[8] Its worldwide success led to several sequels, and it was also followed by new versions of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), establishing "Hammer Horror" as a distinctive brand of Gothic cinema.

[9] The film was directed by Terence Fisher and stars Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature, with Hazel Court and Robert Urquhart.

[7] Professor Patricia MacCormack called it the "first really gory horror film, showing blood and guts in colour".

Victor agrees to continue to pay a monthly allowance to his impoverished aunt Sophia and his young cousin Elizabeth.

One night, after a successful experiment in which they bring a dead puppy back to life, Victor suggests that they create a perfect human being from body parts.

Victor assembles his creation, with a robber's corpse found on a gibbet, and both hands and eyes purchased from charnel house workers.

For the brain, he seeks out the ageing and distinguished Professor Bernstein, so that the creature can have a sharp mind and the accumulation of a lifetime of knowledge.

He invites Bernstein to his house in the guise of a friendly visit but pushes him over a stair banister and kills him, making it look like an accident.

Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who adapted Mary Shelley's novel for Hammer, never mentioned seeing Subotsky's script or being aware of Rosenberg's involvement.

Sangster said that his awareness of cost influenced him to not write scenes involving the villagers storming the castle that was typically seen in the Universal horror films "because we couldn't afford it".

Meanwhile, Christopher Lee's casting resulted largely from his height (6' 5"), though Hammer had earlier considered the even taller (6 '7") Bernard Bresslaw for the role.

Hammer refrained from duplicating aspects of Universal's 1931 film, and so it was down to make-up artist Phil Leakey to design a new look for the creature bearing no resemblance to the Boris Karloff original created by Jack Pierce.

[citation needed] Character actor Patrick Troughton originally had a brief role as a mortuary attendant, but his scenes were cut from the finished movie.

[14] It received a general release in the United Kingdom on 20 May 1957 where it was distributed by Warner Brothers and supported by the film Woman of Rome.

The restored film includes the magnified eyeball shot, missing from the U.S. print, but not the head in the acid bath scene, which remains lost.

It also included the following special features: The Resurrection Men: Hammer, Frankenstein and the Rebirth of the Horror Film; Hideous Progeny: The Curse of Frankenstein and the English Gothic Tradition Torrents of Light: The Art of Jack Asher Diabolus in Musica: James Bernard and the Sound of Hammer Horror Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)[16] The film was a tremendous financial success and reportedly grossed more than 70 times its production cost during its original theatrical run.

"[24] Variety noted, "Peter Cushing gets every inch of drama from the leading role, making almost believable the ambitious urge and diabolical accomplishment.