Back to trending
National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

Drama · Horror · Science Fiction · 2011

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal. Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing tale.

Movie details

National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

2011 Drama · Horror · Science Fiction 2h 10m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal. Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing tale.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over National Theatre Live: Frankenstein?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

House of Usher

House of Usher

Horror · 1960

Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Philip Winthrop arrives at the crumbling estate to claim his bride, Roderick goes to ruthless—even deadly—lengths to keep them apart.

Light of My Life

Light of My Life

Sci-fi · 2019

Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.

2073

2073

Thriller · 2024

Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.

The Vanishing

The Vanishing

Thriller · 1993

The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.

The Giver

The Giver

Drama · 2014

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Jonathan

Jonathan

Drama · 2018

Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.

We Go On

We Go On

Horror · 2016

Paralyzed by his fear of dying, Miles Grissom takes out an advert offering $30,000 in reward money to the first person who can show him evidence of an angel, a demon, or prove that ghosts exist - anything to prove to him that we go on after our deaths. He narrows the responses down to three viable candidates - a scientist, a medium, and a worldly entrepreneur. Along with his protective mother, he embarks on an adventure through Los Angeles that will spiral into an unthinkable nightmare.

The Curse of Frankenstein

The Curse of Frankenstein

Horror · 1957

Baron Victor Frankenstein has discovered life's secret and unleashed a blood-curdling chain of events resulting from his creation: a cursed creature with a horrid face — and a tendency to kill.

X: The Unknown

X: The Unknown

Horror · 1956

Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village. An American research scientist at a nearby nuclear plant joins with a British investigator to discover why the victims were radioactively burned and why, shortly thereafter, a series of radiation-related incidents are occurring in an ever-growing straight line away from the fissure.

The Return of Doctor X

The Return of Doctor X

Sci-fi · 1939

When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Danny Boyle · Tim Van Someren

Written by

Nick Dear

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch

The Creature / Victor Frankenstein

Jonny Lee Miller

Jonny Lee Miller

The Creature / Victor Frankenstein

Ella Smith

Ella Smith

Gretel / Clarice

Naomie Harris

Naomie Harris

Elizabeth Lavenza

George Harris

George Harris

M. Frankenstein

Karl Johnson

Karl Johnson

De Lacey

D

Daniel Millar

Felix de Lacey

Court is in session

Put National Theatre Live: Frankenstein on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.