Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984) User Reviews (12)

Painful, Just painful.

[capkronos · 1/10 · 31 July 2006]

I cringe at the thought of ever stumbling across something as bad as this in the future. To make it worse, the damn thing goes on forever. Over TWO HOURS of horrendous, non-amusing gags, irritating overacting, stupid dialogue, multiple senseless flashbacks (not that the main plot-line makes much sense), 'comic' sound effects, toilet humor, cartoonish dubbing (on the Mexican extras) and various scenes that seem like rejected outtakes from YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. It should also be noted that this shot-in-Mexico cheapie was of mammoth mini-series length (!!) at one point and the version I saw is actually the condensed version of the story! No way in hell am I ever going to punish myself by trying to seek out the full-length version.

There's a period setting, costumes, cars, etc., but the time frame is never revealed other than a title card that says "100 Years Later." Donald Pleasence has (possibly) the worst role of his entire career as Baron Victor Frankenstein, who shows up in the small Transylvanian village of "Mucklefugger," along with his "190-year-old" feminist "aunt" Fraulein Matilda "Tillie" Frankenstein (Yvonne Furneaux) and mega-busted, mega-stupid blonde wife Randy (played by over-the-hill former sex-pot June Wilkinson). The three inadvertently stir up a variety of problems for the townspeople, who have been free of the antics of the Frankenstein family for over a hundred years.  Tillie saves the "Cradle of Compassion" orphanage and holds "ERA" rallies where the women protest for equal rights by holding up signs that say "No Vote, No Whoopee!" They spray seltzer water on cops, demand a woman get a place on municipal counsel and wear "bloomers" to pi$$ the guys off. Tillie and co. must also come up with money to pay back taxes on the castle before it is repossessed and discover a Frankenstein monster in the basement, that is brought back to life for more lame gags. The creature is big, blue, has bangs, wears suspenders and has very little to do in this movie.

Pleasence, acting drunk and/or senile throughout, mumbles through most of his dialogue. During one scene, he is seen running around in a dress, lipstick, a frilly hat and an apron, sniffing shoes and playing the flute to calm down the monster. Not a pretty sight. Poor Donald. Poor Furneax, too. She gave excellent performances in two genre classics: playing one of Hammer Studios' all-time finest heroines in THE MUMMY (1959) and then Catherine Deneuve's self-absorbed sister in Polanski's REPULSION (1965), before being reduced to garbage like this. Wilkinson has always been a low-grade schlock regular whose massive mammaries do the acting for her. She almost does a nude scene after a bubble bath, has multiple scenes in bed with Pleasence and always wears clothes so tight they can barely contain the "twins." The other two notable guest stars here are Aldo Ray (playing it completely straight) as Burgomeister Niederhangen and Zsa Zsa Gabor (!) as Clara, Victor's first wife. Gabor must have had a larger role in the unedited version, because here she is seen for a few seconds in a silent flashback lying in bed with Pleasence, which is an effortlessly campy sight if there ever was one. 

There's also an incredibly mind-bogglingly bad gag poking fun at the original FRANKENSTEIN (1931). When the monster (Miguel Angel Fuentes) approaches a little girl named Maria by a pond playing with a flower, you almost expect him to pick her up and throw her in. Instead, the little girl says "Want to play with me? On second thought, you're too old for me. Why don't you play with my sisters over there? Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Happy, Horny and Doc." (??) The 'sisters' then do a frantic dance in Capri pants, disappear and reappear in long flowing white gowns doing ballet (???) Another example of the general level of comedy in this mess is a sign hanging on the castle gate saying "Beware of low flying bats." Another oh-so-unfunny moment has two guys trying to spy on the Frankenstein family using binoculars. One says "I can't see a damn thing," so his buddy removes the lens covers for him. I'll just stop right here.

Not worth the plastic it's printed on!!!!!!!!1

[bhardesty · 1/10 · 22 December 2006]

I swear I thought someone put acid in my drink when this little nugget got rolling. I'm even a little ashamed that I'm taking the time to write about this flick. I haven't looked for this title as an individual product and I got this through a Brentwood collection for like $4.00. If it is available as a stand alone DVD, they should be paying the customer to take this crap away. I think this DVD would fail as a coaster. Stay away from this Great Aunt. She sucks big time.

Oh yeah, this movie is terrible...and not in a good way.

Actually I don't think anyone in this gem knew what the thing was about. I don't think they cared. There isn't one thing in this DVD (since I can't call it a "film" anymore without throwing up in my mouth)that provides it any redemption. Don't even watch it for giggles, you won't giggle at all.

Unbelievably bad.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 19 November 2019]

Donald Pleasence appeared in 137 movies; of those, I've seen just 30, but I'll hazard a guess that this is his worst film. Not only do I believe that Frankenstein's Great-Aunt Tillie must be the absolute nadir of Pleasence's career, I also reckon that it is the worst Frankenstein film ever made, the worst comedy ever made, and quite possibly the most terrible film I have ever seen (and I can regularly be found scraping away at the bottom of the cinematic barrel).

The script (if indeed there was one) feels like a stream of consciousness from a drunken Chinese madman, translated into English by another drunken madman whose first language is neither Chinese or English. The actors spout their lines of gibberish as though they're tripping on peyote (the film WAS made in Mexico, after all). Come to think of it, the whole experience felt like a bad hallucinogenic trip for me too, such is its sheer nonsensical nature.

Pleasence plays a descendant of Baron Frankenstein, who travels with Great Aunt Matilda (Yvonne Furneaux) to the ancestral estate to try and locate a hidden treasure and prevent developers from buying the place. In the basement of the castle, they discover Frankenstein's monster and bring it back to life. What follows is a series of seemingly random scenes in which everyone rambles incoherently whilst acting like fools.

Clocking in at an excruciating 100 minutes, Frankenstein's Great-Aunt Tillie is a virtually unwatchable mess that only the most dedicated fan of z-grade films will be able to finish. Those who do manage to stay the distance (and stay sane) will be treated to such garbage as women's rights protestors attacking the police with soda siphons, Pleasence dressed in a frilly maid's outfit, a parody of the Karloff classic's 'monster meets a little girl' scene that is off-the-charts insane, and an epilogue that continues the agony just when you thought it was all over.

Awful

[Michael_Elliott · 8 March 2008]

Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984)

BOMB (out of 4)

Incredibly awful film has Baron Frankenstein (Donald Pleasance) and his Aunt Tillie returning to the family estate to try and get money. When they discover the monster's body they decide to bring him to life to make some cash off of him. This so-called comedy is without a doubt one of the worst films I've ever seen. I'm a firm believer than every film has at least one fan but I don't see how anyone could enjoy this mess. The comedy doesn't work on any level and the story is so confusing that I had a hard time following it. The subplot with women's rights also didn't work. No horror, no laughs, no nudity, no gore, no violence. Worthless on all levels even when Pleasance goes out in drag.

poor

[I_am_the_Chosen_One · 1/10 · 12 October 2006]

This movie sucked! Poor acting, poor script! I think it was meant to be a comedy but the only thing funny about the film is that it wasn't funny all. There's not much more to say about this terrible excuse for a film, the film was apparently made in 1984, when I watched without knowing what year I thought it must have been late sixties early 70's.

There were only 2 actors that I'd heard of before watching it & that was ZaZa Gabor & that Donald guy(u know from Halloween & B grade horror flicks)anyway if you do ever force yourself to watch the film you'll get a laugh at the goofy and wimpy Frankenstein. The only reason I watched it was because it was going on sale with 10 other dvds for a total of 11 bucks! Wasn't I a SUCKER!

Bizarrely bad

[davidh-15 · 1/10 · 11 June 2009]

So appalling I nearly stopped watching. I only continued when I realised that only once or twice in a lifetime would one be privileged with the opportunity to see a film quite this bad. It was so stunningly bad I felt compelled to watch it all.

The cast comprised no-name actors and a couple of b-movie actors who one can only assume had very large tax bills to pay that year. To describe the acting as wooden would be only partly accurate it was rotten wooden acting. The dialogue was poorly conceived badly delivered and delivered with the comic timing and deftness only available to those suffering from autism.

It was intended to be funny and tongue in-cheek and had the script not been written by the directors 9 year old it may have succeeded. The cinematography looks like it was done by the 5 year old's elder brother playing with a cheap camcorder he was given for Christmas.

So, then, bad acting, dire script, ludicrous production values. Should you watch it. Yes but remember the eye bleach.

Are you sure this wasn't supposed to be about Dracula? Because it surely sucks!

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 23 April 2023]

Pathetic attempt at comedy makes this the worst horror spoof ever, not amusing or even delightfully bad, let alone funny. Did the actors actually read the script, or maybe they thought that this was supposed to be a practical joke? At any rate, what are Donald Pleasance, Yvonne Furneaux, June Wilkinson and yes, even Zsa Zsa Gabor doing in this? It deals with the nearly 200 year old Furneaux (who looks 40) returning to the home of her uncle, the original mad baron, almost 180 years later, bringing with her his ancestor (Pleasance) and the obvious return to scientific experiments. Pleasance also plays Victor in flashbacks, but it's hardly a shining moment for him, let alone anyone involved in this fiasco.

All the elements are there to make it at least a guilty pleasure, but instead, it's guilty hatred for everything about this film that completely wasted over 90 minutes of my time. Attempts at humor totally fail, and this ends up being the kleenex that wipes up all the body waste of the Mel Brooks superior classic. The sound recording is dreadful with Pleasance so breathy in his dialog that it is impossible to understand what he is saying most of the time. The story is a mess, made incomprehensible by a horrid script. It's as if the writers didn't really know anything about Mary Shelley's novel or watch any of the dozen or more predecessors. A complete waste of time and an example of the living dead among the literary community.

A particularly poor example of its genre

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 3 August 2020]

Of all the poor B-movies I've watched over the decades, FRANKENSTEIN'S GREAT AUNT TILLIE stands out as a particularly bad example of the comedy horror genre, a film which makes lacklustre spoofs such as Hammer's THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN look masterful by comparison. The problem is with the incessantly moronic script, which has Frankenstein's idiotic descendants contending with a revived creature alongside random issue such as a local women's liberation movement. Crass and cheaply shot in Mexico, this is notable only for featuring a number of once-big stars (Aldo Ray, Donald Pleasence, Yvonne Furneaux, Zsa Zsa Gabor) who really ought to know better than to have signed off on it. Listening to Pleasence's stupid accent is enough to have you reaching for the 'off' button...

My Sides Hurt

[bhsfacebook · 8/10 · 6 November 2019]

This movie fails so hard that it's hilarious. It's funny in ways that the filmmakers, who were on some potent drugs, couldn't possibly have intended. The surreal dialogue, the terrible sound recording, the huge-breasted actress changing costumes on camera to work in yet another shot of her cleavage, Donald Pleasence on an apparent bender, all of it. It's a perfect storm of awful. Dysfunctional hilarity!

Bad, but in a good way

[tvdk-73830 · 6/10 · 29 March 2024]

I write this review not because this is a particularly good film, but to counteract some of the (in my opinion) overly harsh reviews and the overall low rating. If even Ed Wood's films can crack the 3/10 mark, surely Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie deserves its due. Firstly, this film contains Donald Pleasance in a maid's costume - this alone is worth 2 stars. Throw in some questionable period set pieces, incompetent government officials, an actress who is far too, shall we say, 'buxom' for the early 20th century setting, and some particularly bad monster make-up -- what's not to love?!

In the vein of spoof films of classic monster films (i.e. Young Frankenstein), Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie, directed by Yvonne Furneaux, does not have any pretentions to being a 'good' film. Whether or not the comedy is intentional or unintentional, the film offers up a big fat slice of delicious 80s cheese. For fellow fans of trashy film, this one deserves more recognition. After all, they don't make 'em like this anymore!

Monster Flop

[cconner · 22 November 2004]

I guess movies like this are aimed at a specific audience, but, for the life of me, I can't figure out who that would be. I'll admit I only watched as much as I could stand, and I feel kind of wrong about reviewing something I could only stay with for about 30 minutes. However, you don't really need to sniff a pile of crap for a second time to know it's still gonna stink.

Apparently, some of Victor Frankenstein's relatives return to his abandoned estate because they've run out of money. I think. I'm not sure because the 'plot' is buried beneath a lot of other subplots that don't seem to fit immediately (maybe it becomes clear if you can actually watch this entire travesty, but I can't go there again). They end up finding Frankenstein's monster by accident and cook up some kind of half-assed idea to revive the creature and somehow glean cash from this whole thing.

I get the feeling that this was supposed to be a comedy, but the laughs never come. When a group of 'wayward' girls turned seltzer bottles on the local police in the middle of an Equal Rights protest, that was my cue to exit. Avoid.

Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie Review 1984. PSA for audio de sync: GO APE! Donald Pleasence.

[ItsACityOfApes_Movie_Reviews · 8 July 2021]

See The Respectable People keep down suffragettes trying to bring the E. R. A. To Mucklebugger from a 1386 AD decree. See car race on old roads. Much hilarity ensues and is a visual feast of off-beat, obscure, weird and odd references that don't really congeal into a whole movie.

Speaking of a disjointed movie, how about that audio de-sync. But wait for it - this is a movie to GO APE! It's got so many strange items and things to see! Thomas Crapper is referenced, Zsa Zsa Gabor shows up, radio and FM had not been invented yet, bloomers are given away: "down with trousers, up with skirts", likes Chinese food, dancing at 48m(!), cross-dressing Nanny Groat, Sir Thomas Crapper and the dream of hygiene, gunk of rock oil, hickie on wrist, many UFOs: Unverified Frankenstein Observations: 6; Ape-tastic: 7; Ape-tastic: 9 (Audio De-Sync); Black Monolith with Apes: 2; Conelrad Alert: 1; Indian Head Test Pattern: 2; Monkeys at a Typewriter: 4; Poop Show: 0; Propeller Cap: 5 (Obscure References) .

Find the audio sync by using a second player in the mini player mode. This audio de-sync will keep you Going APE. If the sync was there, it might - might - be as good as Young Frankenstein.

PSA: Watching the audio de-synced version is one of the hardest films yet to extract viewing enjoyment out of and receives a Poop Show Award. GO APE! Enjoy!