AKA
Frankenstien's Monster
The basic idea of the Monster is that he was built from the limbs, flesh, and organs of the dead. Dr. Victor Frankenstien reanimates it into a living being, but the creation is too hideous to bear, and Frankenstien rejects it. The Monster escapes and takes refuge near a small cottage where a starving family lives. The Monster lives near them for months, watching them in secret, and helping them in shadow. The Monster learns many things by watching this family, including speech and manor. However, when the family finally catch sight of him, they are terrified. Heartbroken by his second rejection from the people he had grown to love and help, the Monster vows revenge on Victor Frankenstien. Accidentally murdering Victor's little brother (which ultimately lead to the false execution of a close friend of the Frankenstien family), Victor goes in search of the monster in order to destroy his creation. Once found, the creature halts Victor from his vengence and asks that Victor create a mate for him, so he wouldn't have to live this life alone. Ultimately, Victor rejects him, and the Monster swears he will pay for it. The Monster murder's Victor's wife, Elizabeth, which sends Victor relentlessly chasing after the Monster straight to the Arctic. There, Victor dies of cold and pneumonia. Upon viewing his body, the Monster weeps...because Frankenstien was his father.
There have been many film adaptations of Shelley's novel, from the 1931 James Whale classic (which Boris Karloff gave us the portrayal of the infamous, flat-topped, lumbering brute) to Kenneth Branaugh's hammy and over-the-top 1994 film with Robert DeNiro as the creature (Pan's Labyrinth and future Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro has expressed interest in directing a version as well). Frankenstein has also been a spin off inspiration for films such as Mel Brooks' widely popular Young Frankenstien and Stephen Sommer's follow-up to the Mummy franchise, Van Helsing.
To list every single film the monster has been in, or has inspired directly, is a daunting task, and I'm really not up to it. So here, I'm just going to concentrate upon one, Toho's 1965 kaiju film Frankenstien Conquers the World. In reality, Toho has been considering a Frankenstien film for quite some time, pitting the creature agains King Kong, the Human Vapor, and even Godzilla. However, their bizarre take on the monster wouldn't surface until this film. This interpretation had the Monster as a giant sized boy with regenerative powers.
In the film, the heart of the original Frankenstien Monster was sent to Hiroshima, Japan during World War II for study. For those of you who don't know what the city of Hiroshima is most infamous for, an atomic bomb was dropped. The heart was considered lost amung the destroyed city. However, the radiation caused the heart to mutate into a small boy. The boy is caught and studied, however he rapidly increases in size. Soon the boy becomes kaiju sized and is blamed for the rampage of another local monster named Baragon. The boy is hunted down by the army of Japan, however as soon as Baragon surfaces, the monsters are forced to fight each other to the death. The battle leads to the pits of an erupting volcano, where the boy snaps Baragon's neck and is entombed inside the firey pits.
While the Frankenstien Monster never returned in a kaiju film, it did develope a sequel entitled War of the Gargantuas. It is revealed that the boy's cells regenerated into two towering brutes named Sanda and Gaira.
As silly a movie as Frankenstien Conquers the World was, it does have a cult fanbase, myself included. As a fan of the story of Frankenstien, I'd have to rank it one of my favorites. It's slightly unfortunate that this interpretation of the character may never branch out into another film, because it may be a fun one. I think it's more likely we'll see the Gargantuas used again in a Toho kaiju film without the aid of Frankenstien to set them up.
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