Guest Post By: Steve Novak, KoldCast.TV
The wild-haired, wide-eyed mad scientist has long been a staple in the genres of science fiction and horror. Their ideas are often as big as their personalities, and their personalities are trumped only by their madness. These nutty professors have lofty goals that range from the blending of human and non-human DNA, to world domination, as is the case for Josef Mengele in KoldCast TV’s hit superhero/action/drama/scifi series, Heroes of the North. Although these mad scientists almost always mean well, it never ends well. That said, here are 12 of the maddest scientists in film history courtesy of Koldcast.TV.
1. HERBERT WEST – RE-ANIMATOR
Based on the H.P. Lovecraft story Herbert West Re-Animator and directed by Stuart Gordon, Re-Animator is the story of a dedicated medical student that becomes obsessed with the idea of reanimating dead tissue. Thanks to some wonderfully neon green goop, he actually succeeds. Before you know it, there are bloody corpses running around murdering everything in sight, and severed heads are hungrily licking their lips for female genitals. Played with scene-chewing insanity by Jeffery Combs, Herbert West is deliciously mad.
2. DR. EMMETT BROWN – BACK TO THE FUTURE
As the inventor of the world’s first time machine in the Back to the Future series, Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown was a “student of all sciences” but primarily a wacky inventor. Played with breathy, jittery craziness by Christopher Lloyd, he was also a wee bit flaky – a characteristic many of the best mad scientists often seem to share. In order to make his time machine a reality, Doc cheated a bunch of Libyan terrorists out of stolen plutonium, got shot for his troubles, and ended up letting a local high school kid become the first human being to travel back in time.
3. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN – FRANKENSTEIN
Also in the field of “tissue reanimation,” Victor Frankenstein is without a doubt the absolute most notorious mad scientist in literature and film. The character first appeared in the 1818 novel “Frankenstein” aka ”The Modern Prometheus” written by Mary Shelley. Since then, this mad doctor has popped up in a number of films over the years, including the 1931 Universal adaptation starring Colin Clive and the 1994 version with Kenneth Brannagh. For having just the right amount of crazy to construct a monster out of scavenged body parts, Victor Frankenstein is one of the greatest wacko scientists of all time. Too bad his invention killed little children.
Fall victim to 9 more mad scientists at KoldCast.TV’s official blog.
