For those that missed the Bride of Frankenstein, Henry and Elisabeth managed to escape the exploding lab while the Monster and Bride stayed inside. We open to some years later. Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson), and their son Peter (Donnie Dunagan) are arriving via train to the quaint village of Wolf's father, Baron Heinrich (note the now German version). The village of Frankenstein is not pleased to see them though, giving them all a collective cold shoulder when Wolf announces he intends to stay in the ancestral castle overlooking the village.
The castle property isn't totally empty though, as the hunchbacked Ygor (Bela Lugosi) has been living there all these months. Ygor is an odd sort. You see he was hanged, "stealing bodies...or so they said" but the job wasn't finished and he was left with a broken neck. The courts declared him dead enough, so he's been living totally alone in the old castle and adjacent watchtower.
It's in the old lab where Wolf encounters Ygor and where he learns that his "brother" (Boris Karloff) still lives, albeit in a coma. Intrigued by the challenge to clear his father's name, Wolf sets up shop in the old tower.
Of course, when a Frankenstein starts bringing in scientific devices to an area that will arouse some suspicion. In this case, Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) is busy dropping by to see how things. He has a personal stake in this, as he knocks his wooden arm. It seems that he might be busy too, as there have been six murders in the district. All six men served on the jury against Ygor, a fact he doesn't ignore.
When a new string of deaths happen, Peter talks of a giant around the castle, and Wolf's butler vanishes, can the scientist stop the monster and the malformed madman in time?
Generally considered to be the first of the second Universal Horror wave, this manages to ignore the camp and goes straight to the horror. The Frankenstein castle is now crawling with shadows, gargoyles, and winding staircases. Rathbone, Atwill, and Lugosi play off each other wonderfully, and even Karloff makes the monster a monster again, with a lumbering menace in every scene.
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