“Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive…IT’S ALIVE! Oh, in the name of God... Now I know what it feels like to be God!”

- Colin Clive as Dr Frankenstein in James Whale’s 1931 adaptation.

At just 18 years of age Mary Shelley did an extraordinary thing. After a stormy winters evening spent indoors telling ghost stories in a villa on the banks of Lake Geneva, she took an idea and wove it into one of our most enduring and cherished novels – Frankenstein.

For cinema goers, it’s been 87 years since Colin Clive’s immortal ravings in James Whale’s definitive 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein, but throughout cinema history Shelley’s gruesomely assembled 19th Century creation has been relentlessly stitched back together by filmmakers with astounding regularity.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the book, join us as we revisit some of cinema’s most notable interpretations of Shelley’s iconic gothic masterpiece, and welcome Sir Christopher Frayling to discuss why Frankenstein has become such a potent and mutable modern myth that has penetrated so deeply into popular culture.

Presented in partnership with the University of the West of England.

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