Frankenstein: A Modern Myth

With Oscar-winning director (and Olympic opening ceremony mastermind) Danny Boyle poised to unveil his jaw-dropping stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, documentarian Adam Low explores why this particular horror story possesses such enduring appeal. Both academics and artists—including Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch, who’s portrayed both creator and creature on stage—wax ecstatic with insights and theories, revisit Shelley’s colourful life and remind us just how radical and transgressive this now-classic text was when first published. (Lest we forget, it blasphemously asserted that we’d become far more reliant on electricity than any sort of god.) Set to the pulsing strains of Iggy Pop and The Rolling Stones, this exhilarating documentary exalts the raw power of the first punk novel.