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This short animation uncovers the untold story of Elsa Lanchester, Hollywood’s original scream queen and her radical roots in Battersea, South London.

Born at 27 Leathwaite Road, Elsa would go on to become a celebrated character actor in the Golden Age of cinema, gaining an Oscar nomination for Witness for the Prosecution and cementing her legacy as the iconic Bride of Frankenstein. But behind the gothic makeup was a life shaped by rebellion and resilience.

Elsa’s mother, Biddy Lanchester, was a socialist, suffragette, and early feminist who rejected marriage on principle. Her refusal to conform led to a shocking family betrayal, she was forcibly committed to an asylum, with the official cause listed as “over-education.” This powerful visual short traces Elsa’s journey from poverty in London to cabaret stardom and screen legend. It explores her complex relationship with actor Charles Laughton, their unconventional marriage, and the public personas they constructed in a Hollywood hostile to difference.

From radical feminist beginnings to a hauntingly memorable role in horror history, this London-born star defied convention at every turn, and left behind a legacy as electric as Frankenstein’s monster himself.