Even though it predictably substitutes guts and gore for gothic darkness, this is probably as good a version of the man-made monster classic as you could find in the Nineties.

Splendidly made and shot with some verve (if curiously structured), the film seems to stuff in elements from several earlier films, while sticking fairly close to Shelley's book.

Robert De Niro, more restrained than usual, makes an imposing monster, with only the occasional foolish line, and his friendship with the blind farmer (Richard Briers) is again touching.

Kenneth Branagh just hasn't the right facial structure to make Frankenstein quite the driven creature of one's mind's eye, but the bird-like Helena Bonham Carter is perfectly cast both as Elizabeth and a later reincarnation.