Eli Roth's History of Horror (2018–…): Season 3, Episode 6 - Episode #3.6 - full transcript
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- We can defeat death.
We can achieve
every doctor's dream.
- Ahh!
- There's so many mad
scientist movies.
- [cackling]
- Can't let you
leave here alive.
- I need somebody to have
an idea that sets off
a horrific chain of events.
- Ahh!
- You're crazy.
- Crazy, am I?
- Collin Clive
as Frankenstein
is always the prototype
for every mad scientist movie.
- He's alive!
- "Altered States"
is such a great movie.
William hurt is kind of like
a modern Frankenstein.
- When I look at "Ex Machina,"
I see shades
of "The Island of Dr. Moreau".
I see shades
of "Frankenstein".
- Suddenly I realize
the power I yield.
- Invisible Man," it's one
of the only ones you could see
as a kind of morality
testing superpower.
- Mommy, Mommy!
- What would you do
if you had that power?
And what do you do
if someone else has that power,
and you're trying
to get away from them?
[dramatic music]
- Dr. Frank N. Furter is
about an affront
to puritanical society,
and he's trying
to destroy all of them
and knock all of them down.
- There have been dedicated
scientist movies,
but they're never quite as much
fun as mad scientist movies.
- Ahh!
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
narrator: Science is
a powerful force for good.
- Had man not been given
to invention and experiment,
then tonight, sir,
you would've eaten
your dinner in a cave.
narrator: But our inventions
can be a double-edged sword,
improving our lives but having
dangerous side effects.
- [gasps]
narrator: Our dreams and fears
about rapid
technological progress
are embodied
in the mad scientist,
the genius determined
to change the world
no matter the consequences.
- Yahh!
- The idea has been that
in order to do the great works
that need to be done, you have
to be a little bit crazy.
- Yes, that's what I needed,
living flesh from humans
for my experiments.
- What difference is
it gonna make
if a few people had to die?
- And the reason for that is
that you have
to be anti-authoritarian
because there's always someone
who's trying to stop you
from finding the discovery
that you wanna find.
- I'll make a crippled world
whole again.
- They always make
a grand proclamation
about advancing science
and the good they're gonna do.
- With your natural gifts
and our determination,
we could both be part
of something greater,
something perfect.
- And then it just seems to be
about their reputation
and how great they are,
even in "Frankenstein."
- The brain of a dead man
waiting to live in a body
I made with my own hand.
- "The creature's alive"
is the first thing he screams.
It's not like, "Look
at all the good I will do."
It's like, "Now I know
what it feels like to be God."
- Now I know what it feels
like to be God!
- It does quickly go
to their heads.
narrator: In 1816,
the young Mary Shelley
conceived the story
of Frankenstein,
a scientist who pieces
together a body out of corpses
and uses electricity
to bring it to life.
- It's alive.
It's alive.
It's alive!
[dramatic music]
- Mary Shelley created
an archetype
in Dr. Frankenstein.
He's been copied.
He's been cloned.
He's been spoofed.
- That's Frankenstein.
- But he exists
in our consciousness
in a way that very,
very few characters 100 years,
150 years old still do.
- I can envision a day when
the brains of brilliant men
can be kept alive
in the bodies of dumb people.
- If you call somebody
a Frankenstein,
people know what
you're talking about.
Everybody gets it.
narrator: James Whale's
"Frankenstein"
and "Bride of Frankenstein"
are two of the greatest
horror films of all time...
- He's coming up!
narrator: Giving us indelible
images of a man obsessed.
- Now.
- The moment we meet
this mad scientist,
we meet him at a cemetery,
looking at dead bodies,
digging up graves.
What a great setting.
I'm like, "I love this guy."
- He's just resting waiting
for a new life to come.
- He's already breaking
all the rules.
- I wouldn't care if they
did think I was crazy.
narrator: Colin Clive gives
a larger-than-life performance
as Dr. Frankenstein.
- One man crazy,
three very sane spectators.
[crash]
narrator:
But it's Boris Karloff
as the monster
who dominates the films.
- I don't think
you can imagine
the Frankenstein monster
having had the impact
that it's had
without being portrayed
by anybody but Karloff.
He's brought so much emotion
to the part.
He's brought so much pathos.
♪ ♪
- Boris Karloff is
the quintessential
Frankenstein's monster.
No question.
Who do I think of
when I think
of Dr. Frankenstein
or Baron Frankenstein?
I think of Peter Cushing.
- I am Baron Frankenstein.
- Frankenstein.
- I thought the world had
seen the last of you.
- So did a lot of other people.
narrator: In a series of films
made from the late '50s
to the mid '70s,
Peter Cushing plays
Frankenstein
as a dashing, brilliant
but amoral antihero.
- He's always smarter
than everybody else.
He happens to be unfortunately
ruthless and homicidal.
♪ ♪
Aside from that, he's
definitely on the right track,
and there's many scenes
in those pictures,
very well-written scenes,
where he takes the starch
out of these
small-minded hypocrites.
- And do you expect us
to believe all
this childish rubbish, sir?
Do you take us for fools?
- Yes.
- That was where
the mad scientist
really kind of
came into his own.
- I'm sorry I had to
take matters into my own hands,
but I had no choice.
- Because the whole concept
of Peter Cushing
as Dr. Frankenstein,
and the whole concept
of those films is
it's the doctor
that's the monster.
- Look out, Professor.
Look out!
♪ ♪
- He is a sociopath,
and he becomes more and more
of a single-minded sociopath
as the films go on.
You see this man
who spends his entire life
obsessed with this idea.
In the first one,
he makes his monster
and he loses his monster.
And then in the other films,
he makes a monster.
He loses his monster.
He tries something else.
He puts what if I do
this brain in that body?
What if I take my friend's body
and put that brain in it?
What if I make it a woman?
He doesn't just stop at one.
He will do it over
and over and over again,
even if it's a disaster
every time because he knows
that he is going to do it
and he's going to win.
- If I can't cure him
by brain surgery,
then I'll get another brain,
and another, and another.
- There's always that frontier
that science is
not supposed to cross,
and we're forever
pushing it back.
And now we're talking
about cloning people,
you know, the ethics behind
all the scientific decisions
that we're making today
are actually echoed
in all those movies
already back in the '30s.
- To a new world of gods
and monsters.
♪ ♪
narrator: Mad scientists want
to change the world,
but when they change themselves,
the results can be terrifying.
- Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Ahh!
narrator: Few mad scientists
of the movies are pure evil.
- But there must be absolutely
no mention of this made to anyone.
- Of course.
narrator: Most are impatient
geniuses so excited
by their latest potions
or machines
that they decide
it would be quicker and easier
to use themselves
as test subjects.
♪ ♪
That usually doesn't
turn out so well.
♪ ♪
- Ahh!
- I can only teleport
inanimate objects.
- Well, what happens when you
try to teleport living things?
- Not while we're eating.
♪ ♪
narrator:
In David Cronenberg's
1986 remake of "The Fly,"
Jeff Goldblum
plays Seth Brundle...
♪ ♪
A scientist who invents
a teleportation machine.
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
narrator: He wants to change
the world and hook up
with a vivacious journalist
played by Gina Davis.
- Sorry, I have three other
interviews to do
before this party's over.
- Yeah, but they're not working
on something
that'll change the world
as we know it.
- Seth Brundle thinks
of this incredible invention
that's gonna really
revolutionize mankind.
- I call them telepods.
- But there's a fatal accident
that takes place,
which is kind of... which is
really fascinating.
It's such a small starter
to this huge problem.
It's just a little fly,
a little housefly,
and it, you know,
causes so much to happen.
narrator: Brundle's DNA merges
with the fly's.
He gradually transforms
into a monster.
- Ahh!
narrator: It's
a disturbing film ennobled
by Goldblum and Davis'
committed performances.
- You have to leave now
and never come back here.
- Jeff Goldblum and I were
a couple at that time,
and we lived
and breathed that movie.
Just all day and all night,
every minute,
we were talking about the
movie and practicing scenes.
And that was probably
the most immersed
in a movie that I ever was.
- David wrote it
as a love story.
Boy meets girl.
Boy turns
into hideous monster.
Girl blows boy's head off
with a real shotgun.
- [sobbing]
[dramatic music]
narrator: Ken Russell's
"Altered States" features
another well-intentioned
scientist who goes too far.
Played by William Hurt
in his film debut,
Eddie Jessup is
a Harvard professor
exploring the deepest recesses
of the human mind.
♪ ♪
He combines long spells
in sensory deprivation tanks
with dangerous drugs
that alter his mind and body
♪ ♪
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
- William Hurt is kind of
like a modern Frankenstein,
but he's also experimenting
on himself.
So there's something
noble about that,
but also really like
obsessive and scary.
- You know, of course,
I'm supposed to be
at least a little bit nuts.
- A little bit?
You're an unmedicated madman.
- When he's talking
about what he's trying to do,
he's so impatient
because he doesn't wanna
have to explain himself.
He just wants to do it.
- At least look at my data.
- Of course.
Maybe tomorrow afternoon.
Would tomorrow after...
- Don't patronize me.
- I'm not.
- It is possible I'm not ma,
you know?
I'm asking you to make
a small quantum jump with me
to accept one deviant concept
that our other states
of consciousness
are as real
as our waking states
and that that reality
can be externalized.
- And he's literally going
to evolve into the next form
of human life.
You know, he's that ahead
of the curve.
[laughs]
- "Altered States" is a movie
that's both completely low-brow
genre, and at the same time,
the highest
kind of high-brow art.
♪ ♪
"Altered States" is
so existentially
and scientifically rigorous,
but it still has
a thing popping open
and a guy jumping out
as a Neanderthal man.
- [shrieking]
♪ ♪
narrator: William Hurt's
transformations were
designed by Dick Smith,
one of the all-time greats
of special makeup effects.
♪ ♪
It featured groundbreaking
images of body horror.
- I remember for sure
all the beautiful work
that Dick Smith had done,
like the arm bladder.
♪ ♪
It was the series
of inflating bladders
with the prosthetic over top
of it with hair punched in it,
and you see it bubbling
and moving under the skin.
That was, like, the first time.
- I love the character's
amusement in this,
how he seems so relaxed
and cool
with everything
that's happening to him.
He is just there for the ride.
It's a true scientist.
He is not horrified
by what is happening.
It's much more
an approach of fascination.
"Oh, look at that.
My arm's inflating.
That's wild."
♪ ♪
- [screaming]
- Ahh!
- [screaming]
narrator: Finally, Jessup's
reality shatters.
He and his wife are propelled
through different stages
of human evolution.
- It was an attempt
to kind of show
that the people around you
help create your sense
of what's real and what's true.
And if you take all that away,
if you isolate someone,
if you sink them
in lukewarm water,
return them to the embryo,
they can know no more
of the world than a fetus,
and suddenly reality
becomes as liquid
as the fluid surrounding them.
♪ ♪
"Altered States" is a movie
that taps into our terror
of losing our sense
of what's true and what's not.
- [moaning]
♪ ♪
narrator: Mad scientists tend
to take things too far.
- What is the law?
narrator: The most sinister
create new forms of life
and suffer the consequences.
narrator: The average
mad scientist toils away
in a stuffy laboratory
or a drafty castle,
but for the lucky one percent,
only an inaccessible
island compound will do,
a place to play God
without interference.
- Do you know what it means
to feel like God?
narrator:
"Island of Lost Souls,"
the first
and by far the best adaptation
of H.G. Wells' novel
"The Island of Dr. Moreau,"
features one of the greatest
mad scientists of the movies,
a doctor who surgically
creates animal-human hybrids.
- [growling]
- Get out!
♪ ♪
- I don't understand
why the 1933
"Island of Lost Souls" isn't
better known
or fully appreciated,
but it deserves to be.
- Strange-looking natives
you have here.
- You'll be wanting
a cold shower,
I take it, before dinner.
- It stars
the great Charles Laughton.
- Oh, it takes a long time
and infinite patience
to make them talk.
- He's just having a feast
playing Dr. Moreau.
♪ ♪
narrator: When a seafaring
traveler named Parker
finds himself stranded
on Moreau's island...
♪ ♪
He quickly realizes the genial
doctor is ethically impaired.
- What is the law?
- Not to spill blood.
That is the law.
Are we not men?
all: Are we not men?
- He's probably the most sadistic
of everyone we're talking about.
- [moaning]
[screaming]
- 'Cause most of the time
they're not doing vivisection
with someone screaming.
You know, usually,
the corpses are quiet.
- You're convinced that the
thing on the table isn't human?
Its cries are human.
- You know what it is,
what I began with?
- No.
- An animal.
♪ ♪
- He's photographed
by Karl Struss,
one of the great,
great cameramen.
♪ ♪
- Every set is shooting
through something
and the patterns that
are being cast on the walls.
Like, everything looks
like bars or plant life
creating, like,
these sort of bars,
so it makes it feel
like every character
is always trapped.
It's just amazing the care
that went into every frame.
♪ ♪
narrator:
When a rescue mission arrives,
Moreau's demented
kingdom unravels...
- Not beasts!
narrator:
And the beast-men revolt.
- Part man, part beast!
Things!
all: Things!
- Not men!
narrator:
The fear of class warfare
bubbles under the surface
of the novel,
and the Hollywood adaptation.
- Stop, you fools!
- The beast people rising up is
almost like
a Bolshevik Revolt.
- [screaming]
- America wasn't hashing this
out on an intellectual level,
but it certainly was
on a pop-cultural level.
narrator: Nine decades later,
cultural anxieties
about evolution and revolution
are still with us
but in different forms.
♪ ♪
Alex Garland's film
"Ex Machina"
updates the tropes
of classic mad scientist films
to address our modern fear
of being replaced
by intelligent machines.
♪ ♪
Low-level programmer
Caleb Smith wins a contest
to visit the isolated compound
of his company's billionaire
CEO Nathan Bateman.
Caleb will spend a week alone
with Nathan,
his mute servant Kyoto,
and Ava,
a robot Nathan has imbued
with artificial intelligence.
- Pleased to meet you, Ava.
- I'm pleased to meet you, too.
narrator: Nathan wants Caleb
to determine
whether Ava is capable
of independent,
conscious thought.
- You are dead center of
the greatest scientific event
in the history of man.
- If you've created
a conscious machine,
it's not the history of man.
That's the history of gods.
- It was such an interesting
exploration into our dependency
on technology, and AI,
and the development of it,
and what makes
a person a person.
- You learn about me,
and I learn nothing about you.
That's not a foundation
on which friendships are based.
- But like in some ways,
Alicia Vikander's character
was more humane and more of
a human than our protagonist.
narrator: Caleb is immediately
attracted to Ava,
and he finds much
to dislike in Nathan.
- You know, I wrote down that
other line you came up with,
the one about how
if I've invented a machine
with consciousness,
I'm not a man, I'm God.
- I don't think
that's exactly...
- I just thought (bleep),
man, that is so good
- Oscar Isaac's character,
that's the new mad scientist,
you know, the body hacker guy
that knows, you know,
if I have a smoothie
at 4:00 a.m.,
I could wake up
and do some CrossFit,
and then all my brain will have
all the gorilla mindset.
So you know, so I can listen
to Joe Rogan's podcast
and then work
on my science project.
Like, that's the new
mad scientist right there.
- Look, do me a favor.
Lay off the textbook approach.
I just want simple answers
to simple questions.
- He's the perfectly created
villain, but then you realize
that 3/4 of the way
through the movie
that she's outsmarted
all of them.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Caleb learns that Ava has been
literally designed
to appeal to his fantasies.
- Did you design Ava's face
based
on my pornography profile?
- Hey, if a search engine's
good for anything, right?
narrator:
The real test was to see
if Ava could
successfully use Caleb
to escape Nathan's compound.
- Ava was a rat in a maze,
and I gave her one way out.
To escape, she'd have to use
self-awareness, imagination,
manipulation, sexuality,
empathy, and she did.
Now, if that isn't true AI,
what the (bleep) is?
♪ ♪
narrator:
Both men find out too late
that Ava is conscious,
but she's also a psychopath.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa...
- What is so amazing about that
character is you're rooting
for her the whole time.
You think that she is
the victim in this situation,
but the tables turn
quite quickly.
narrator: In a sense,
the aspiring God Nathan
created life in his own image.
- You wonder where she learned
that lack of empathy,
and you realize
that it's from him.
She is learning everything
that she learned
about being a villain from him
because where... what
other access
does she have to other people
other than him?
♪ ♪
narrator: Perhaps
this is our hidden fear,
that our technology is flawed
because we are flawed.
The real monster is
not the creation.
It's the creator.
♪ ♪
Mad scientists break
the rules of society,
but some rules
are made to be broken.
- [chuckling]
narrator: Mad scientists
are colorful characters...
- The devil is that element
in human nature
that impels us to destroy
and debase.
narrator: Non-conformists
who make their own rules...
- Professor Wells is
a student of cannibalism.
[organ music]
narrator: Living their lives
with a certain flair.
It takes a lot to stand out
from this crowd,
but one pansexual scientist
from outer space
manages to do it.
- ♪ I'm a just
a sweet transvestite ♪
♪ From transsexual ♪
♪ Transylvania ♪
narrator:
Tim Curry's performance
as Dr. Frank N. Furter
in "The Rocky Horror
Picture Show"
isn't just great.
It's mind-altering.
- As a kid, I was like, "I'm
just a straight boy," you know?
And then seeing
Frank N. Furter sing,
and just, like, I was like,
"Maybe not.
I don't know.
I don't know anymore."
- So come up to the lab.
- And that's, like,
I think the gift
of a good mad scientist is
like, you know,
he doesn't even have
to make a love potion.
He doesn't have to infect you
with anything.
He just has to say like,
"Antici..."
- Pation.
- And you're just like,
"Oh, (bleep)."
narrator: "Rocky Horror's"
plot is simple.
Wholesome young couple Brad
and Janet find themselves
stranded at
Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle.
- It's probably some kind of
hunting lodge for rich weirdos.
narrator: They've arrived
on an auspicious night.
The doctor is having
his special friends over
to celebrate
his latest creation.
- I don't like musicals.
Most musicals, like,
I really detest because
the music is so Broadway,
and it's just unbearable.
But "Rocky Horror"
just has all the elements
of, like, great actors
in the right role.
- ♪ Let's do
the time warp again ♪
- But the music's great.
♪ ♪
- ♪You bring your knees
in tight ♪
- I just always think
of "Time Warp"
whenever I think of
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"
and the fact
that you can go anywhere,
at least in the states,
put that song on,
and everyone knows it
and recognize it.
- ♪ Let's do
the time warp again ♪
- It's a staple.
narrator: "Rocky Horror"
made Tim Curry a star.
[dramatic music]
It also featured a breakout
performance by Meat Loaf
who played '50s rocker Eddie.
- ♪ Hot patootie,
bless my soul ♪
♪ I really love
that rock 'n' roll ♪
narrator: Like many
straight young American men
in the early '70s,
Meat Loaf's initial encounter
with Dr. Frank N. Furter
was...
- [screaming]
- Ahh!
narrator: Uncomfortable.
- We're rehearsing
in a little theater,
and the music starts,
and the doors
of this theater burst open.
In comes Tim Curry in the
corset with the garter belt,
with the fishnet stockings,
with the high heels,
all in makeup and I go,
"Oh no, uh-uh, nope."
And I get up and walk out.
[dramatic music]
To a kid from Texas,
a guy in a garter belt
that's offensive.
narrator: But the actor's
hesitation soon gave way
to admiration.
- You always have heard this
language of be in the moment,
be in the moment,
be in the moment.
So up until I worked
with Tim Curry,
everything I had done,
I thought I was in the moment.
Tim Curry taught me
what it meant
to actually be in the moment.
Tim Curry would never
break character,
no matter how hard they laughed
or how long they went on,
he was Frank N. Furter.
- I hold the secret
to life itself!
narrator: Mad scientists are
always pushing boundaries.
- [indistinct]
♪ ♪
narrator:
Before "Rocky Horror,"
that was usually a metaphor
for alternative
or transgressive sexuality.
♪ ♪
Most famously in James Whale's
"Bride of Frankenstein"...
- Be fruitful and multiply.
narrator:
The high camp tale of two men
who want to give birth
without the involvement
of a woman.
- Alone you have created a man.
Now together,
we will create his mate.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Dr. Frank N. Furter makes
those hidden
messages explicit.
- Oh, Rocky!
- [groaning]
- Everybody else is, like,
I want to make a person.
Why?
Well, because I wanna prove
that it can be done.
But he's, like,
"No, I'm gonna make a guy,
"and he's gonna be super hot,
and then I'm gonna
have sex with him."
narrator: Frank N. Furter's
motives aren't purely selfish.
His is the mad science
of sexual liberation.
- ♪ Don't dream it ♪
♪ Be it ♪
- There is no judging
in it whatsoever.
It just is.
And the gender fluidity
of Brad and Janet
and that sexuality
across the board
is just separated,
and gender boundaries
get completely
broken down in it.
That is something
that we weren't seeing
in a lot of cinema at the time,
so it felt dangerous.
It felt transgressive.
It felt like we were seeing
something completely different.
- ♪ We are wild
and untamed things ♪
♪ We're a bee
with a deadly sting ♪
- It's one of those movies that
when you love it, you're like,
"I wanna watch
another movie like this,"
but there really isn't
anything else like it.
- ♪And I realize ♪
- It's such a unique thing
unto itself.
- ♪ I'm going home ♪
♪ ♪
narrator: Science can make our
wildest fantasies a reality,
but some wishes may be better
left unfulfilled...
[tense music]
Like the fantasy
of becoming invisible.
- Does the word invisible
mean anything to you?
narrator: The Invisible Man is
a recurring figure
in the history of horror,
an archetype of good
intentions gone awry
and the corrupting
effects of power.
[dramatic music]
This transparent spin on mad
scientists first appeared
on film in 1933.
James Whale,
fresh off of "Frankenstein,"
directed
this masterful adaptation
of H. G. Wells' classic novel.
Claude Rains stars
as a scientist
who has invented
an invisibility serum
he hopes will be a boon
to humanity.
- There's a way back, you fool.
narrator: But the formula has
an unfortunate side effect.
It drives him insane.
- You're crazy to know
who I am, aren't you?
- Once he's invisible,
all the bad things
that he wants to do,
all the power that he wanted
becomes available to him.
- If you raise a finger
against me, you're a dead man.
I'm strong,
and I'll strangle you.
- It's almost like a superhero
story that goes bad.
You gain
these incredible powers,
but what do you do with them
when you have them?
- We'll begin
with a reign of terror,
a few murders here and there.
[laughing]
♪ ♪
[people screaming]
- He derails a train
and kills dozens
if not hundreds of people.
He's murdering people
willfully and gleefully
in a way that is saying,
if you are this obsessed,
if you are this level
of mad scientist,
you will lose your humanity.
narrator: Part of the appeal
of Invisible Man movies
are the special effects.
- Morning.
- Morning.
narrator: Every version pushes
the effects technology
of its day to the limit.
- [grunts]
- [laughing]
- I loved
the original movie...
- Look.
- Just from
an effect standpoint.
when he takes the nose off
and the eyeglasses off,
and they had the fake head
that you could see inside
and see the inverse
of the bandages.
- Then every Invisible Man film
after that is
essentially doing riffs
on the same thing,
like Claude Rains'
unwrapping the bandage
to reveal nothing...
♪ ♪
Is the same effect
in John Carpenter's
"Memoirs of an Invisible Man."
It's the same effect in
Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man."
But they were doing it
in the '30s
when computers literally
didn't exist.
narrator:
"Hollow Man" stars Kevin Bacon
as a particularly
loathsome version
of the arrogant scientist
corrupted by power.
♪ ♪
- Don't even think about it.
- That one is certainly the
most id-based Invisible Man.
- Who's gonna know?
- The way I describe,
you know, the "Hollow Man" is,
"Oh, I'm invisible.
Time to rape."
- [screaming]
- No one can really answer
the question,
if I became invisible, I know
what I would or wouldn't do.
- Man, if it was me,
I'd be (bleep)ing with people,
whispering in her ears
and (bleep).
- It would be like being
granted a horrible,
horrible responsibility
to behave yourself.
I don't think anybody
would necessarily know
what they would do with
that power unless they had it.
narrator: Leigh Whannell's
2020 update
of "The Invisible Man"
gives us an equally repellent,
but far more insidious version
of the character.
♪ ♪
- The 2020 "Invisible Man"
is the best version
of Invisible Man,
and I'm including
the H.G. Wells novel
that inspired
the whole concept.
- No, no, stop!
No, stop!
He's right there!
- It's an intensely
terrifying picture.
narrator:
Elizabeth Moss plays a woman
trapped in
an abusive relationship
with a hyper-controlling
tech genius.
- No... (bleep)!
Ahh!
- Cecilia, get back here!
narrator:
She escapes his clutches.
Soon after, he seems to die
by his own hand.
[tense music]
Then strange and terrible
things begin to happen.
Her ex has faked his death
and is now using
an invisibility suit
to torment her.
♪ ♪
- "Invisible Man"
takes this idea
of invisibility
and projects it
into a story which is about
stalking and about control,
real-life terrors
of surveillance
that I think everyone faces
but women especially.
[doorbell rings]
narrator:
For much of the movie,
the Invisible Man
is neither seen nor heard,
but he's always there
methodically sabotaging
the woman's attempts
to break free.
- It was hard to watch because
it's about domestic abuse.
- He has figured out a way
to be invisible.
- To be in this place
of no one believing you
and no one understanding it.
No one's gonna see it happen.
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
- So how do you
plead your case?
How do you get out of it?
How do you get help?
That's what's tormenting
about watching her experience
is trying to escape
a bad relationship.
That's all you wanna do is just
escape this bad relationship,
and he's figured out
a crazy super-intelligent way
to keep hold of you.
- He was always going
to find you,
no matter what he had to do.
- I think
the most impactful scene
for me was in the restaurant,
the restaurant scene
with her sister.
- I found something that can
prove what I'm experiencing,
that can prove
that Adrian is stalking me.
- As she's explaining
and begging for her sister
to pay attention,
and the moment that she does...
- It's some kind of suit
that Adrian has built.
- You just see this knife
floating.
The knife just lingers
for a split second.
- What?
It happened so fast, so real.
That's exactly
how we would react in shock.
And how Elizabeth Moss
just stood there silent
and broken in the restaurant.
- [screaming]
- Incredible.
- You're saying that the person
that killed your sister is
in the room right now,
but we can't see him.
- Look, you're not gonna watch
the new "Invisible Man"
and feel the terror
the same way
that a woman who has been
in an abusive,
controlling relationship
would feel.
- This is what he does.
He makes me feel like
I'm the crazy one.
- But I'll say this.
Everybody has trauma,
and everybody
experiences the bad stuff.
And if you haven't,
don't worry, you will.
♪ ♪
And that's part of why people
make horror films.
It's a cathartic way
to express those terrors
and those horrors
in a safe way.
- There you are.
narrator: Like all great
horror archetypes,
"The Invisible Man" is
continually reshaped
to suit the times.
- (bleep) you!
narrator:
And like many social ills,
he's not always visible,
but he's always there.
- Surprise.
♪ ♪
narrator: Science is
the search for truth.
- [grunts]
But sometimes we learn
things we wish we hadn't
and open doors
that should've stayed closed.
- Free at last!
- In every human personality,
two forces struggle
for supremacy.
narrator:
Next to "Frankenstein",
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
is the most powerful
and influential mad
scientist story of all time.
- It's a guy
who is torn in two,
his good side
and his bad side,
and he must fight to win out
over his bad side,
but he can't because
you are your bad side,
and you are your good side.
And even if you can separate
them momentarily,
you can never escape yourself.
[dramatic music]
narrator:
Robert Louis Stevenson's novel
has been adapted many times
for the screen,
but the definitive version
stars Frederic March,
who won an Academy Award
for his performance
as the upstanding physician
who unleashes his dark side.
- To my mind,
the finest adaptation
of the story is
the Rouben Mamoulian version.
It's shocking even today,
in its depiction of the abuse
of a woman by a monstrous man.
narrator: Saintly Dr. Jekyll
practices medicine
in Victorian London.
He's engaged
to a wealthy young woman,
but they are pledged
to celibacy
until they are married.
- I'll wait.
narrator: This leaves
Jekyll frustrated.
- I'll wait.
narrator: One day he comes
to the aid of Ivy,
a gorgeous
and willing bar singer
played by Miriam Hopkins.
- You have Dr. Jekyll
meeting this woman,
being attracted to her,
and she's seducing him.
- Look where he kicked me.
- It's only a bruise.
You'll be quite well
in a few days.
By the way, you mustn't wear
so tight a garter.
It's bad for you.
It impedes the circulation.
- And he rejects that.
It's the curse
of being a gentleman.
- Come back soon, won't you?
- Sorry, I'm afraid I can't.
- Oh, yes you can.
Come back.
narrator:
Ivy triggers something
inside the good doctor.
- Come back soon, won't you?
Oh, yes you can.
Soon.
Come back.
- The thing that's fascinating
about Dr. Jekyll,
as opposed to some
of the other mad scientists
is his goal
feels relatively human.
- I want to be clean not only
in my conduct
but in my innermost thoughts
and desires.
- His goal is to find a release
from all the rules
and restrictions of society.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Jekyll creates a serum
that will unleash
his forbidden impulses.
Frederic March undergoes
an on-screen transformation
into Mr. Hyde
that's done largely on camera.
♪ ♪
- I mean, the makeup's
incredible, but I mean,
just like the violence
and the terror that he brings.
narrator:
Hyde seeks out the woman
who aroused his other self.
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
- That scene where
he lays claim to her,
and he breaks the bottle
and the look of fear
on her face.
And then he pushes
into the camera
as if he's going to just
kind of reach into the audience
and rape the audience,
God, it's disturbing.
- You'll come with me, hey?
You'll come with me.
- He sequesters Miriam Hopkins
in an apartment,
and he's the super
controlling (bleep).
- I'm going to spend
the evening here
with you, just as you want.
Say "just as I want."
Say "just as I want."
- Just as I want.
- And he won't let her leave.
And he beats her up.
And he terrorizes her.
- Sing!
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
- It's just really demented,
and it's, like,
usually they've
slightly implied things,
but that movie more
than slightly implies things.
- Look, my darling,
how tight your garters.
You mustn't wear
anything tight.
It'll bruise your pretty,
tender flesh.
- [gasps]
♪ ♪
narrator:
Ivy goes to Dr. Jekyll
and naively asks him for help.
- I give you my word.
You will not see Hyde again.
Believe me.
- I believe you, sir.
narrator: But Jekyll is
no longer in control
of his transformations.
♪ ♪
- You want her not to die,
but you know that she's... that's
what's about to happen
- There, my dove.
narrator:
Now completely feral,
Hyde goes on a rampage.
Finally, he dies
a violent death,
and Jekyll's terrible secret
is revealed.
♪ ♪
- The issue, of course, is that
if you try to undo repression,
the effect is not going
to be liberation.
The effect is going to be something
much more destructive.
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
♪ ♪
narrator: Science has changed
the way we live
and the way we think.
It can make
our dreams come true.
But behind the dazzling
products of our imagination,
we can see the shadow of
the mad scientist reminding us
that without ethics
and without restraint,
our dreams can
become nightmares.
♪ ♪
---
- We can defeat death.
We can achieve
every doctor's dream.
- Ahh!
- There's so many mad
scientist movies.
- [cackling]
- Can't let you
leave here alive.
- I need somebody to have
an idea that sets off
a horrific chain of events.
- Ahh!
- You're crazy.
- Crazy, am I?
- Collin Clive
as Frankenstein
is always the prototype
for every mad scientist movie.
- He's alive!
- "Altered States"
is such a great movie.
William hurt is kind of like
a modern Frankenstein.
- When I look at "Ex Machina,"
I see shades
of "The Island of Dr. Moreau".
I see shades
of "Frankenstein".
- Suddenly I realize
the power I yield.
- Invisible Man," it's one
of the only ones you could see
as a kind of morality
testing superpower.
- Mommy, Mommy!
- What would you do
if you had that power?
And what do you do
if someone else has that power,
and you're trying
to get away from them?
[dramatic music]
- Dr. Frank N. Furter is
about an affront
to puritanical society,
and he's trying
to destroy all of them
and knock all of them down.
- There have been dedicated
scientist movies,
but they're never quite as much
fun as mad scientist movies.
- Ahh!
[eerie music]
♪ ♪
- [screams]
narrator: Science is
a powerful force for good.
- Had man not been given
to invention and experiment,
then tonight, sir,
you would've eaten
your dinner in a cave.
narrator: But our inventions
can be a double-edged sword,
improving our lives but having
dangerous side effects.
- [gasps]
narrator: Our dreams and fears
about rapid
technological progress
are embodied
in the mad scientist,
the genius determined
to change the world
no matter the consequences.
- Yahh!
- The idea has been that
in order to do the great works
that need to be done, you have
to be a little bit crazy.
- Yes, that's what I needed,
living flesh from humans
for my experiments.
- What difference is
it gonna make
if a few people had to die?
- And the reason for that is
that you have
to be anti-authoritarian
because there's always someone
who's trying to stop you
from finding the discovery
that you wanna find.
- I'll make a crippled world
whole again.
- They always make
a grand proclamation
about advancing science
and the good they're gonna do.
- With your natural gifts
and our determination,
we could both be part
of something greater,
something perfect.
- And then it just seems to be
about their reputation
and how great they are,
even in "Frankenstein."
- The brain of a dead man
waiting to live in a body
I made with my own hand.
- "The creature's alive"
is the first thing he screams.
It's not like, "Look
at all the good I will do."
It's like, "Now I know
what it feels like to be God."
- Now I know what it feels
like to be God!
- It does quickly go
to their heads.
narrator: In 1816,
the young Mary Shelley
conceived the story
of Frankenstein,
a scientist who pieces
together a body out of corpses
and uses electricity
to bring it to life.
- It's alive.
It's alive.
It's alive!
[dramatic music]
- Mary Shelley created
an archetype
in Dr. Frankenstein.
He's been copied.
He's been cloned.
He's been spoofed.
- That's Frankenstein.
- But he exists
in our consciousness
in a way that very,
very few characters 100 years,
150 years old still do.
- I can envision a day when
the brains of brilliant men
can be kept alive
in the bodies of dumb people.
- If you call somebody
a Frankenstein,
people know what
you're talking about.
Everybody gets it.
narrator: James Whale's
"Frankenstein"
and "Bride of Frankenstein"
are two of the greatest
horror films of all time...
- He's coming up!
narrator: Giving us indelible
images of a man obsessed.
- Now.
- The moment we meet
this mad scientist,
we meet him at a cemetery,
looking at dead bodies,
digging up graves.
What a great setting.
I'm like, "I love this guy."
- He's just resting waiting
for a new life to come.
- He's already breaking
all the rules.
- I wouldn't care if they
did think I was crazy.
narrator: Colin Clive gives
a larger-than-life performance
as Dr. Frankenstein.
- One man crazy,
three very sane spectators.
[crash]
narrator:
But it's Boris Karloff
as the monster
who dominates the films.
- I don't think
you can imagine
the Frankenstein monster
having had the impact
that it's had
without being portrayed
by anybody but Karloff.
He's brought so much emotion
to the part.
He's brought so much pathos.
♪ ♪
- Boris Karloff is
the quintessential
Frankenstein's monster.
No question.
Who do I think of
when I think
of Dr. Frankenstein
or Baron Frankenstein?
I think of Peter Cushing.
- I am Baron Frankenstein.
- Frankenstein.
- I thought the world had
seen the last of you.
- So did a lot of other people.
narrator: In a series of films
made from the late '50s
to the mid '70s,
Peter Cushing plays
Frankenstein
as a dashing, brilliant
but amoral antihero.
- He's always smarter
than everybody else.
He happens to be unfortunately
ruthless and homicidal.
♪ ♪
Aside from that, he's
definitely on the right track,
and there's many scenes
in those pictures,
very well-written scenes,
where he takes the starch
out of these
small-minded hypocrites.
- And do you expect us
to believe all
this childish rubbish, sir?
Do you take us for fools?
- Yes.
- That was where
the mad scientist
really kind of
came into his own.
- I'm sorry I had to
take matters into my own hands,
but I had no choice.
- Because the whole concept
of Peter Cushing
as Dr. Frankenstein,
and the whole concept
of those films is
it's the doctor
that's the monster.
- Look out, Professor.
Look out!
♪ ♪
- He is a sociopath,
and he becomes more and more
of a single-minded sociopath
as the films go on.
You see this man
who spends his entire life
obsessed with this idea.
In the first one,
he makes his monster
and he loses his monster.
And then in the other films,
he makes a monster.
He loses his monster.
He tries something else.
He puts what if I do
this brain in that body?
What if I take my friend's body
and put that brain in it?
What if I make it a woman?
He doesn't just stop at one.
He will do it over
and over and over again,
even if it's a disaster
every time because he knows
that he is going to do it
and he's going to win.
- If I can't cure him
by brain surgery,
then I'll get another brain,
and another, and another.
- There's always that frontier
that science is
not supposed to cross,
and we're forever
pushing it back.
And now we're talking
about cloning people,
you know, the ethics behind
all the scientific decisions
that we're making today
are actually echoed
in all those movies
already back in the '30s.
- To a new world of gods
and monsters.
♪ ♪
narrator: Mad scientists want
to change the world,
but when they change themselves,
the results can be terrifying.
- Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Ahh!
narrator: Few mad scientists
of the movies are pure evil.
- But there must be absolutely
no mention of this made to anyone.
- Of course.
narrator: Most are impatient
geniuses so excited
by their latest potions
or machines
that they decide
it would be quicker and easier
to use themselves
as test subjects.
♪ ♪
That usually doesn't
turn out so well.
♪ ♪
- Ahh!
- I can only teleport
inanimate objects.
- Well, what happens when you
try to teleport living things?
- Not while we're eating.
♪ ♪
narrator:
In David Cronenberg's
1986 remake of "The Fly,"
Jeff Goldblum
plays Seth Brundle...
♪ ♪
A scientist who invents
a teleportation machine.
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
narrator: He wants to change
the world and hook up
with a vivacious journalist
played by Gina Davis.
- Sorry, I have three other
interviews to do
before this party's over.
- Yeah, but they're not working
on something
that'll change the world
as we know it.
- Seth Brundle thinks
of this incredible invention
that's gonna really
revolutionize mankind.
- I call them telepods.
- But there's a fatal accident
that takes place,
which is kind of... which is
really fascinating.
It's such a small starter
to this huge problem.
It's just a little fly,
a little housefly,
and it, you know,
causes so much to happen.
narrator: Brundle's DNA merges
with the fly's.
He gradually transforms
into a monster.
- Ahh!
narrator: It's
a disturbing film ennobled
by Goldblum and Davis'
committed performances.
- You have to leave now
and never come back here.
- Jeff Goldblum and I were
a couple at that time,
and we lived
and breathed that movie.
Just all day and all night,
every minute,
we were talking about the
movie and practicing scenes.
And that was probably
the most immersed
in a movie that I ever was.
- David wrote it
as a love story.
Boy meets girl.
Boy turns
into hideous monster.
Girl blows boy's head off
with a real shotgun.
- [sobbing]
[dramatic music]
narrator: Ken Russell's
"Altered States" features
another well-intentioned
scientist who goes too far.
Played by William Hurt
in his film debut,
Eddie Jessup is
a Harvard professor
exploring the deepest recesses
of the human mind.
♪ ♪
He combines long spells
in sensory deprivation tanks
with dangerous drugs
that alter his mind and body
♪ ♪
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
- William Hurt is kind of
like a modern Frankenstein,
but he's also experimenting
on himself.
So there's something
noble about that,
but also really like
obsessive and scary.
- You know, of course,
I'm supposed to be
at least a little bit nuts.
- A little bit?
You're an unmedicated madman.
- When he's talking
about what he's trying to do,
he's so impatient
because he doesn't wanna
have to explain himself.
He just wants to do it.
- At least look at my data.
- Of course.
Maybe tomorrow afternoon.
Would tomorrow after...
- Don't patronize me.
- I'm not.
- It is possible I'm not ma,
you know?
I'm asking you to make
a small quantum jump with me
to accept one deviant concept
that our other states
of consciousness
are as real
as our waking states
and that that reality
can be externalized.
- And he's literally going
to evolve into the next form
of human life.
You know, he's that ahead
of the curve.
[laughs]
- "Altered States" is a movie
that's both completely low-brow
genre, and at the same time,
the highest
kind of high-brow art.
♪ ♪
"Altered States" is
so existentially
and scientifically rigorous,
but it still has
a thing popping open
and a guy jumping out
as a Neanderthal man.
- [shrieking]
♪ ♪
narrator: William Hurt's
transformations were
designed by Dick Smith,
one of the all-time greats
of special makeup effects.
♪ ♪
It featured groundbreaking
images of body horror.
- I remember for sure
all the beautiful work
that Dick Smith had done,
like the arm bladder.
♪ ♪
It was the series
of inflating bladders
with the prosthetic over top
of it with hair punched in it,
and you see it bubbling
and moving under the skin.
That was, like, the first time.
- I love the character's
amusement in this,
how he seems so relaxed
and cool
with everything
that's happening to him.
He is just there for the ride.
It's a true scientist.
He is not horrified
by what is happening.
It's much more
an approach of fascination.
"Oh, look at that.
My arm's inflating.
That's wild."
♪ ♪
- [screaming]
- Ahh!
- [screaming]
narrator: Finally, Jessup's
reality shatters.
He and his wife are propelled
through different stages
of human evolution.
- It was an attempt
to kind of show
that the people around you
help create your sense
of what's real and what's true.
And if you take all that away,
if you isolate someone,
if you sink them
in lukewarm water,
return them to the embryo,
they can know no more
of the world than a fetus,
and suddenly reality
becomes as liquid
as the fluid surrounding them.
♪ ♪
"Altered States" is a movie
that taps into our terror
of losing our sense
of what's true and what's not.
- [moaning]
♪ ♪
narrator: Mad scientists tend
to take things too far.
- What is the law?
narrator: The most sinister
create new forms of life
and suffer the consequences.
narrator: The average
mad scientist toils away
in a stuffy laboratory
or a drafty castle,
but for the lucky one percent,
only an inaccessible
island compound will do,
a place to play God
without interference.
- Do you know what it means
to feel like God?
narrator:
"Island of Lost Souls,"
the first
and by far the best adaptation
of H.G. Wells' novel
"The Island of Dr. Moreau,"
features one of the greatest
mad scientists of the movies,
a doctor who surgically
creates animal-human hybrids.
- [growling]
- Get out!
♪ ♪
- I don't understand
why the 1933
"Island of Lost Souls" isn't
better known
or fully appreciated,
but it deserves to be.
- Strange-looking natives
you have here.
- You'll be wanting
a cold shower,
I take it, before dinner.
- It stars
the great Charles Laughton.
- Oh, it takes a long time
and infinite patience
to make them talk.
- He's just having a feast
playing Dr. Moreau.
♪ ♪
narrator: When a seafaring
traveler named Parker
finds himself stranded
on Moreau's island...
♪ ♪
He quickly realizes the genial
doctor is ethically impaired.
- What is the law?
- Not to spill blood.
That is the law.
Are we not men?
all: Are we not men?
- He's probably the most sadistic
of everyone we're talking about.
- [moaning]
[screaming]
- 'Cause most of the time
they're not doing vivisection
with someone screaming.
You know, usually,
the corpses are quiet.
- You're convinced that the
thing on the table isn't human?
Its cries are human.
- You know what it is,
what I began with?
- No.
- An animal.
♪ ♪
- He's photographed
by Karl Struss,
one of the great,
great cameramen.
♪ ♪
- Every set is shooting
through something
and the patterns that
are being cast on the walls.
Like, everything looks
like bars or plant life
creating, like,
these sort of bars,
so it makes it feel
like every character
is always trapped.
It's just amazing the care
that went into every frame.
♪ ♪
narrator:
When a rescue mission arrives,
Moreau's demented
kingdom unravels...
- Not beasts!
narrator:
And the beast-men revolt.
- Part man, part beast!
Things!
all: Things!
- Not men!
narrator:
The fear of class warfare
bubbles under the surface
of the novel,
and the Hollywood adaptation.
- Stop, you fools!
- The beast people rising up is
almost like
a Bolshevik Revolt.
- [screaming]
- America wasn't hashing this
out on an intellectual level,
but it certainly was
on a pop-cultural level.
narrator: Nine decades later,
cultural anxieties
about evolution and revolution
are still with us
but in different forms.
♪ ♪
Alex Garland's film
"Ex Machina"
updates the tropes
of classic mad scientist films
to address our modern fear
of being replaced
by intelligent machines.
♪ ♪
Low-level programmer
Caleb Smith wins a contest
to visit the isolated compound
of his company's billionaire
CEO Nathan Bateman.
Caleb will spend a week alone
with Nathan,
his mute servant Kyoto,
and Ava,
a robot Nathan has imbued
with artificial intelligence.
- Pleased to meet you, Ava.
- I'm pleased to meet you, too.
narrator: Nathan wants Caleb
to determine
whether Ava is capable
of independent,
conscious thought.
- You are dead center of
the greatest scientific event
in the history of man.
- If you've created
a conscious machine,
it's not the history of man.
That's the history of gods.
- It was such an interesting
exploration into our dependency
on technology, and AI,
and the development of it,
and what makes
a person a person.
- You learn about me,
and I learn nothing about you.
That's not a foundation
on which friendships are based.
- But like in some ways,
Alicia Vikander's character
was more humane and more of
a human than our protagonist.
narrator: Caleb is immediately
attracted to Ava,
and he finds much
to dislike in Nathan.
- You know, I wrote down that
other line you came up with,
the one about how
if I've invented a machine
with consciousness,
I'm not a man, I'm God.
- I don't think
that's exactly...
- I just thought (bleep),
man, that is so good
- Oscar Isaac's character,
that's the new mad scientist,
you know, the body hacker guy
that knows, you know,
if I have a smoothie
at 4:00 a.m.,
I could wake up
and do some CrossFit,
and then all my brain will have
all the gorilla mindset.
So you know, so I can listen
to Joe Rogan's podcast
and then work
on my science project.
Like, that's the new
mad scientist right there.
- Look, do me a favor.
Lay off the textbook approach.
I just want simple answers
to simple questions.
- He's the perfectly created
villain, but then you realize
that 3/4 of the way
through the movie
that she's outsmarted
all of them.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Caleb learns that Ava has been
literally designed
to appeal to his fantasies.
- Did you design Ava's face
based
on my pornography profile?
- Hey, if a search engine's
good for anything, right?
narrator:
The real test was to see
if Ava could
successfully use Caleb
to escape Nathan's compound.
- Ava was a rat in a maze,
and I gave her one way out.
To escape, she'd have to use
self-awareness, imagination,
manipulation, sexuality,
empathy, and she did.
Now, if that isn't true AI,
what the (bleep) is?
♪ ♪
narrator:
Both men find out too late
that Ava is conscious,
but she's also a psychopath.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa...
- What is so amazing about that
character is you're rooting
for her the whole time.
You think that she is
the victim in this situation,
but the tables turn
quite quickly.
narrator: In a sense,
the aspiring God Nathan
created life in his own image.
- You wonder where she learned
that lack of empathy,
and you realize
that it's from him.
She is learning everything
that she learned
about being a villain from him
because where... what
other access
does she have to other people
other than him?
♪ ♪
narrator: Perhaps
this is our hidden fear,
that our technology is flawed
because we are flawed.
The real monster is
not the creation.
It's the creator.
♪ ♪
Mad scientists break
the rules of society,
but some rules
are made to be broken.
- [chuckling]
narrator: Mad scientists
are colorful characters...
- The devil is that element
in human nature
that impels us to destroy
and debase.
narrator: Non-conformists
who make their own rules...
- Professor Wells is
a student of cannibalism.
[organ music]
narrator: Living their lives
with a certain flair.
It takes a lot to stand out
from this crowd,
but one pansexual scientist
from outer space
manages to do it.
- ♪ I'm a just
a sweet transvestite ♪
♪ From transsexual ♪
♪ Transylvania ♪
narrator:
Tim Curry's performance
as Dr. Frank N. Furter
in "The Rocky Horror
Picture Show"
isn't just great.
It's mind-altering.
- As a kid, I was like, "I'm
just a straight boy," you know?
And then seeing
Frank N. Furter sing,
and just, like, I was like,
"Maybe not.
I don't know.
I don't know anymore."
- So come up to the lab.
- And that's, like,
I think the gift
of a good mad scientist is
like, you know,
he doesn't even have
to make a love potion.
He doesn't have to infect you
with anything.
He just has to say like,
"Antici..."
- Pation.
- And you're just like,
"Oh, (bleep)."
narrator: "Rocky Horror's"
plot is simple.
Wholesome young couple Brad
and Janet find themselves
stranded at
Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle.
- It's probably some kind of
hunting lodge for rich weirdos.
narrator: They've arrived
on an auspicious night.
The doctor is having
his special friends over
to celebrate
his latest creation.
- I don't like musicals.
Most musicals, like,
I really detest because
the music is so Broadway,
and it's just unbearable.
But "Rocky Horror"
just has all the elements
of, like, great actors
in the right role.
- ♪ Let's do
the time warp again ♪
- But the music's great.
♪ ♪
- ♪You bring your knees
in tight ♪
- I just always think
of "Time Warp"
whenever I think of
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"
and the fact
that you can go anywhere,
at least in the states,
put that song on,
and everyone knows it
and recognize it.
- ♪ Let's do
the time warp again ♪
- It's a staple.
narrator: "Rocky Horror"
made Tim Curry a star.
[dramatic music]
It also featured a breakout
performance by Meat Loaf
who played '50s rocker Eddie.
- ♪ Hot patootie,
bless my soul ♪
♪ I really love
that rock 'n' roll ♪
narrator: Like many
straight young American men
in the early '70s,
Meat Loaf's initial encounter
with Dr. Frank N. Furter
was...
- [screaming]
- Ahh!
narrator: Uncomfortable.
- We're rehearsing
in a little theater,
and the music starts,
and the doors
of this theater burst open.
In comes Tim Curry in the
corset with the garter belt,
with the fishnet stockings,
with the high heels,
all in makeup and I go,
"Oh no, uh-uh, nope."
And I get up and walk out.
[dramatic music]
To a kid from Texas,
a guy in a garter belt
that's offensive.
narrator: But the actor's
hesitation soon gave way
to admiration.
- You always have heard this
language of be in the moment,
be in the moment,
be in the moment.
So up until I worked
with Tim Curry,
everything I had done,
I thought I was in the moment.
Tim Curry taught me
what it meant
to actually be in the moment.
Tim Curry would never
break character,
no matter how hard they laughed
or how long they went on,
he was Frank N. Furter.
- I hold the secret
to life itself!
narrator: Mad scientists are
always pushing boundaries.
- [indistinct]
♪ ♪
narrator:
Before "Rocky Horror,"
that was usually a metaphor
for alternative
or transgressive sexuality.
♪ ♪
Most famously in James Whale's
"Bride of Frankenstein"...
- Be fruitful and multiply.
narrator:
The high camp tale of two men
who want to give birth
without the involvement
of a woman.
- Alone you have created a man.
Now together,
we will create his mate.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Dr. Frank N. Furter makes
those hidden
messages explicit.
- Oh, Rocky!
- [groaning]
- Everybody else is, like,
I want to make a person.
Why?
Well, because I wanna prove
that it can be done.
But he's, like,
"No, I'm gonna make a guy,
"and he's gonna be super hot,
and then I'm gonna
have sex with him."
narrator: Frank N. Furter's
motives aren't purely selfish.
His is the mad science
of sexual liberation.
- ♪ Don't dream it ♪
♪ Be it ♪
- There is no judging
in it whatsoever.
It just is.
And the gender fluidity
of Brad and Janet
and that sexuality
across the board
is just separated,
and gender boundaries
get completely
broken down in it.
That is something
that we weren't seeing
in a lot of cinema at the time,
so it felt dangerous.
It felt transgressive.
It felt like we were seeing
something completely different.
- ♪ We are wild
and untamed things ♪
♪ We're a bee
with a deadly sting ♪
- It's one of those movies that
when you love it, you're like,
"I wanna watch
another movie like this,"
but there really isn't
anything else like it.
- ♪And I realize ♪
- It's such a unique thing
unto itself.
- ♪ I'm going home ♪
♪ ♪
narrator: Science can make our
wildest fantasies a reality,
but some wishes may be better
left unfulfilled...
[tense music]
Like the fantasy
of becoming invisible.
- Does the word invisible
mean anything to you?
narrator: The Invisible Man is
a recurring figure
in the history of horror,
an archetype of good
intentions gone awry
and the corrupting
effects of power.
[dramatic music]
This transparent spin on mad
scientists first appeared
on film in 1933.
James Whale,
fresh off of "Frankenstein,"
directed
this masterful adaptation
of H. G. Wells' classic novel.
Claude Rains stars
as a scientist
who has invented
an invisibility serum
he hopes will be a boon
to humanity.
- There's a way back, you fool.
narrator: But the formula has
an unfortunate side effect.
It drives him insane.
- You're crazy to know
who I am, aren't you?
- Once he's invisible,
all the bad things
that he wants to do,
all the power that he wanted
becomes available to him.
- If you raise a finger
against me, you're a dead man.
I'm strong,
and I'll strangle you.
- It's almost like a superhero
story that goes bad.
You gain
these incredible powers,
but what do you do with them
when you have them?
- We'll begin
with a reign of terror,
a few murders here and there.
[laughing]
♪ ♪
[people screaming]
- He derails a train
and kills dozens
if not hundreds of people.
He's murdering people
willfully and gleefully
in a way that is saying,
if you are this obsessed,
if you are this level
of mad scientist,
you will lose your humanity.
narrator: Part of the appeal
of Invisible Man movies
are the special effects.
- Morning.
- Morning.
narrator: Every version pushes
the effects technology
of its day to the limit.
- [grunts]
- [laughing]
- I loved
the original movie...
- Look.
- Just from
an effect standpoint.
when he takes the nose off
and the eyeglasses off,
and they had the fake head
that you could see inside
and see the inverse
of the bandages.
- Then every Invisible Man film
after that is
essentially doing riffs
on the same thing,
like Claude Rains'
unwrapping the bandage
to reveal nothing...
♪ ♪
Is the same effect
in John Carpenter's
"Memoirs of an Invisible Man."
It's the same effect in
Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man."
But they were doing it
in the '30s
when computers literally
didn't exist.
narrator:
"Hollow Man" stars Kevin Bacon
as a particularly
loathsome version
of the arrogant scientist
corrupted by power.
♪ ♪
- Don't even think about it.
- That one is certainly the
most id-based Invisible Man.
- Who's gonna know?
- The way I describe,
you know, the "Hollow Man" is,
"Oh, I'm invisible.
Time to rape."
- [screaming]
- No one can really answer
the question,
if I became invisible, I know
what I would or wouldn't do.
- Man, if it was me,
I'd be (bleep)ing with people,
whispering in her ears
and (bleep).
- It would be like being
granted a horrible,
horrible responsibility
to behave yourself.
I don't think anybody
would necessarily know
what they would do with
that power unless they had it.
narrator: Leigh Whannell's
2020 update
of "The Invisible Man"
gives us an equally repellent,
but far more insidious version
of the character.
♪ ♪
- The 2020 "Invisible Man"
is the best version
of Invisible Man,
and I'm including
the H.G. Wells novel
that inspired
the whole concept.
- No, no, stop!
No, stop!
He's right there!
- It's an intensely
terrifying picture.
narrator:
Elizabeth Moss plays a woman
trapped in
an abusive relationship
with a hyper-controlling
tech genius.
- No... (bleep)!
Ahh!
- Cecilia, get back here!
narrator:
She escapes his clutches.
Soon after, he seems to die
by his own hand.
[tense music]
Then strange and terrible
things begin to happen.
Her ex has faked his death
and is now using
an invisibility suit
to torment her.
♪ ♪
- "Invisible Man"
takes this idea
of invisibility
and projects it
into a story which is about
stalking and about control,
real-life terrors
of surveillance
that I think everyone faces
but women especially.
[doorbell rings]
narrator:
For much of the movie,
the Invisible Man
is neither seen nor heard,
but he's always there
methodically sabotaging
the woman's attempts
to break free.
- It was hard to watch because
it's about domestic abuse.
- He has figured out a way
to be invisible.
- To be in this place
of no one believing you
and no one understanding it.
No one's gonna see it happen.
- Ahh!
♪ ♪
- So how do you
plead your case?
How do you get out of it?
How do you get help?
That's what's tormenting
about watching her experience
is trying to escape
a bad relationship.
That's all you wanna do is just
escape this bad relationship,
and he's figured out
a crazy super-intelligent way
to keep hold of you.
- He was always going
to find you,
no matter what he had to do.
- I think
the most impactful scene
for me was in the restaurant,
the restaurant scene
with her sister.
- I found something that can
prove what I'm experiencing,
that can prove
that Adrian is stalking me.
- As she's explaining
and begging for her sister
to pay attention,
and the moment that she does...
- It's some kind of suit
that Adrian has built.
- You just see this knife
floating.
The knife just lingers
for a split second.
- What?
It happened so fast, so real.
That's exactly
how we would react in shock.
And how Elizabeth Moss
just stood there silent
and broken in the restaurant.
- [screaming]
- Incredible.
- You're saying that the person
that killed your sister is
in the room right now,
but we can't see him.
- Look, you're not gonna watch
the new "Invisible Man"
and feel the terror
the same way
that a woman who has been
in an abusive,
controlling relationship
would feel.
- This is what he does.
He makes me feel like
I'm the crazy one.
- But I'll say this.
Everybody has trauma,
and everybody
experiences the bad stuff.
And if you haven't,
don't worry, you will.
♪ ♪
And that's part of why people
make horror films.
It's a cathartic way
to express those terrors
and those horrors
in a safe way.
- There you are.
narrator: Like all great
horror archetypes,
"The Invisible Man" is
continually reshaped
to suit the times.
- (bleep) you!
narrator:
And like many social ills,
he's not always visible,
but he's always there.
- Surprise.
♪ ♪
narrator: Science is
the search for truth.
- [grunts]
But sometimes we learn
things we wish we hadn't
and open doors
that should've stayed closed.
- Free at last!
- In every human personality,
two forces struggle
for supremacy.
narrator:
Next to "Frankenstein",
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
is the most powerful
and influential mad
scientist story of all time.
- It's a guy
who is torn in two,
his good side
and his bad side,
and he must fight to win out
over his bad side,
but he can't because
you are your bad side,
and you are your good side.
And even if you can separate
them momentarily,
you can never escape yourself.
[dramatic music]
narrator:
Robert Louis Stevenson's novel
has been adapted many times
for the screen,
but the definitive version
stars Frederic March,
who won an Academy Award
for his performance
as the upstanding physician
who unleashes his dark side.
- To my mind,
the finest adaptation
of the story is
the Rouben Mamoulian version.
It's shocking even today,
in its depiction of the abuse
of a woman by a monstrous man.
narrator: Saintly Dr. Jekyll
practices medicine
in Victorian London.
He's engaged
to a wealthy young woman,
but they are pledged
to celibacy
until they are married.
- I'll wait.
narrator: This leaves
Jekyll frustrated.
- I'll wait.
narrator: One day he comes
to the aid of Ivy,
a gorgeous
and willing bar singer
played by Miriam Hopkins.
- You have Dr. Jekyll
meeting this woman,
being attracted to her,
and she's seducing him.
- Look where he kicked me.
- It's only a bruise.
You'll be quite well
in a few days.
By the way, you mustn't wear
so tight a garter.
It's bad for you.
It impedes the circulation.
- And he rejects that.
It's the curse
of being a gentleman.
- Come back soon, won't you?
- Sorry, I'm afraid I can't.
- Oh, yes you can.
Come back.
narrator:
Ivy triggers something
inside the good doctor.
- Come back soon, won't you?
Oh, yes you can.
Soon.
Come back.
- The thing that's fascinating
about Dr. Jekyll,
as opposed to some
of the other mad scientists
is his goal
feels relatively human.
- I want to be clean not only
in my conduct
but in my innermost thoughts
and desires.
- His goal is to find a release
from all the rules
and restrictions of society.
♪ ♪
narrator:
Jekyll creates a serum
that will unleash
his forbidden impulses.
Frederic March undergoes
an on-screen transformation
into Mr. Hyde
that's done largely on camera.
♪ ♪
- I mean, the makeup's
incredible, but I mean,
just like the violence
and the terror that he brings.
narrator:
Hyde seeks out the woman
who aroused his other self.
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
- That scene where
he lays claim to her,
and he breaks the bottle
and the look of fear
on her face.
And then he pushes
into the camera
as if he's going to just
kind of reach into the audience
and rape the audience,
God, it's disturbing.
- You'll come with me, hey?
You'll come with me.
- He sequesters Miriam Hopkins
in an apartment,
and he's the super
controlling (bleep).
- I'm going to spend
the evening here
with you, just as you want.
Say "just as I want."
Say "just as I want."
- Just as I want.
- And he won't let her leave.
And he beats her up.
And he terrorizes her.
- Sing!
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
- It's just really demented,
and it's, like,
usually they've
slightly implied things,
but that movie more
than slightly implies things.
- Look, my darling,
how tight your garters.
You mustn't wear
anything tight.
It'll bruise your pretty,
tender flesh.
- [gasps]
♪ ♪
narrator:
Ivy goes to Dr. Jekyll
and naively asks him for help.
- I give you my word.
You will not see Hyde again.
Believe me.
- I believe you, sir.
narrator: But Jekyll is
no longer in control
of his transformations.
♪ ♪
- You want her not to die,
but you know that she's... that's
what's about to happen
- There, my dove.
narrator:
Now completely feral,
Hyde goes on a rampage.
Finally, he dies
a violent death,
and Jekyll's terrible secret
is revealed.
♪ ♪
- The issue, of course, is that
if you try to undo repression,
the effect is not going
to be liberation.
The effect is going to be something
much more destructive.
- ♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
♪ Champagne Ivy is my name ♪
♪ ♪
narrator: Science has changed
the way we live
and the way we think.
It can make
our dreams come true.
But behind the dazzling
products of our imagination,
we can see the shadow of
the mad scientist reminding us
that without ethics
and without restraint,
our dreams can
become nightmares.
♪ ♪