| Depraved | |
| Director: | Larry Fessenden |
| Producer: | Larry Fessenden Chadd Harbold Jenn Wexler |
| Music: | Will Bates |
| Cinematography: | James Siewert Chris Skotchdopole |
| Editing: | Larry Fessenden |
| Studio: | Glass Eye Pix Forager Films |
| Distributor: | IFC Midnight |
| Runtime: | 114 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Depraved is a 2019 American horror film written and directed by Larry Fessenden and starring David Call and Joshua Leonard.[1] It is a modern version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.[2] [3]
Suffering from PTSD following his stint as a United States Army medic, Henry now works feverishly in his Brooklyn laboratory to forget the deaths 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.
Depraved made its worldwide debut on March 20, 2019 at the IFC Center's What The Fest!? Film Festival.[4] On May 13 that same year, it was announced that IFC Midnight acquired American distribution rights to the film.[5]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Depraved holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average score of . 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."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".[7]
David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film a B.[8] Anya Stanley of Dread Central awarded the film three stars out of five.[9] 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."[10] 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."[11] TheWrap 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."[12]