Rafael Baledón’s Orlak, The Hell of Frankenstein: Screen Monsters and Mexican Modernity
Abstract
Director Rafael Baledón deploys horror film conventions combined with Mexican melodrama to critique monstrosity and humanize the ‘monster.’ Professor Frankenstein’s hubris constructs an unnatural creature from formerly living body parts, but the real outcast is Jaime Rojas, a vengeful criminal unable to leave behind acts of cruelty. Rojas’s vision is anchored in the past, challenging law and order, frozen in a world that has moved on with accelerated modernity requiring transformation. Frankenstein’s creation, Shelley’s prototype of the outcast, in mid-century Mexico is a figure of empathy attempting to overcome his origins. A potential victim of science and society, Orlak performs human acts, casting aside the control of others. The fire that takes his life parallels the self-sacrifice of Shelley’s character, only the motivation has changed.