Doctor Septimus Pretorius - in The Film

In The Film

Septimus Pretorius, Frankenstein's former teacher, is a tall, emaciated-looking man with an unusually large nose and devilish pointed ears. A professor of philosophy, Pretorius first points young Henry on the path toward his unwholesome experiments in giving life to the dead. He himself is "booted out" from his teaching post "for knowing too much." Pretorius seeks his former student out after learning that the Monster has survived being trapped in the burning windmill in the climax of the first film. Pretorius himself acknowledges that he may be insane in a conversation with Frankenstein ("You think I'm mad? Perhaps I am!").

Pretorius performs experiments creating life similar to Henry's. He unveils to Henry a group of various homunculi—miniature living humans which he has kept in bottles, and claims to have grown from "seed" like cultures. Each figure represents a different character: a queen, which he claims was his first experiment, a king which is madly in love with the Queen and has a resemblance to Henry VIII, an archbishop which disapproves of what the King is doing, the Devil (a man in a black suit), a dancer, a mermaid (grown from "an experiment with seaweed") which lives in water. Pretorious gleefully compares his own visage to that of the Devil: "Rather a resemblance to me, don't you think? Or do I flatter myself?", a possible allusion to his role as the evil villain. He says sometimes he thinks life would be more interesting if they were all devils. He has been unsuccessful, however, in creating a full-sized human. He proposes to Henry that together they create a mate for his monster, with Henry building the body and Pretorius supplying an artificially-grown brain. Henry initially balks at the idea, but Pretorius reminds him that he is capable of exposing him to the authorities as the creator of the Monster who has done so much damage. Later, he meets the Monster in a crypt where he has gone to steal bodies and is dining using the top of a coffin as a picnic table. When the Monster asks him 'Friend?' he gives him the remains of his chicken. He tells the Monster of his plans to create a mate for him.

The Monster, eager for companionship of any kind, considers Pretorius his friend, and from then on is willing to do anything that the impish scientist desires, such as kidnapping Henry's wife, Elizabeth, in order to force him to help Pretorius. Henry agrees, and together the two scientists create the Bride of Frankenstein. Unfortunately, even the Bride finds her would-be husband repulsive, and the heartbroken Monster decides to end his life by blowing up the laboratory. He instructs Henry and Elizabeth to run but barks at Pretorius to stay, saying that they "belong dead", possibly because he has realized that Pretorius is evil. Before Pretorius can move, the Monster pulls the lever, blowing up the laboratory and thus the castle. Frankenstein and Elizabeth escape but Pretorius's fate is not revealed. Presumably he was destroyed along with the Monster and the Bride when the tower exploded. The Monster, however, returned in the next sequel.