- Dawn