Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy (2018) and How the Symbolism of Frankenstein is Tarnished

Symbolism was something that was touched upon back when Death Race, Death Race 2, and Death Race: Inferno were covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  It wasn’t symbolism in the sense of something used in a movie to signify an emotional beat.  That’s a completely different beast.  It was an in-universe symbolism that was being written about.

Frankenstein was a character within the world of the Death Race movies who meant more to people than the person under the mask.  Frankenstein was a symbol of hope.  He was a driver in a deadly game who was always one step away from freedom.  Though the violent race where drivers would kill other drivers for sport was not the most morally friendly game to exist, it meant something to the viewers.  They could sympathize with Frankenstein as he worked his way to freedom.  His bad deeds were forgotten as people wanted to see him fight his way out of the prison system.

This idea was solidified by the various characters who became Frankenstein throughout the movies.  None of the viewers of the death race would know who Frankenstein was.  They knew the mask.  They didn’t know who was behind it.  Carl Lucas was Frankenstein before passing the mantle to Niles York.  When that version of Frankenstein was killed in the first Death Race, Jensen Ames took on the character.  It didn’t matter who was under the mask.  Viewers would still tune in to see Frankenstein race.

In 2018, Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy was released.  It told the story of Connor Gibson (Zach McGowan), a new inmate in The Sprawl, a city turned into a prison.  He fought in a giant brawl where only one person could survive, in order to work his way into the death race.  All that Connor wanted was to kill Frankenstein (Velislav Pavlov with the voice of Nolan North) for what the racer had done.   He got the help of Baltimore Bob (Danny Glover) and became one of the best racers in The Sprawl.

As that description stated, Frankenstein was a villain in the fourth film of the rebooted franchise.  That was one of many issues, but it was the issue most associated with the idea of Frankenstein’s symbolism.  Once again, the character could have been played by any of the characters in the movie.  He was a man under a mask.  The dark web audiences of the sequel didn’t know who Frankenstein was, outside of a masked racer who liked to kill people.

The problem with the portrayal was that Frankenstein was no longer a symbol of hope.  He was now a symbol of excess.  He was now a symbol of a system gone wrong.  The world of Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy was a world built upon the foundation of a warlord reigning supreme over a world of chaos.  There were no guards.  There was nobody to interfere with how things were run.  The prisoners of The Sprawl were in charge of everything that was going on in The Sprawl.  They controlled the land and the activities within it.  At the top of the chain of command was Frankenstein.

Instead of focusing on a seemingly good person placed into a bad situation as Frankenstein, Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy had no qualms about making the person playing Frankenstein into a blood-thirsty, sex-craving maniac.  The audience never got to connect with the person behind the mask.  They never got to see who was behind it.  It was all about taking down the person behind the mask.  Who they were didn’t matter to the story.  It was what they stood for, which wasn’t what they had stood for in the movies prior.

The flip of Frankenstein from good to evil was a strange thing to come to terms with after seeing three films where he was the hero.  It was as though the people behind Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy wanted to add a twist to the movie and couldn’t figure out the right one.  That was kind of weird, considering they had the whole Mad Max style world going on within the walls of The Sprawl.  The twist could have just been seeing how the death race had evolved after the warden was taken out in the first film.  Connor Gibson could have taken on the role of Frankenstein to take down the evil warlord.  But they made Frankenstein the warlord.  It was an out-of-place beat in a movie full of out-of-place beats.

What had kept the first three films a consistent story was the fact that the people behind the Frankenstein mask represented a sliver of hope in a corrupt, money-hungry prison system.  In the original, Jensen Ames was a wrongly convicted prisoner.  He was the one shining light of good within the prison.  In the prequels, Carl Lucas was a getaway driver caught and forced to participate.  He wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but he was placed in one of the worst possible situations and spent two movies trying to escape.  As Frankenstein, they each drove to the best of their abilities, defeating their competitors and gaining the audience’s support.  Frankenstein represented the good.  Having him go bad was a terrible decision.

Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy took everything that the previous three movies had build up and tore it down.  It did everything differently while trying to be more of the same.  It mostly didn’t work and a lot of that came down to the representation of Frankenstein.  Changing what the character stood for completely changed the dynamic of the film in a way that took away the power.  For a series that was always a dumb, fun car fighting romp, it was always also about the symbolism of Frankenstein.  With that symbolism gone, there was a large missing chunk that the movie couldn’t overcome.

Here are some notes that this post might overcome:

• The first three Death Race movies were originally covered for week 9 of the blog series.
• Danny Trejo returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies, as he frequently does, with Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy.  He was previously a part of Death Race 2 (week 9), Death Race: Inferno (week 9), Rise of the Zombies (week 16), Anaconda (week 80), and 3-Headed Shark Attack (week 165).  Wow.  It has actually been a while since he popped up.
• Frederick Koehler was in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy, reprising his role from Death Race (week 9), Death Race 2 (week 9), and Death Race: Inferno (week 9).
• One of the actors in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy was Velislav Pavlov, who was also in The Legend of Hercules (week 77) and Getaway (week 135).
• Elitsa Razheva was another actor from The Legend of Hercules (week 77) who made an appearance in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy.
• Two more actors from Getaway (week 135) showed up in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy.  They were Georgi Dimitrov and Velizar Peev.
• Terence Maynard was in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy.  One of his other movie roles was in Chasing Liberty (week 155).
• Finally, three actors from In the Name of the King: The Last Mission (week 220) were in Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy.  They were Tsvetolyub Iliev, Daria Simeonova, and Marian Valev.
• Have you seen Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy?  Probably not.  It just came out.  Have you seen the other Death Race movies?  What did you think of them?  Let me know in the comments.
• Twitter or the comments are a good place to let me know what movies I should be checking out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I’m always trying to find movies I might not know about that could fit into the blog.  Let me know what you have.
• Sometimes I’ll watch bad movies and share bits and pieces of them on Snapchat.  I haven’t been doing that as much lately, but my Snapchat (jurassicgriffin) is still there for you to add if you want to see my stuff.
• You might be wondering what’s coming up next week.  Let me tell you.  Next week will be a movie called The Final Sacrifice.  I don’t know much about it.  I’ve never seen it.  I haven’t watched the MST3K episode covering it.  I’m going in knowing almost nothing.  It’ll be interesting to see how I react to it.  I’ll let you guys know next Sunday.  See you then.