Depraved


Depraved is a 2019 American horror film written and directed by Larry Fessenden and starring David Call and Joshua Leonard. It is a modern version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Plot

Suffering from PTSD following his stint as an army medic, Henry now works feverishly in his Brooklyn laboratory to forget the death he witnessed overseas by creating life in the form of a man cobbled together from body parts. After procuring a brain from an unwitting victim, his creation--Adam--is born. But it soon seems that giving life to Adam was the easy part; teaching him how to live in a dark and troubled world may be perilous.

Cast

Depraved made its worldwide debut on March 20, 2019 at the IFC Center's What The Fest!? Film Festival. On May 13th that same year, it was announced that IFC Midnight acquired American distribution rights to the film.

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Depraved holds an approval rating of 87% based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 7.28/10. The site's consensus reads: "A thrillingly effective update on a classic story, Depraved jolts a familiar monster back to life with a potent blend of timely themes and old-school chills". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".
David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film a B. Anya Stanley of Dread Central awarded the film three stars out of five. Katie Rife of The A.V. Club awarded the film a B- and found that Fessenden did something interesting with what is "the umpteenth adaptation of a centuries-old classic." Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called it Fessenden's "most coherent and visually polished work to date" while still finding it a little "overlong." TheWrap's William Bibbiani was more critical saying "as a whole it contributes little to the “Frankenstein” tradition, other than a reminder that this has all been done before, mostly better."