Bride of Frankenstein
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Caution: spoilers

It begins on a stormy night when Mary and Percy Shelley are hanging out with their pal Lord Byron. Mary decides to tell them "the rest of the story." I think of this opening as kind of insulting, because it implies the first movie was actually what she wrote, when what she wrote was much better. But anyway, her story picks up right where Frankenstein left off, with a mill being burned down with the creature inside. So everyone assumes he's dead. They also believe Henry is dead, and take him back to his home, where it's discovered that he's alive. So he'll take some time to convalesce, before marrying Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the creature had survived, too, and starts roaming the countryside.

There's a former teacher of Henry's named Dr. Pretorius, who now wants to work with Henry, though Henry wants to put his work behind him. I gotta say, a lot of this movie seemed to me more like a comedy than horror, most notably when Pretorius shows Henry a few of his own creations, which I think are just redonkulous. But I won't describe them. Anyway, they're not quite what he was going for, so he hopes to combine his own methods with Henry's to create new life. Pretorius himself has created an artificial brain, but he needs Henry's help to put it in a body and bring it to life. Meanwhile, the creature is befriended by a blind man, who teaches him to speak. So I liked that part of the movie. Unfortunately, it's not long before fate breaks up the friends, and the creature is once again alone. I don't want to get into every detail of what happens to him, but he eventually meets Pretorius, who isn't afraid of him, and decides to use him to help with his plans. He gets the creature to kidnap Elizabeth (after she and Henry finally married), to coerce Henry into helping with his plans to create a "bride" for the creature.

Well, I don't want to spoil any more than that. I will say there are some things about this movie that are just as iconic as the first movie, some things I liked about it. But mostly I'm afraid I didn't care for the movie. Some parts were too boring, others too silly. Still, I'm glad to have seen it, and I do want to watch more of the franchise. But again... the idea of this movie being written by Mary Shelley is even more insulting than the idea of the first one being her work.