Return from Death (Frankenstein 2000)
In it, a crippled former boxer gets framed for beating a psychic woman into a coma, but the two form a telepathic bond during a neurological experiment, and her mind turns him into an unstoppable creature who wreaks vengeance on the real culprits.[1] Initially known as just Ritorno dalla morte, it originated from an unproduced script written by Masaccessi's protégé Michele Soavi, which did not contain Frankenstein themes and which Massaccesi compared to Patrick.[2] Although Italian-based Donald O'Brien had previously worked for him as well, the Irish actor was hired through a twist of fate, after a domestic accident left him with a limp that reminded the director of the creature's gait in the classic Universal films.[10][11] Early into production, D'Amato announced that he intended to shoot the film's exteriors in Vienna, Austria, as he wanted the investigation scenes to have a different feel than the mafia movies that often used the Italian capital as a backdrop.[6] The finished product does include a few establishing shots of Mariazell, an Austrian town which was a principal location of Filmirage's contemporary erotic thriller Sul filo del rasoio.