Dr. Hackenstein Reviews

The producers of DR. HACKENSTEIN aspired to bring another YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN to the screen but lacked the imagination and actors to come up with anything nearly as enjoyable as Mel Brooks' spoof of the Frankenstein legend. In this version, set in 1912, the mad Dr. Elliot Hackenstein (David Muir) needs "donors" to provide the body parts necessary to bring his beloved wife back to life. When a car carrying three young women breaks down near Hackenstein's home, he's in business, taking his hacksaw to Wendy (Dyanne DiRosario) and Leslie (Catherine Davis Cox) when they awaken during the night and prowl the house. The last of the threesome, Melanie (Stacey Travis), proves to be much less easy to subdue. An unfunny teen sex comedy and a not particularly scary slasher film, DR. HACKENSTEIN could be a lot worse, considering that it is a hybrid of two genres that tend to run low on taste and brains. Anne Ramsey, an Oscar nominee for 1987's THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN, and TV stalwart Phyllis Diller were the best the filmmakers could come up with for "big-name" comedians, but then DR. HACKENSTEIN is low-budget all around--from the writing to the acting, to the sets.