This is my interpretation of what i would like to see as the poster if the original Frankenstein was re-released at cinemas.
Now…logic would say that the monster is too obvious and there is no air of mystery in it…but i beg to differ. My aim here was to turn the idea around a bit.
We know what the monster looks like, the iconic image of Boris as the monster is unforgetable, we also have a relationship with the story and how the characters made us feel.
Now, i see the real monster in this story as being Dr Frankenstein himself (which, i’m sure is what Mary intended) which is why i don’t show him in the poster, only the quote, “its alive blah blah, now i know what it feels like to be god”…and to me that is the frightening element of this film that through ‘man’s’ desire and craving to become god he has created something that will inevitably be his downfall…and i think this is what Mary was also suggesting, that man’s arrogance at wanting to control everything and elevate himself to the stature of a god leads to self destruction.
Now the other reason i painted the monster in this way is because i wanted those who had seen the film to question what it is the monster is reaching out for…is it reaching out to Kill, to save a life?, to touch life, for friendship…i chose , which was intentional, an iconic image of boris as the monster as reference for the face, as i feel that image was quite expressionless so the viewer can project his or her own emotional imagery upon it, so as to capture that…terrible innocence…like that of a child (which in many ways, at first, the monster is) innocent and emotionally driven. I also wanted the image to engage with the viewer which is why i tried to force the perspective slightly and have him almost reaching out beyond the confines of the poster to ask of those who had seen the film the very questions above and for those who have not seen it and are not aware of the story to perhaps feel a little frightened by the image.
It was hard to get the balance of these elements right but i think i managed…it seems and looks like a simple image but i thought about it a lot.
The typeface is a modern serif and in line with what i thought should be the font, i did not want a typeface that had metal and all sorts on it…it seemed wrong here.
My aim, at the beginning, just to illustrate the process, was to create a poster that was more illustrative in terms of showing certain scenes from the movie…but i thought it started to become a bit style over substance and my loyalty to both the story and the film pushed my in another direction
This design (the monster) was digitally painted.