By Melissa Karen Sances
For the Valley Advocate
If “Frankenstein” is ultimately about creation — and pulling back the curtain between marvel and manipulation — it’s only fitting that CinemaStorm’s upcoming screening of Guillermo del Toro’s movie will itself be an uncovering. While the film series typically focuses on double features at the Shea Theater Arts Center in Turners Falls, the next showing on Saturday, Jan. 3 will center on live commentary from the critically acclaimed film’s Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi.
The movie, one of hundreds of adaptations of the Gothic novel by Mary Shelley about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster he makes, was released in 2025 and is currently streaming on Netflix. It boasts sweeping skyscapes, electric transformations and a brooding monster that yearns to know how he was made. In a bit of meta magic, Saturday’s audience will learn how his entire world was built.
The force behind the storm
Started in 2019 by Turners Falls native Robert Krzykowski, CinemaStorm focuses on the collective experience of watching “fantastic and forgotten films” in the Shea’s 330-seat theater. Krzykowski, who wrote and directed “The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot” (2018), which was filmed in his hometown, notes that movies are a boundaryless art.
“There is no ceiling to the technical understanding of film,” he said. “You can recognize the exquisite skill of the filmmakers conveying a complicated idea in 10 seconds, and walk away with a better understanding of what it is to be human.”
Krzykowski said he became fascinated with movies at the age of 5, when his mother bought him an “Raiders of the Lost Ark” screenplay, illustrated with storyboards by the movie’s art director. Later, as a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he created a comic “that got the attention of some people in Hollywood.” After two years at UMass, he left to pursue a career in Tinseltown.
As Krzykowski started cultivating an audience, he began to appreciate the generosity of cinemagoers — and the symbiotic relationship between viewers and creators.
“[Movies are] the one thing you sit and stare at for two hours,” he said. “So [as a filmmaker] you respect that the audience is giving you that, and you try to give it back.”
When Krzykowski is writing a screenplay, he imagines himself as an audience member, envisioning the heads in front of him, listening for gasps or laughs, and willing himself to “keep checking into that theater seat.”
“There is something about the electricity of a live audience that makes a movie come more alive,” he said.
Krzykowski is currently the writer-director of “Grendel,” which is in pre-production. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is tackling the creature work and design. Filming is slated to start in Europe next year. Berardi, the headliner for this weekend’s event, is a producer on the highly anticipated film.
Dr. Frankenstein believes he is omnipotent as he attempts to infuse disparate parts of men’s bodies with electricity, creating one extraordinary creature. The film boasts sweeping skyscapes, electric transformations and a brooding monster that yearns to know how he was made. KEN WORONER / Netflix
Invisible man
The founder of Mr. X, a visual effects studio, Berardi has a lengthy resume and a longstanding relationship with del Toro, with whom he collaborated on “Frankenstein.” Since 2012, he has worked with the Oscar-winning director on films including “Nightmare Alley” and “The Shape of Water.”
“His job is really to do invisible work while still making the film feel gigantic,” explained Krzykowski. “I think doing a master class with Dennis is a really unique opportunity to pop the hood on a movie of this size, from conceptualizing it to post-production. It’s going to be a very revealing experience.”
Trivia and treats
Krzykowski said that he and Berardi will let the images lead the conversation as they roll the movie and discuss Berardi’s work. For this showing, attendees are encouraged to watch to watch del Toro’s “Frankenstein” on Nextflix, prior to the screening.
As he does at all CinemaStorm events, Krzykowski will ask the audience 10 trivia questions before the first act, and 10 before the second. “Frankenstein,” whose run time clocks in at two hours and 30 minutes, will be broken into its “Prelude” and “Victor’s Story,” followed by an intermission, and then the “Creature’s Tale.”
Monte Belmonte, a local radio personality and president of the Shea’s Board of Directors, will be on hand to toss candy to the lucky cinephiles who answer correctly.
“Some of the candy has a $5 bill attached, so you can actually get paid to do trivia at the show,” Krzykowski said.
The event is free, thanks to the sponsorship of Northeast Solar. Beer, wine and other concessions will be available for purchase at intermission.
“When you watch the end credits of the movie and see all those names float by, you understand it’s a lot of work,” Krzykowski said. “But having someone articulate the craft is like getting to walk into a painter’s studio. I love magic. I love magic tricks. Some people love to be wowed and not know, but sometimes the knowing makes you appreciate it all the more.”
For more information, visit sheatheater.org.
Melissa Karen Sances can be reached at melissaksances@gmail.com.
