The year is 1857, and the crew of a Royal Danish Navy ship sailing for the North Pole discovers a severely injured man. Suddenly they are attacked by a huge, rage-filled and violent man, more resembling a creature to the crew than a human being. After this creature has killed and hurt several of the crew members, Captain Anderson uses a blunderbuss (a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber barrel) and manages to sink the monstrous being into the icy water. Gone for good now, right? Hah. In the meantime, the man they just saved, Victor Frankenstein, explains that the creature is in fact his own creation. And he starts to recount the story of how it all came to be.
Frankenstein from 2025 is produced, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, which has been a dream project for the guy for a long time. It was initially in development for Universal Pictures, but they killed it off and then Netflix came and brought it back to life, or Frankensteined it if you will (ha-ha). And as expected it is of course a beautiful gothic film in true Guillermo del Toro-style. While the beloved and well-known story of Frankenstein doesn’t need much of an introduction, it’s still worth noting that this story have actually rarely been told in a true-to-the-book fashion. While the story was written by 18 year old Mary Shelley in 1818, there have been numerous adaptions and re-imaginings over the years. Most famously the 1931 Universal Pictures movie with Boris Karloff as the monster, which created the iconic “Frankenstein’s monster“ look with the flat head and bolts on each side of the neck. This character is one of the most recognized horror icons, and you know who he is even if you haven’t seen any of the movies or read the novel. (Yet…despite how well known the story of Frankenstein is, though, there’s still an odd amount of people out there who believes that Frankenstein is the creature’s name…but I digress).
Guillermo del Toro’s version of the story has more in common with the book than many of the adaptations that’s been done over the years, but it’s still taking some turns of its own. Victor tells his story about how he grew up grieving his mother’s early death and getting hardened by his father’s abuse, and he becomes obsessed with becoming the greatest surgeon ever, aiming at being able to “cure“ death. Certainly no lack of ambition there, and certainly no lack of egotistical narcissism either. When he actually does manage to reanimate a corpse, which is of course an incredible feat even though the poor thing just looks like it wants (and needs) to be put out of its misery as soon as possible, the spectators aren’t exactly thrilled by what they see. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh expels him, denouncing it as sacrilege. That doesn’t stop the doctor, because if there’s a will, there’s a way! Or more precisely, if there’s money, there’s a way, because his display also caught the attention of an arms merchant called Henrich Harlander, who offers Victor an unlimited budget to continue his experiments. And so, the body parts are harvested from hanged criminals and soldiers killed in the ongoing Crimean War, so the mad scientist can finally build his large creature to reanimate by harnessing lightning to send electric currents through the lymphatic system. And we all know that this becomes a success, creating the “creature“ which later becomes the bane of Frankenstein’s existence.
This movie is, visually, a treat from the very start to the finish. The cinematography, set designs and costumes are all top notch, but of course nothing less can be expected from a del Toro film. The cinematographer Dan Laustsen once again delivers a treat for the eyes, just like he also did in this year’s The Gorge. This is all offering up a romantically gothic banquet, perfectly scored by Alexandre Desplat’s atmospheric music.
Performances are overall pretty good, with Oscar Isaac as the narcissistic madman Victor Frankenstein who will stop at nothing to achieve is goal, and Jacob Elordi as the creature who is rightfully confused and scared at the start, until all the wrongdoings against him turns him into an angry beast. Although…I have to admit I was a little conflicted about the creature’s appearance in this movie, because…well…there’s nothing really monstrous about him. At the beginning he kind of reminds me a little of the Zora people in the Zelda games, with his blue-ish skin and all. He does change his appearance a bit later on as he evolves, but his looks are never unattractive. I get that this is an obviously more romanticized version, where the creature is a lot more meek than in the original story or many of the other adaptions, but it feels a little off how people then are so frightened of his appearance. He literally just looks like a big, handsome guy with scars on his face, who’s gone through some rough times. Maybe Hunkenstein would’ve been a good name for him.
Aside from the two main actors of the movie, it was also fun to see the beautiful Mia Goth in two supporting roles here, first as Victor’s mother (which we see very briefly), and then as Elizabeth who is the fiancée of Victor’s brother, but also Victor’s obvious love interest. Like in all classical “beauty & the beast“ stories we do of course get a connection between the creature and Elizabeth, as she’s very empathetic as opposed to Victor’s extreme egotistical personality. If there’s one thing I feel this movie robbed us of though, it’s seeing Mia Goth as The Bride. I honestly really thought that moment was coming, too, but it just fizzled out into nothing. Oh well.
Overall, Guillermo del Toro’s vision of Frankenstein is as expected a solid, beautiful gothic sci-fi adventure, and once again works both as a story of wonder and as a tale of warning about what could happen once humans are not fully cognizant of the things they create and the consequences it may bring. A tale as old as time, of humans riddled with arrogance, narcissism and greed…too often asking themselves “can I“, when more often they should have asked themselves “should I“.
Writer and director: Guillermo del Toro
Country & year: USA/Mexico, 2025
Actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Kyle Gatehouse, Lauren Collins
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1312221
Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) is a young medical student whose fiancee, Elizabeth Shelley, gets overrun by a lawnmower at a backyard party and gets shredded to pieces. The only thing left of her is her head, which he puts in the freezer. He’s determined to get her back in some way, and arranges his garage into a typical “mad scientist” lab. Then he drives around New York’s dark streets to pick up the finest hookers to assemble body parts for his new girlfriend.
