Humanity is the name of the game in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a superbly Gothic new realisation of Mary Shelley’s iconic 1818 novel. Owing to del Toro’s usual penchant for visual splendour, a (mostly) outstanding cast and a particularly empathetic view of its famous creature, this is a sincerely great telling of this of science disrupting the natural flow of life and death.
Reimagined across the past 100 years in countless ways, Shelley’s story continues to resonate with us as moviegoers. With each adaptation, it’s as though the collective empathy for the Creature’s plight continues to grow as we understand his birth and following life as a simulacrum of our own existence.
Thanks to that, del Toro’s version of this story is deeply sentimental, yet never in a way that compromises the Gothic sensibilities of the text. In a time where dehumanisation of things we don’t understand is increasingly the norm, an adaptation of Frankenstein that embraces sincere empathy is particularly welcome.
Oscar Isaac in Frankenstein. Source: Netflix via TMDB
Jacob Elordi carries the weight of Frankenstein on his back
If you’ve read the novel, seen a previous film or are even only passingly familiar with the Creature as a pop culture figure, the story of Frankenstein 2025 will go how you expect, though with some key changes. It follows Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) as he attempts to bring life to a vessel composed of human remains, known only as The Creature (Jacob Elordi).
Though Frankenstein is successful, he grows frustrated with his creation’s lack of intelligent progress and shuns it. But as the Creature heads out into the world, it becomes a he – and soon enough, he goes looking for answers from a creator who relentlessly spurns his achievement.
The success of del Toro’s Frankenstein lies heavily with Jacob Elordi’s magnificent turn as The Creature. The actor, who’s come a long way from the likes of The Kissing Booth and Euphoria in recent years, masterfully plays his entire development into a thinking person. It’s remarkable how subtly his physicality changes, the way his speech transforms from a pained rasp to assured pain – it’s nothing short of brilliant.
Elordi’s performance encapsulates everything that works so well about Frankenstein; its balance of heart and angst. Even before the Creature is shocked to life, it realises each of its characters with sincerity and a desire to understand their plights. Even the way del Toro shoots the film reflects this tonal control, finding the right position on the scale to balance the epic and intimate elements of this story.
Source: Netflix via TMDB
Frankenstein asks us to find sympathy for the maligned monster
Considering he plays the man the movie is named after, perhaps it’s no shock that Oscar Isaac is sensational as Victor Frankenstein. Everybody knows that Victor is intended to be the “real monster” of the story, but he is properly unpleasant here. By taking us through the entirety of his young life, we see what leads him to craft his Creature, and yet it’s no great surprise to us when he shuns it either.
The supporting cast are generally great, with wonderful performances from Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley and Charles Dance. However, the weakest link in the main cast is certainly Mia Goth. Her performance as Elizabeth Harlander (the fiance of William instead of the wife of Victor in this film) is perfectly acceptable, but when the rest of the cast is so dialled in, she feels substantially less impactful by comparison.
I do also think the digital aesthetic of the movie, spearheaded by Dan Laustsen, occasionally feels like the wrong fit for Frankenstein. Though the film can be pretty gross and gnarly, that washed-out digital sheen can compromise the incredible production design, costuming and makeup work.
Alas, these flaws do not substantially denigrate the quality of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. It’s a wonderfully made and staggeringly human film that dares to not just find sympathy for the monster, but to understand him. Maybe that way, we’ll understand he’s not a monster at all.
★★★★
Frankenstein is in cinemas and on Netflix now.
