Guillermo del Toro has finally achieved one of his “lifelong dreams”, as the unique filmmaker’s version of Frankenstein marches into the 2025 Halloween season. Del Toro has long stated that James Whale’s 1931 adaptation is one of his favorite movies and he has spent the better part of the last twenty or so years working hard to see this project come to fruition. This is certainly a personal film for the director and one can see this in every frame, as his exuberance bursts through the screen.

It has been two centuries since the publication of Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The number of cinematic adaptations are too grand to count. Whale’s timeless masterpieces, 1931’s Frankenstein and 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, continue to stand as the pinnacle. Universal made many sequels and most were pretty fun. Hammer studios began their own series with 1957’s excellent Curse of Frankenstein, creating an almost two decade run of solid works based on Mary Shelley’s original story.

But for every James Whale, Terence Fisher, and Freddie Francis-helmed adaptation, horror movie aficionados have suffered through the likes of Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 travesty, the ridiculous modern-day 2015 Bernard Rose version that sets the story in a hip Los Angeles, and 2014’s I, Frankenstein where Aaron Eckhart plays The Monster as an action hero; fighting gargoyle demons while sporting a slick haircut and a tailored trench coat with a hoodie.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein brings the story back to its roots in a sprawling (yet intimate) tale of man and monster. While it seems the filmmaker’s best work is decades behind him, this one works, but only after it crosses into its second hour. Once we get to The Creature (as he is referred to here) telling his own tale, the picture becomes some of the finest work Guillermo del Toro has ever done.

Getting to that second half isn’t easy.

Returning to a mostly faithful adaptation of Shelley’s structure, the film opens as it should. In 1857, Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is rescued on the Arctic ice by a captain and his crew, whose ship has become stuck in the frozen tundra. First they must fight Victor’s monstrous creation, (Jacob Elordi) as he tears through bodies to get to his maker.

As the creature goes off into the distance, Victor tells the captain his tragic tale. Del Toro shows Frankenstein as a child, visualizing the beginnings of the character’s obsession with creating life. The sequence features Charles Dance as Victor’s stepfather. A fine actor, Dance gives the same sternly menacing performance he has been giving for the last 20 or more years.

While these parts of Victor’s life are included in the novel, del Toro directs them with an unusual drabness that causes them to be stodgy and dull.

Frankenstein’s demonstration of tissue re-animation casts him as a heretic and a madman in the eyes of his peers and the three professors who banish him from university. Arms manufacturer Henrich Harlander (Christopher Waltz), is present at the presentation and offers Victor financial backing. Harlander and Frankenstein’s meetings aren’t very interesting. As Victor speaks about his desire to preserve life, Harlander is seduced. Del Toro’s script fails to seduce the audience and doesn’t give these two men any the riveting dialogue their scenes warrant; each conversation becoming more derivative as the film goes on. Waltz and Isaac are two great actors, but their scenes are stilted at best.

Mia Goth enters as Elizabeth, the young woman engaged to Victor’s brother (Felix Kammerer). Goth is one of the most adventurous actresses of her generation and a performer who gives everything to each new character. Her performance is quite interesting and perks up the dull first hour, but the screenplay throws her away much too soon.

As Victor begins to build his laboratory and become increasingly more manic regarding his goals, Oscar Isaac reveals himself to be the wrong choice to play the titular character. The actor certainly gives an all-in performance, but he is too unrestrained. Where Colin Clive found a balance between Shelley’s moral parable of a man becoming a monster, Isaac is too far over the top. His Victor Frankenstein is at the highest emotional levels right out of the gate. The performance feels out of place in the 19th Century setting and causes the already clunky first hour to fail.

Once Victor’s experiment is complete, Frankenstein touches on identity and what it means to be alive, as The Creature is “born”, but the director drops the cinematic ball in the creation moments, failing to make The Creature’s fist appearance anything spectacular.

Tamara Deverell’s set design is okay, but a bit too flashy. A quick visual stunner where The Creature is strapped to the table upright as if to be on a cross, looks great, but becomes laughable in its religious symbolism. Dan Laustsen’ camera lovingly shows the sets in full frame, but never truly explores the intricacy of the designs.

Once The Creature comes alive (in a moment void of thrills or chills), Jacob Elordi digs in. Forgiving the creature design that makes him look like one of the giant engineer aliens from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, Elordi immediately takes the audience beyond his towering physique and into a character who didn’t ask to be created and who now just wants to understand it all.

Elordi does some fine work in his early scenes, but it is in the film’s second half (as The Creature tells his own story of survival and discovery) where the actor crafts his best performance to date.

Appearing as a monster to all who encounter his presence, Elordi brings the character (and the film) the humanity that Mary Shelley so brilliantly described. The actor’s performance moves beyond the physical and into a place of vulnerability and tenderness. As The Creature tells his tale of a life on the run, the film truly comes alive. His time with the Blind Man (beautifully played by David Bradley) holds some of the finest filmmaking of Guillermo Del Toro’s career. These moments are soulful and moving; reaching some incredible emotional heights as Victor’s “son” tries to understand existence.

Elordi allows The Creature’s humanity to come through organically and his director responds in kind. The film’s last hour is a masterclass of character, acting, and filmmaking that stays true to Shelley’s creation. Let’s hope the Academy finds it in their heart to grant Jacob Elordi a Best Actor nomination.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is far from a failure. There are good moments and a second half that is so powerful, it elevates interest and emotional connection. And make no mistake, genre fans, there is horror. After all, The Creature must live up to his name. 

Victor Frankenstein is almost out of his mind obsessed with creating life. He chases his dream with persistence until, one shining day, his dreams are realized. His creature is born. Once Victor has realized all he desires, the man is unprepared how to shape it for the world to see. His creation has a soul, but its skin is scarred and tattered.

This is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.

 

Frankenstein

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro (based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Charles Dance

R, 149 Minutes, Netflix, Bluegrass Films