Quaranstein

Some of the scenes are really good. There’s an animated portion that is very good and fun. There’s a stop motion sequence some 13-minutes in that is fantastically well done (I do not know which “scene” this is considered). It is shot in black-and-white, and the jerky movements of the characters add a real sense of absurd menace. Closer to the end of the film, there is a bit that is very trippy and uses some simple but very effective special effects.

The absolute shining star of Quaranstein is the final segment. Going by the credits on IMDb, and presuming scene number is their arrangement in the film (it is not clear), then this last section was directed by Travis Tomlinson. He has an excellent cinematic eye, often making the small sets (i.e., a bedroom) feel much more expansive than they are. He also has a great sense of pacing that sells the amped insanity of the ending most excellently (coronavirus makes an appearance, and it fits in amusingly well).

“…too much of a mixed bag to recommend…”

However, the scene where Frankenstein’s monster meets the girl picking flowers hurts. The actor playing the monster’s mask is ill-fitting and cheap. The camera is static, passively observing the interaction from an awkwardly framed medium shot. The portion where Frankenstein’s monster tries escaping the angry mob (not really a mob here) lacks imagination and struggles to maintain the zany energy and jokes of the rest of the movie.

Before evaluating any movie, there are a few questions that should be asked. Does the medium work for the story? Is it visually engaging? And most importantly, is it entertaining? Quaranstein‘s answers are not exactly, sometimes, and only on occasion, respectively. This makes it too much of a mixed bag to recommend, but it does have enough positives that those who do see it won’t have entirely wasted their time.