#harlander

Plot/Scenes

Film begins in the Arctic or on Walton's/Anderson's ship. His name is apparently Anderson in the film, as most characters here have their names changed, but I'll call him whatever for this post, y'all know of whom I speak. I mean, it has to. Hopefully with Victor starting awake mid-nightmare, unable to rest due to his guilt and anxiety.

The title screen is faded into via a literal, paper document, upon which Frankenstein signs his name. Probably also on Walton's ship. Wait a minute... maybe Walton is the one who writes it in his journal to his sister. Ooh, peak. We're cooking. Like, Victor is speaking his account of what happened, and Walton takes it down, then he writes something like "An Account of Victor Frankenstein" and the camera pans down to zoom in on the name, fading into the title card as Victor's voice continues to speak on in the background, explaining his childhood and how this all started. He's probably pretty easy on the childhood rn because of the trauma he's experienced at the behest of his iron-fisted father. I think he'll have to uncover his memories through flashbacks in telling his story throughout the film, likely with help from Walton, who for the first time, allows him to open up.

We spend some time with Victor as a child, meeting Elizabeth for the first time. She's the prized daughter, the beloved, perfect flower of purity. Not some... little autistic freak like Victor, quiet and contemplative, obsessed with nature and science. He needs to be like his father, or so his father thinks. He needs to be more like Elizabeth, doing as she's told. Victor leaves to medical school as an adult, promising Elizabeth he'll return and build a better life for her once he can make his own way. His time in school will likely only take up the first 30-45 minutes of the film until the creature is made. After that's it's a free for all.

But yeah, he tries several experiments, all of which fail. His classmates and professors scoff at his work, deeming him a failure and writing him off as some quack. This is when we're introduced to Harlander, as Victor is in the doldrums. None of his materials are fresh enough;

Harlander, this film's resident Pretorius, will be the driving factor for the bride's creation and much of Victor and the creature's actions in this film, I believe. An instigator of the worst kind. We already know he's going to be funding his research, using casualties of the Crimean war for the experiments, for which he deals arms and thus has a great understanding of battles happening and a great deal of money to be made off of the prevention/undoing of death. He'll lead Victor around to the massacre sites and allow him to collect necessary "materials".

Finally, Victor makes the creature, it's all sparks and action. After the lightning passes, Victor believes the experiment failed, yet again. After all that preparation, all that work, it's just another failure. He storms off to his room and attempts to sleep, to rid himself of the disappointment and guilt brought about by the creation. The creature wakes, a pitiful, shaking sight. We only catch glimpses of him at first; A twitch of the hand... a shuddering breath, painful groaning, sounding like a dog's whimper. The camera pans through the lab as we follow the creature, who awkwardly stumbles, half blind and pained, through the laboratory to Victor's room.

He finds Victor in his room after the creation, and crap hits the fan. Victor shoots awake to see the monster looming over him, like that one Bernie Wrightson drawing I love so much. Horrified by the disgusting beast, Victor fights the monster off, who can barely stand and walk, forcing it away from him and into the lab. There's still electricity stored in the batteries from earlier, the storm having continued to charge them. Something happens that sets them off, and the pair barely make it down the stairs as the laboratory collapses in on itself. The creature runs off into the woods, confused and afraid. We probably stay with him this night, watching as he cries in pain from his newly formed body and takes solace in the solitary comfort of the moon's rays overnight.

Uh, aside, but I still don't know who Fritz is gonna be, really. He'll likely either be Victor's assistant or Harlander's. If he's Victor's, he'll likely die in the explosion. If Harlander's, he'll probably return for the bride's creation later.

The next morning, Victor sinks into a new clarity/despair. His lab is destroyed, along with all of his hard work. Despair at his plans failing, hoping his monster just dies on its own somewhere in the forest. And clarity because he realizes he was too caught up in his work and neglected his family and fiance. Elizabeth, who had been worried about Victor's state, comes to his laboratory and begs him to return home. Victor agrees, more than willing to be done with the whole affair. He's a little weak and weary from the ordeal, but Elizabeth and William tend to him and ensure he's comfortable back home.

This is where we really go in depth with the creature, for a while. The last we saw of him, he was wandering the woods. We stay with him as he continues to roam, grunting softly and tripping over small roots, barely able to control his body. He's cold and hungry, but he doesn't quite understand what either of those things mean. This follows parts of the book here, as we see the creature encounter fire left by some folks who had been cooking. Perhaps he mistakenly frightens them off before pilfering what's left of their meal. He burns his hand in the fire and decides he hates the flame for the time being, as one does. This of course comes into play in a bit.

The creature encounters people for the first time. Maybe he sees a few hunters walking down the path. Perhaps he finds some children playing in a field. I don't know what his first encounter will be, but it likely won't be positive. Maybe the hunters freak out and run away at the sight of him. Maybe the children call for their parents and flee into the underbrush away from his clumsy hands eager to join in on the fun. He'll stumble upon a village, starving, go up to the window sills to steal a loaf of bread set perfectly upon it, as if meant just for him.

Obviously, German peasants don't take kindly to thieves, nor are they fond of hideous monstrosities. They swarm, chasing him out of town, torches blazing and rocks pelting from his back. He's confused, terrified, doesn't understand what he did wrong. He'll somehow escape from the village and run off into the woods, even worse off than he was before. In his bruised and battered state, he finds a small cabin alongside a river. De Lacey's cottage. Wherein he takes residence for the better part of a year, watching the people inside and observing their customs. He loves the gentle manners of the people, specifically the women. He finds he has a particular soft spot for the females of the species. This part is all very similar to the book I'm willing to bet, where the creature stays and learns and helps around this house, largely unknown as he forms a bond with the dwellers. He finds Victor's journal in his pocket and eventually learns to read it, either with or without help.

I hope they do the thing where the old blind man himself sort of becomes aware of the creature's presence and takes him in a little bit, allowing him to stay hidden and learn how to speak and read. Like they did in the 2011 Danny Boyle stage play featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller. Love when this is a plot point.

Regardless, all good things must come to an end, and when the creature inevitably works up to the courage to finally reveal himself to the cabin dwellers, they shriek and flee, the adult son beating him with a stick and chasing him off.

He runs into the woods and has a breakdown, uprooting trees and snapping branches, screaming in pain and mental anguish at his lack of understanding. He pauses as he catches a glimpse of himself again in the river, splashing it away and sobbing in anger. After calming down somewhat, he returns to the cabin to find it derelict, abandoned. His "family" left him once they saw his horrible visage. He burns the cabin to the ground, a funeral pyre on which he burns the memory of what could have been, and storms off to find this "Frankenstein" he read about in the notes he found in his coat pocket. Some laboratory tower on the coast? He had better find out what that was.

It's about this time when we head back to Victor, showing him and Elizabeth preparing for their upcoming wedding. Harlander likely shows up again, eager to hear the developments Victor has made. Victor however, is put off by the man. He says his research was all a mistake, a failure. He thanks Harlander for his generosity and eagerness to see them through, but can no longer conduct these human experiments, as he needs to focus on his family, now. Harlander is obviously miffed about this. He's sunk thousands into this debauched science and there's undoubtedly millions more to be made in an industry surrounding death and destruction. He urges Victor, pleading with him at several points in the film, likely catching him here and there, but Victor refuses. Harlander eventually gets the information from Victor that the "creation" that resulted from his work was an abomination, not to be given a chance. Harlander retires from Frankenstein manor, but not without a plan brewing. He makes his way to the ruined remains of Victor's laboratory tower. We periodically return to him as he gets information from frightened townsfolk who have spoken of a vicious beast roaming the woods. Hm. Victor's beast, perhaps?

We return to the creature, wandering the countryside confused and alone. We might see some more scenes from the book play out, the girl being saved from the river, the bullet wound to the shoulder, more abuse and more torment layered onto the poor creature, who grows more and more discontented with his life. At long last, a year after his initial creation, he finds his way back to Victor's laboratory. It's been abandoned and partially destroyed, snowed over and unloved. The creature makes his way inside, trying to recall the first hours of his life, but unable. He wanders the lab remains, finding things of Victor's; Things belonging to the corpses he was made from. A photograph of someone's family, a charred bit of bone, a shirt with a name sewn into the hem. He doesn't quite understand any of it, but he knows it was his origin.

Harlander appears, having come to the tower in search of proof and remnants of Victor's experiments that he might take for himself. He's a little shocked to see the creature, but quickly puts two and two together, understanding why Victor was so freaked out. The creature tenses, ready for a fight or an escape, but Harlander soothes him, speaking soft words of faux comfort that the creature takes solace in, not knowing any better.

"Poor thing... You're so very lonely, I'd wager. Not many people out this way are known to take pity on... whatever it is that you are."

"Even I do not know what I am. I look around, and I see and hear none like me. Am I... a monster?"

"Oh, no. No no no, you are magnificent. Truly, a miracle of science. It is a shame there is only one of you."

"...Only one? There can be more?"

"Yes, of course. If your master weren't so cruel and selfish, I mean. If he were to make you a female of your own, perhaps you would not be so lonesome. It's a shame he so despises you, leaving you out in the cold, abandoned."

"My... master? He could make me a female? I- I would like nothing more! How do I find him? How can I ask? Would he even listen to the words of his own mistake?"

"Leave the talking to me, son. I'll plead your case."

Or some such conversation ensues. Harlander enlists the help of the creature, much like how Pretorius does in The Bride of Frankenstein, using him as a strong-arm to force Victor into acting. The pair travel back to Geneva, and Harlander presents the creature to Victor, who is horrified to see that not only is he alive, he is conscious, he remembers, and he yearns. Victor swears he won't do it. No amount of torture or pain inflicted on his person could change his mind! The creature may as well tear him to bits right then, Victor has his own life to worry about now, his own family. Harlander nods and leaves with the creature, instructing him on their plan; If Victor won't make the bride of his own accord, they'll have to force his hand.

The creature will kidnap Elizabeth, Victor's fiance, and hold her for ransom until he gets what he desires, a bride of his own. Again, much like the Bride of Frankenstein, here. They said they'd be pulling a lot of elements from that film. The creature obliges and finds Elizabeth alone, snatching her up and carrying her off to some secluded location, likely ruins of some sort, or perhaps another wing of Harlander's mansion. She is panicked of course, screaming for Victor. But as the creature sets her down, they both have a moment of clarity. Elizabeth is beautiful. The creature has a gentle demeanor that doesn't quite fit his stature. He calms her worries, assuring her she'll be alright, and that he's just watching her for a bit until Victor finishes work on his own wife. Elizabeth is shocked. That's... all he wants? A woman to call his own? She softens toward him, listening to his life story thus far, observing the scars inflicted by humans upon his body. He's not her fiance's disgusting little secret, he's a man all his own with thoughts and feelings, and he's very gentle.

I think this will set up an almost love triangle of sorts, where the creature tries to win Elizabeth over during the short period of her confinement. I don't know how receptive she'll be to it, but I feel like she'll be sympathetic at least to the creature's plight. Wherever they end up, I think wherever Victor and Harlander create the bride will be somewhat visible.

The Creature and Elizabeth sit up in their tower/ruins/cave, whatever it is, and the creature watched as the lightning storm gathers, electricity shocking the ground in the distance. Victor's new lab is nearby, and the storm is raging. He gets nervous. What if it doesn't work? What if the bride doesn't come to life? Or worse, what if Victor changes his mind? I mean, that's exactly what's going to happen, but the creature doesn't know. He decides to go and check it out, instructing Elizabeth to stay safely tucked away.

Meanwhile, Victor and Harlander are bringing the bride to life, Harlander excitedly working, Victor hesitantly going along with it, instructing him. He's never felt good about this. What if the creature doesn't agree to leave afterwards? What if he'll now be responsible for two monsters? As he's going over some of the notes, he sees detailed diagrams he had not drawn up, diagrams on reproductive systems, as well as written locations. Harlander was anticipating reproduction to be part of this creation's future, and was banking on that fact. Perhaps using both creatures, he could discover the secret to stopping death in their spawn, and thus become the greatest scientific mind of all time, not to mention the wealthiest man to ever live.

Victor confronts him, lightning flashing and storm raging. He doesn't want to go through with this. Harlander shrugs him off, calling him a coward now that they're so close. Victor tries again to reason, though it's getting him nowhere, and the tension is rising.

"Go on the roof and adjust the conductor." Harlander wants Victor out of the room. Victor is about to protest, when he gets an idea to sabotage the experiment. He runs to the roof, sliding on rainy shingles as he tries everything in his power to derail the steel tower. It's about this time when the creature himself appears, and seeing Victor on the roof, engages him.

"What are you doing?!"

"I cannot make her for you! Who knows what you'll do once sated?"

"I have told you already what I plan to do! I shall take my bride and begone from your life. Why can you not offer me the grace you give yourself? Your Elizabeth has treated me with more kindness in a week than you have given me in my years on this earth!"

"My Elizabeth?! Is she safe? Where is she?"

"She is safe. Safer with me, in fact, than she has been with you. She has spoken of how you abandoned her for years! How you made her wait and spend so many nights crying alone, begging you to come home! I would never treat her in such a way. If I had initially been blessed with an Elizabeth to call my own, never would I have taken her kindness for granted and cast her away, as you have done to me as well!" Victor and the creature argue and fight, while Harlander takes advantage of the situation to lift the bride's lifeless body up to the conductors on the ceiling.

Elizabeth, whom the creature had instructed to stay, did not. She's an independent woman, after all. She's rain soaked and shivering, but gasps upon seeing Victor and the creature moments away from physically scrapping, she dashes to the rooftop, trying to stop them, but they start shoving each other around. Elizabeth, bless her soul, attempts again to mediate, not wishing to see either man kill the other. The creature insists to her that she should be with him, instead. She is stunned, for she had only shown him a bit of kindness, and he had taken it for romantic interest. She declines, saying he loves Victor, and doesn't want him to be hurt. The creature is hurt in turn by this, ashamed he had misread her charity for love.

Elizabeth tries to explain this to the creature, but he feels the lightning gathering and gets worried, running back down to the lab. Elizabeth runs after him, but gets too close to the conductor. Victor tries to stop her, but is too late. The lightning bolt hits the conductor and Elizabeth goes flying. Victor screams, begging Elizabeth not to leave him as he cradles her unconscious form in his arms.

Why am I going into so much detail rn bruh, why have I been working on this for days, I'm dying. The movie is debuting at the Venic film festival on August 30th, Mary Shelley's birthday, and I won't be there to see it. Okay whatever I guess this is just self indulgent fanfic and stuff that would be cool to see on screen.

Anyway, as Victor mourns Elizabeth, the creature runs back down to the lab, sees the aftermath of the electrical shock. Harlander is removing the bride from her bier, hastily rushing her away. The creature yells, begging him to let her go. He had promised the creature that this bride was for him. Harlander of course, had only been using the creature as a strongarm to get Victor to do as he required. The creature is infuriated at being used, rushing Harlander and grabbing him by the throat. They start to fight physically, Harlander utilizing surgical tools as weapons. Victor is weeping over his love, but stops as he hears the commotion below. He decides enough is enough. He rushes to the lab and sees the pair duking it out, the creature holding Harlander by the throat against the wall. His eyes dart to the conductors, still charged with leftover electricity; He recalls the original night of creation, how the lab had exploded due to an overload.

If Fritz is somehow still alive by this point in the film, he's toast. Creature probably kills him in a fit of rage during this sequence, perhaps as he was trying to restrain him with an injection like in the 1931 film. (yo I just thought what if he succeeded in this same thing at some point in the film and the creature is captured by Harlander rather than killing him here and he breaks out of containment and then destroys both Fritz and Harlander, hmm) anyway...

Victor throws the switch, and the laboratory explodes in a burst of electric power. Given the creature and Harlander were near the wall where the coils were, they get pretty badly scorched. Harlander's charred corpse falls to the ground, and the creature howls in agony and anguish, watching as the body of his bride is destroyed in the fray. He can barely even focus on his own flesh searing off (hence the completely bared rib cage that we see at the end of the film in the teaser), as he tries to resuscitate her. It's no use. He screams for Victor, swearing his vengeance, but Victor is already gone, himself fighting off lesser injuries as he attempts to carry Elizabeth's body somewhere safe and respectful.

Victor falls deeper into depression, his father's words echoing in his mind to protect and love Elizabeth. He had done neither. He's a failure. He blames the creature for her death, but in reality it was both of their faults. We see Elizabeth's funeral (white casket shot from the trailer). Victor speaks on the tragedy, perhaps here we get the line "I had determined that the memory of my evils should die with me." But he may just as easily say that to Walton (or the creature later on). The creature watches the proceedings from afar, heartbroken that he not only lost his own bride, but the woman he had also begun to love dearly. His "father" truly had shown his colors, and he wasn't about to allow this to go on.

I think since we're likely not getting Henry in this film, William will be the stand in. As in, the creature will go and kill William as a final "F you" to Victor, perhaps framing him for the murder instead of Justine, whom I also don't know if she'll make an appearance in the film, given William looks much older, here. I think William will probably be the last kill the creature enacts in order to harm Victor, personally, because if Elizabeth was still alive, he'd likely be more open to negotiation/hopeful that minds could be altered.

Anyway, Victor has nothing left to lose. His family is dead, he knows he is a monster. The creature leads him across Europe and up into the Arctic. Across vast frozen seas with just a dogsled and a sack of food. Victor will stop at nothing to see the beast dead, come hell or high water. He doesn't care if it kills him. In fact, he hopes it will.

We then return to Walton's ship, where Victor is near death. He has said his story, told his tale of misery, and explains that at long last, he is the monster. Walton shakes his head, unable to properly comfort his friend. what could he say? He wasn't there. He did not know the depths of Victor's sorrow. All he can give him is comfort and rest in his last days.

Or so he thinks, because the creature has decided he wants to be there to see the light leave his father's eyes. He boards the ship, demanding to be taken to Victor. This is the shot we see in the trailer. His plea is interrupted by a sailor piercing his still exposed chest with a pike. He throws him over the edge of the ship and down onto the ice. Several other men attempt to fight him off, but it's no use. The creature reaches the cabin and lets himself in, glaring down at Victor's emaciated form.

The creature, who had expected to feel elated by his father's pain, only feels… emptiness. As he gazes down at the man whom he had fought so long, finally defeated at his feet, he is confused. Victor, throughout the course of the film as he recounted his struggles to Walton/Anderson, had relived his own trauma and daddy issues, using the captain's advice and companionship to work through his unresolved problems. Now that Victor has resigned himself to his fate, he has no reason left to fight his creation. He knows he's dying, and he's accepted it. He wearily apologizes, knowing he could never make up for his sins.

The creature is taken back, stunned by his father's admission. The creature explains to Victor the depths of his sorrow, the pain he had felt so long had been brushed off, and Victor acknowledges, apologizing again; He was afraid, that night. He was scared. He'd just… desecrated God's work by a terrible scientific fornication. More than fear of the monster, he feared himself. And he took it out on him. The creature weeps, he had always been a frightful spectre, it was all he could see himself as. Victor shakes his head.

"No. You were… my son. Always. I refused to believe it. I'm sorry." They both break down, unable to fully reconcile in the short time they have left. They call each other by those titles for the first and last time, father and son. Victor passes peacefully in his son's arms, able to go freely now that the tragedy has played out.

I don't know if the creature will survive or not, if he'll go into the arctic to die, maybe he'll destroy himself on the spot, unable to bear the burden of isolation another day. Or maybe he'll continue to wander the earth, now in better spirits as he finally got the closure he deserved. I have no idea. Any outcome would be amazing.

But... yeah. That's pretty much it. Only took me a week to write this lmao, and most of that was brainstorming. I don't actually know how accurate this is gonna be, but I hope I got at least a few story points right. An anyway, this is only one possible outcome out of like... 50 that I could lay down.

I'll be doing a shorter, more concise post soon where I go over certain scenes, moments, and ideas I hope show up, some different from this post. More of a small bullet list instead of a huge bullet essay, lol. Stay tuned! We have 15 days until Frankenstein debuts at the Venice film festival, then we have another week after that before it makes it's North American debut at the Toronto film festival.