Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacen Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz
Rating: ★★★.5
Acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro returns to the candlelit corridors of Gothic horror with a film about Mary Shelley. frankensteinAn area in which he last flirted Crimson Peak (2015). This time, the canvas is bigger, brighter, and driven by Netflix money, with a core cast led by Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, Mia Goth as Elizabeth, and Christoph Waltz as the titular patriarch, Heinrich Harlander. David Bradley, Charles Dance and Felix Camerer orbit around him, each adding texture to a story that is equal parts slapstick and self-importance.
The film begins in a frozen wasteland where a stranded Captain pulls away an injured Victor, only to suffer a brutal attack from Victor’s creation. From there, the film traces Victor’s journey from obsessed student to self-anointed god – fusing bodies together, flirting with immortality, and freeing a being whose hunger for connection turns to rage. Guillermo keeps the period setting, changes the character dynamics (with William as an adult, Elizabeth again the focus), and moves the narrative toward a confrontation between the creator and the created that comes to a head more quickly than you might expect.
Good
Guillermo’s vision is unmatched. The laboratory – strewn with leaves, swarming with flies, alive with crackling energy – is a triumph of production design, while Kate Hawley’s costumes and Dan Lautsen’s painterly frames frame almost every shot. Alexandre Desplat’s score revolves around imagery, pushing the film toward operatic grandeur. The creature’s birth order is a thunderbolt: classic iconography, modern muscle, zero camp.
Performance-wise, Jacob is the heartbeat of the film. He disappears into the role, oscillating between naive wonder and wild impulse. The physicality sells both the creature’s fragility and its terrifying strength. Oscar sees Victor’s raging ambition – cunning, persuasive and increasingly hollow – as the consequences of his “invention” spiraling. Mia brings a prickly curiosity to Elizabeth, especially in moments where her compassion for the creature changes their dynamic. And Kristoff has the role of Harlander, the velvet-glove capitalist who finances talent and shy away from consequences; He struts across the scene with the swagger of a venture capitalist, dressed in 19th-century finery.
The important thing is that the film works. Despite the weight of Mary Shelley’s text, Guillermo hits the big beats cleanly. When it wants to thrill—vertebrae-shattering, bone-on-stone brutality—it does so, and the orchestration of the action is still clear when the camera turns away at the crucial moment.
bad
The same restraint blunts its effect. The film repeatedly shies away from the consequences of the violence, and the creature’s attacks become more implied than realized. Del Guillermo’s prioritization of beauty over internal organs removes the dirt and shock that might have plunged us deeper into Victor’s moral degradation. Early resuscitation tests – with peeled skin and exposed muscles – look pristine, almost museum-still; They lack the nausea, shudder, and unpleasant “liveliness” that would make them truly disgusting and, by extension, make Victor more strongly guilty.
Some character recalculations are not successful. The poignancy is sapped from key twists like William’s aging, reassigning relationships, and pressing arcs – his final line to Victor barely stings because the bond hasn’t been built. Elizabeth is compelling in concept, but the script sidelines her when it matters most, consigning her to a path that feels more mechanical than tragic.
Decision
A gorgeous, often dazzling reinterpretation that’s tempted by craft but hesitant to actually get its hands dirty. Guillermo respects Mary Shelley’s skeleton and intensifies Victor’s culpability, yet the film repeatedly skims the surface of the novel’s thorny ideas – creation without responsibility, the monstrosity of neglect – in favor of glossy tableaux. Yet, when Jacob’s creature fills the frame – pain in the eyes, power in the gait – the film captures greatness. Fans of elegant Gothic will be mesmerized; Purists may crave more blood and bile. It’s a gorgeous, beautifully set up nightmare – just prefers satin gloves instead of a scalpel.