Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar hopeful rebirths an iconic figure with beauty and spectacle.
Kindness and cruelty: Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth
Image courtesy of Netflix.
The Creature longs to be understood; Guillermo del Toro understands. Frankenstein was thrown into the world of literature by Mary Shelley in 1818 and has spent the last 100 years making itself a fixture of modern pop culture. We’ve even given the Creature a name: Frankenstein. So, upon first seeing Jacob Elordi’s delicate depiction of the Creature, one may ask where the steel bolts in its neck are, where is its green skin and flat cranium with grotesque stitching? Those features belong to a famous monster, an icon that is reinvented or rather rebirthed in this film.
The tragic battle between kindness and cruelty is what immediately strips the Creature of its scary monster status. A battle which is brilliantly displayed in the film’s three acts. A frozen ship, stuck, a distant explosion, and the horrible power of the Creature introduces the world; harsh and inevitable. Then the debate comes as we hear both sides, first from Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), and second, from his creation. This format leaves the captain of the icy marooned ship in the middle of the conflict between creator and creature. As the captain listens to their stories, he is confronted by his own question: does he go home, or proceed on his quest to reach the North Pole? The drama is thick in that little room. Each on their own journey yet each one morally bound to one another, trapped in a debate of hubris and humility.
The romantic and grotesque tone of the film is right at home in the physical world that del Toro and production designer Tamara Deverell have created. Thanks to the extensive use of practical effects, the supernatural elements feel grounded and created by human hands while much of the natural world is exquisitely stylised. Oscar Isaac’s embroidered English accent and frequently cocked eyebrow border on melodrama, but aren’t. It is totally true to this world created out of incredible dissonance.
The story of Frankenstein is simple and that’s the story Guillermo del Toro tells. The two and a half hours fly by, holding close to the novel’s spirit and plot. I could have watched another two of Elordi’s Creature living with an old blind man played by David Bradley. Del Toro’s cinematic adaptation provides a stylised picture, further enriching the spectacular gore and overwhelming beauty that is Frankenstein.
JASPER ELIOT
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance, Kyle Gatehouse, Christian Convery, Lauren Collins, Sofia Galasso, Ralph Ineson, Burn Gorman.
Dir Guillermo del Toro, Pro Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber, Screenplay Guillermo del Toro, from the novel by Mary Shelley, Ph Dan Laustsen, Pro Des Tamara Deverell, Ed Evan Schiff, Music Alexandre Desplat, Costumes Kate Hawley, Sound Paul Germann, Dialect coach Gerry Grennell.
Double Dare You/Demilo Films/Bluegrass 7-Netflix.
149 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 7 November 2025. Cert. 15.
