7. THE 7TH OFFERING: Watch the 7th film in a franchise in honor of the 7th year of the challenge.

Even at 59 years old and in bad health, Peter Cushing insisted upon performing a stunt where he jumped from a table onto a monster’s back, getting spun all over the place and then stabbing it with a needle filled with sedatives. He also designed his own wig for this, but later said that it made him look like Helen Hayes.

Released as a double feature with Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, this is the last gasp era of Hammer. Who cares? I love how all of their Frankenstein movies realize that the doctor himself is the main character and the monsters are interchangeable.

Dr. Carl Victor is really Frankenstein, who survived the fire at the end of The Horror of Frankenstein and now works in an insane asylum thanks to his blackmail of director Adolf Klauss (John Stratton). Dr. Simon Helder (Shane Briant) has been arrested as a sorcerer yet he is the exact spark that the old doctor needs to keep making his creations. The young man doesn’t need to know people are getting killed for their parts.

Frankenstein has made a new beast: the ape-like Herr Schneider (David Prowse, who would make another movie with Cushing the very next year that may be better known than this) who has been kept alive after trying to kill himself. The doctor has given him the hands of a recently deceased sculptor, sewn on by Angel (Madeline Smith), the mute daughter of Klauss who has not spoken since her father tried to touch her. Seeing as how the fire destroyed Frankenstein’s hands, she is incredibly important to him.

The end of this movie is near comical. Simon and Angel are shocked when the creature is destroyed by inmates, torn to shreds. Frankenstein just starts cleaning up and getting ready to make another living dead thing; he’s been through this so many times that it’s basically old hat at this point.

Directed by Terence FIsher and written by Anthony Hinds, this movie also has a scene where Baron Frankenstein bites down on the severed artery of the monster. All that blood? It’s real. Blood that could no longer be used for transfusions was sourced from the blood bank and that’s what’s getting all over the place.

And yes — this is the seventh sequel Hammer made!