Below average Canuxploitation from 1970 that remains a low point in Canadian horror cinema. The first and (understandably) only feature directed by Gilbert W. Taylor, DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS (a.k.a. FLICK) remains better known for its exhibition strategy than its content: it was released in 1971 on a famous double bill with NIGHT OF THE WITCHES (a far better movie). In the years since it’s fallen into obscurity, and deservedly so.
Victor Frankenstein is a young man hailing from Transylvania who finds himself adrift on a Canadian college campus. His name marks him out as a subject of ridicule among his classmates. He excels, however, with a biology professor fascinated by Victor’s experiments with the brain.
Victor has created a remote unit to control people’s brains, which he predicts will create “the biggest scientific and sociological explosion in history.” He tests out his invention on his girlfriend’s pets, making her cat claw her dog to death.
Eventually the college’s higher-ups grow fed up with Victor’s antics and expel him. More determined than ever to put his dastardly plans into action, Victor drugs his college pals and implants receptors in their brains, which force them to do the bidding of his remote unit. In this manner he makes his beefy pal Tony kill his friends in a graveyard.
Unfortunately Tony quickly goes out of control, embarking on a killing rampage around the campus. Victor attempts to re-exert control, but an unfortunate accident puts a stop to that, and also exposes a pertinent secret about Victor’s origins…
I really hate to be excessively negative, but there’s just not much to be said about this movie that’s even remotely positive. Nearly every hoary seventies movie cliché is featured: sappy love scenes set amid pastoral scenery, gratuitous psychedelic lighting and editing, a distracting faux-jazz score, etc.
All that is in addition to a meandering narrative marred by ham-fisted attempts at social relevance, in the form of campus demonstrations and “be-in” parties, that fall flat. Further annoyances include indifferent pacing, “acting” that might charitably be called stilted (with performers who are far too old to be convincing as college students), and “hip” dialogue like “All us Transylvanians got rhythm.” There’s at least some gratuitous T&A, which is all that really exists here to hold one’s attention.
Vital Statistics
DR. FRANKENSTEIN ON CAMPUS (FLICK)
Agincourt Productions
Director: Gilbert W. Taylor
Producer: William Marshall
Screenplay: David Cobb, William T. Marshall, Gilbert W. Taylor
Cinematography: Chris Slagter
Editing: Eric Wrate
Cast: Robin Ward, Kathleen Taylor, Austin Willis, Sean Sullivan, Ty Haller, Tony Moffet-Lynch