A movie which I feel mirrors very closely the storyline and underlying themes of Frankenstein, is Disturbia. Disturbia is a 2007 horror/thriller which is an updated version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. The main character in the movie, Kale Brecht, is very similar in his thoughts and actions to Victor Frankenstein. The most glaring similarity between the two is that each protagonist causes harm to loved ones because of something they did to someone else. In Disturbia, Kale spies on his neighbor and his neighbor sees him doing so, which ultimately leads to his neighbor’s attempted murder of Kale’s mother, and even Kale. This has an eerie feeling like something which happened in Frankenstein, as Victor’s creation goes around killing Victor’s loved ones as a result of his unhappiness and Victor’s unwillingness to create him a companion.
A scene which I believe to be very telling in Disturbia and screams Frankenstein when viewed, is a scene towards the end of the movie when Kale watches footage his friend has of when he snuck into his neighbor’s home. Kale zooms in on one scene and sees a human face in a vent in his neighbor’s living room. Simultaneously Kale’s mom is over visiting at his neighbor’s house, and she is attacked by him the exact moment Kale realizes he has proof his neighbor is a murderer and that his mother is in danger. This scene immediately made me think of a scene in Frankenstein towards the end when Victor and Elizabeth go to a family cottage right before their wedding and Victor is fearful that the monster may find him and kill him for not creating his companion. As Elizabeth goes to bed Victor has a premonition, and rushes to the room but is too late as he realizes the monster was after Elizabeth and not him all along, and he finds Elizabeth dead. These two scenes seem to be very similar and both very grotesque.
Another scene in Disturbia which can also be seen in Frankenstein is a scene which takes place near the middle of the film. Kale’s “girlfriend”, has been following his neighbor while he is at the hardware store so Kale and his friend can search his home. She loses sight of the neighbor in the store, calls Kale and rushes home to see if she can prevent the neighbor from finding Kale inside his home. While she is leaving the parking lot, the neighbor appears out of nowhere and jumps into her car and confronts her about following him around. The girl swears she hasn’t been doing so, but the neighbor insists the kids stop or he will have to take action. A similar scene happens in the middle of Frankenstein, as Victor runs into his monster on top of a mountain and his monster tells him to create him a companion or else he will wreck havoc on Victor’s life. Both scenes have threats made by the “bad guy” and in both cases the protagonists don’t listen to their enemies, forcing the enemies to take action in a wrongful way.
These scenes show how the movie Disturbia shares some of the same common themes and instances as the book Frankenstein.
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