Torticola contre Frankensberg

A spoof of Gothic horror films by Paul Paviot, a Parisian director specializing in short subjects, Torticola contre Frankensberg (1952) contains by turns clever and silly situations matched with marvelously eerie scenes of castles, graveyards and mist-shrouded seaside cliffs.

The mad Doctor Frankensberg plans the obligatory mad operation, preparing to extract blood from his imprisoned young niece to make mortal his hulking man-made monster Torticola who, in between his enthusiasm for Sigmund Freud texts, alternately satisfies his hunger with sardines and body parts from the nearby cemetery.

Some appropriately spooky sets are the backdrop of hit-and-miss humor, including a meowing man with a cat's brain, and a running gag of hooded monks roaming the countryside alternately chanting the ominous "Dies Irae" and the less-menacing "Frère Jacques."

Reportedly greeted with enthusiasm by French audiences, "Torticola" was later reissued along with two other Paviot genre spoofs as a theatrical feature.