Victoria in Two Twenty-First-Century Film Re-visions of Frankenstein

Abstract

In this article, I will explore how the character of Victoria is represented in the British made-for-television film, Frankenstein (Jed Mercurio, 2007) and the US horror movie, The Frankenstein Syndrome (Scott Tretta, 2011). By approaching these productions through the lens of adaptation theory and, more specifically, via the concept of a re-vision, I will argue that we can better understand the ways in which they mutate the long-standing (though frequently updated) Frankenstein story. As intertexts that interrogate previous cinema and television versions, their focus on female synthetic biologists whose pioneering stem-cell research takes place within a capitalist biomedical framework is particularly innovative. As such, they disrupt the patriarchal paradigm upon which the Frankensteinian filmic tradition has, historically, been established. Most notably, both films celebrate maternality, personal responsibility, and compassion as key values for those who are involved in the biotechnological creation of life.