Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a dream project he has been trying to make happen for years, and you can see it. The ornate production design, intricately detailed Victorian imagery, you can imagine most of these scenes have been swimming around in his head since he was a boy. With nearly a dozen reimaginings of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel released recently, Del Toro’s is the most anticipated because we expect something amazing from him. What he gives us is an odd father/son tale in which the mad scientist is Oscar Isaac and the monster is kind of a hottie, free of cement block head and protruding bolts. You wouldn’t be shocked if this version of the creature showed up in a limo to take his date to prom.
For me, Del Toro’s Frankenstein is too stilted to work as intended. Del Toro has been able to get away with opulent, glacial fantasies because he has such a distinct eye for creature design and for landing big emotional swings. But Frankenstein pushes the limit too far. The first hour is a drag, and the glossy production undercuts the horror element. Del Toro has created a stunningly gorgeous movie that will be a struggle to get through in one sitting, especially at 149 minutes.
Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein is an arrogant, trailblazing scientist who surpasses his cruel father (Charles Dance) by pushing the boundaries of life and death. Victor believes he can cheat death by creating an artificial man out of body parts and, when given enough juice, be brought to life to walk among the living. Victor is in love with his younger brother’s quick-witted fiancée Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who sees right through him and never misses a chance to speak her mind. It’s her father, a mysterious arms dealer played by Christoph Waltz, who agrees to finance Victor’s crazy scheme using body parts salvage from dead soldiers on the battlefield.
The cast is uniformly excellent, although I wish Goth had a lot more to do. She gets one or two great verbal sparring sessions with Isaac, but her lack of presence is a major drawback. Jacob Elordi shines when he finally gets the spotlight after the monster awakens and begins experiencing the world for himself. At first slow-witted and simple, he soon becomes fascinated by people and the possibilities afforded him. Unfortunately, as his intelligence grows, so too does Victor’s arrogance turn to cruelty until it’s up to the son to destroy his creator. There’s rather monstrous violence, too, in short bursts, that will leave you squeamish. Del Toro reminds you with the intense final act that he can still craft a killer action sequence when he wants to, but he sure takes his sweet time getting there. By the time Victor and his creation are fighting to the death, you might not care which one is the true monster.
Netflix is streaming Frankenstein now.
*NOTE: This review was originally part of our TIFF 2025 coverage.
