19. Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973)
Baron von Frankenstein is obsessed with creating the perfect Serb race. He is 'achieving' this by using different body parts to create a man and woman. The Baron has sex with an open wound in the woman's body and he thinks his male creation is not horny enough so he seeks a different head for him. Nicholas, a lusty farm hand, leaves a brothel with his sexually repressed friend, and they are accosted by the Baron and his henchman Otto. Nicholas' friend has his head chopped off by the Baron. Nicholas himself ventures up to the castle and forms an agreement with Katrin, the Baron's wife, to sexually satisfy her (something which the Baron is not achieving). The Baron seats his male and female creations down to a dinner with all the castle's inhabitants. The male creature does not recognise Nicholas who realises something has gone wrong but can't quite pinpoint what it is. He falls out with Katrin and is caught snooping in the castle. The Baron contemplates using Nicholas' head for his male creature but decides to give the latter as a sex toy to Katrin. She is killed by over-vigorous sex. Otto is fooling around with the female creature and she ends up disembowelled. The Baron is raging and kills Otto. He tries to get the male creature to eliminate Nicholas but vestiges of memories of his friend linger in the creature. He kills the doctor and then disembowels himself, reasoning that life is not worth living. The Baron's children enter the laboratory and pick up scalpels. It is not clear whether this is to free Nicholas, or to continue their father's work. "To know death Otto, you first have to f**k life in the gall bladder!" - this line, a pastiche of some of the dialogue in Last Tango in Paris, is forever burned into classic cult horror fans' collective memory. It gives you a good indication of what the film consists of - campy acting, crazy dialogue and virtually every bad taste act that can be committed to celluloid. The film is very funny under the direction of Paul Morrissey and the wonderful acting of Udo Kier as the Baron. Joe Dallesandro pops up as a farm hand but does not sound like a European peasant - rather a gigolo from 42nd Street in New York. Much much better than Andy Warhol's Dracula. Controversial because: it features disembowelments, limbs chopped off, incest, necrophilia, lashings of gore, rape and lots of gratuitous nudity