The Evil of Frankenstein is the second sequel to Hammer's masterful, mould breaking Frankenstein film - The Curse of Frankenstein. Curse was followed up by the impressive first sequel - The Revenge of Frankenstein. As such Evil had much to live up to.

The film sees the Baron returning to the site of his original experiments - the village of Kaarlstadt. Frankenstein returns to his now abandoned chateau and laboratory to somehow find the 'missing link' to his ongoing quest to 'create life'. However, his cover is soon blown and irate villagers chase him out of town - again! Taking shelter in the surrounding mountains, Frankenstein miraculously discovers his creature perfectly preserved in ice.

Determined to resurrect his creation, the Baron enlists the help of a hypnotist in order to reach the creatures 'dormant' brain. But things start going wrong when the hypnotist starts using the creature to further his own devious agenda. The premise of Evil is well thought out and harks back to some episodes in Mary Shelly's original novel.

The creature's flight to the craggy, snow capped mountains, Baron Frankenstein's rustic castle and the increasingly 'pathetic' plight of the monster. However, somewhat appropriately, one can say that the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole.

The film promises much but fails to deliver. In particular the film is side tracked when the hypnotist, Zoltan, takes charge, pushing the films most magnetic character - Baron Frankenstein - into the background.

The creature itself is not half as impressive as Hammer's explosive original effort with Christopher Lee as the monster. With Universal Studio's releasing Evil of Frankenstein in America there were no objections to having Hammer's creature resemble Universal's own classic creation.

But the originality and shock value of the creature from Curse of Frankenstein is lost in this sequel. In fact, much of the film is like that. There is too much familiarity and the story begins to look routine very quickly.

Nevertheless, Peter Cushing reprises his role as Baron Frankenstein in his inimitable style. Cushing was a wonderfully talented actor who never quite received the recognition that he deserved during his career. Sadly, the rest of the film is an average effort.