The character of the mad scientist has permeated literature and cinema since the days of the Gothic horror novel. Whether they're evil geniuses out for power and control or well-meaning scientists trying to do something good for the world who just happen to be missing a few marbles, it's a staple character of dozens of horror and science fiction works, as archetypal as the wise sage. The mad scientist character is also more than capable of transcending genres - just as they can serve as living embodiments of the worst excesses and indulgences of mankind, so too can they make us laugh with their wild eccentricities. They push beyond the boundaries found acceptable by their peers and others around them, taking things one - or several - steps further than the sane. In a sense they are projections of the darker side of ourselves, daring to push their experiments in a direction devoid of the sense of ethics which guides the majority. Transcendence is out in cinemas, and already its taken a critical panning and is well on the way to becoming Johnny Depps fourth flop in a row, proving that good ideas, even well-worn ones, can be handled badly even if you throw £100 million at them. To console readers over this disappointment heres a selection of ten great mad scientist movies, ones which get it right where Transcendence got it so wrong.
