Fan-Made Trailer Reimagines Young Frankenstein As a Serious Drama
Since Gene Wilder’s passing, many tributes to his comedic talents have emerged across the internet; although his starring turn in Young Frankenstein may not have the memetic staying power of his role in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, it’s nonetheless an incredible movie, and one that deserves another look. At the time, Young Frankenstein was intended as a parody of Universal’s classic movie monster movies; even though it came out in 1974, it was designed to look much older so as to evoke the 1930s, and many of the props used were the actual props from the 1931 Frankenstein movie.
So, this fan-made trailer designed to make Young Frankenstein look like a psychological drama feels like a perfect fit, since that’s the type of movie that it parodied. But it’s also even funnier by today’s standards, since we’ve seen Universal reprising those classic monsters once again with their upcoming plans to remake their whole monster canon. Of course, Penny Dreadful has also brought all of these classics back into the public eye.
Still, reprisals of classic monster movie tropes aren’t always successful. Remember Van Helsing back in 2004? You might after you watch this fan-made trailer for Young Frankenstein, because a couple of the shots in the trailer were borrowed from Van Helsing. Of course, Van Helsing is over a decade old, but it’s not the only example of a failed attempt to reboot a Frankenstein type of story again. James McAvoy’s Victor Frankenstein only just came out last year, and it was actually a serious take on the exact concept that Young Frankenstein parodies. (We didn’t give it a particularly good review, by the way.)
Comedy and tragedy aren’t that far apart from one another–it’s all too easy to slide from one into the other, if you’re not careful. That’s why Van Helsing and Victor Frankenstein might be the sort of movies that you laugh at, rather than enjoy in seriousness. With that in mind, this super-serious fan edit of the Young Frankenstein trailer is all the funnier. Let’s just hope that no one tries to remake it.
(via Laughing Squid, image via YouTube screenshot)
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