This is James Whale's classic gothic horror version of the Frankenstein story that set the benchmark for Frankenstein films. The film is made by the atmospheric sets, the performance of Boris Karloff as the monster, and the make up from Jack Pierce. There is a mix of elaorbate sets and simple sets and there is also no background music, just sound effects, but these all add to the atmosphere. Boris Karloff's monster set the style for monsters to come in many films that followed even though it was not reflective of the monster in the original story. What Pierce did was sculpt a character with the make-up rather than a monster. Also the make-up allowed Boris Karloff his range of facial expressions giving the monster a sense of charcter. There was disagreement between James Whale and Boris Karloff over the scene where the monster throws the little girl into the lake. Whale wanted it but Karloff did not. As well as directing the film James Whale rewrote significant parts of the screenplay and it does have some sort of expressionist feel in parts.
4/5 
Colin Clive
Mae Clarke
John Boles
Boris Karloff
Edward van Sloan
Frederick Kerr
Lionel Belmore