Frankenstein (2025): Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic Masterpiece! (Spoiler Free)

Guillermo del Toro is one of us, a Horror enthusiast through and through. In various interviews, del Toro has waxed poetic about how much he loves and identifies with monsters, and with this movie, that love is front and center.

This version of the immortal classic novel from 1818 by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is THE definitive version of Frankenstein, blasting from the screen in resplendent glory, and driven by magnificent portrayals from the cast that includes Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Christoph Waltz as Henrich Harlander, Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza, Charles Dance as Leopold Frankenstein, Felix Kammerer as William Frankenstein, with supporting turns from Ralph Ineson as Professor Krempe, and the great David Bradley as the Blind Man.

However, this movie is nothing without the quiet emotion, devastating anguish, and powerful rage of Jacob Elordi as the Creature.

As wonderful as Boris Karloff was in both the 1931 Frankenstein and 1935 Bride of Frankenstein, I predict that Elordi’s interpretation as the Creature will become a landmark in Horror cinema. For this Horror fan, what Elordi does with this role is inhabit the Creature just as Mary Shelley intended, giving him a soul and depth that was missing from Karloff’s interpretations. This Creature thinks, and feels, and knows great pain and sadness.

Mary Shelley’s Novel

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 Gothic novel^[a] written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment that involved putting it together with different body parts. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18 and staying in Bath,^[2] and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821. (Wikipedia)

Frankenstein (2025)

The film follows much of the same path as the novel: A brilliant but egotistical scientist brings a monstrous creature to life in a daring experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

As adaptations go, this one is more faithful than previous ones but also takes liberties that not only enhance the film, but that provide more texture and nuance to the characters and their motivations. One notable change is how the character of Elizabeth Lavenza (Mia Goth) is portrayed in the film. In the novel, she was Victor’s bride-to-be, and the Creature murders her in a fit of rage, and as retaliation for Victor abandoning him. In del Toro’s film, Elizabeth is engaged to Victor’s brother, William (Felix Kammerer). It should also be noted that Goth plays dual roles in the film; one as Victor’s mother, Claire Frankenstein, and as Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is on an intellectual level with Victor, he becomes enamored with her, and she with him, until she and William discover the Creature Victor has created. Elizabeth is sickened by Victor’s treatment of the Creature, and shows the newly-born person affection; the only affection the Creature knows until meeting the Blind Man (David Bradley) later in the film.

Fathers and Sons

What is also unique about this version of Frankenstein is how del Toro created a film about the bonds between fathers and sons. This begins when young Victor (Christian Convery) tries to gain the respect of his distant father, Leopold Frankenstein, a scientist of some renown. Leopold is cold towards his genius son, expecting a high standard of intellect, but never lavishing affection on Victor. This neglect of Victor from his father mirrors the neglect Victor imposes on the Creature, that in turn, propels the entire plot of the film. In interviews, del Toro has stated how this is his most personal film yet, and the dynamics of fathers and sons (which are woven throughout his filmography) are at its most potent.

The Visuals/Design

Guillermo del Toro is a master stylist, as a viewing of each of his films demonstrates, but with Frankenstein, del Toro has crafted his most sumptuous and breathtaking film yet. Each frame of this film, from the golden-tinged scenes of Victor’s youth, to the greenish glow during the creation scenes, to the wintery Arctic setting that bookends the film, are rendered beautifully by Cinematographer Dan Lausten who has lensed several of del Toro’s films including Crimson Peak (2015), Oscar-winning, The Shape of Water (2017), and Nightmare Alley (2021). Lausten also worked on John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).

The set design, per any del Toro film, is fantastic, with the films being constructed as practical sets, with minimal CGI use. Tamara Deverell, another longtime del Toro collaborator, designed lavish period correct costumes that perform in their own right, imbuing the actors with authenticity, and a heightened sense of the operatic. Special notice should be given to editor, Evan Schiff, who cut John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), as well as composer, Alexandre Desplat, whose score elevates the film with its alternating, sweeping and majestic, yet haunting melodies.

Gothic Beauty

Guillermo del Toro is a gifted filmmaker with an expansive knowledge of the Gothic tradition in literature. In this film, he uses many of the tropes of Gothic storytelling to great effect. The author Horace Walpole is usually credited with inventing this genre with his 1764 story, The Castle of Otranto.

Tropes associated with the Gothic genre include:

• The grotesque
• Dark subjects or subject matter
• The Supernatural, and/or creatures
• Gothic Environments: desolate, remote, crumbling castles, haunted mansions/houses
• Sense of isolation, remoteness in the character’s mind
• Suspense, Mystery, Tension, Fear
• Heightened, exaggerated emotions
• Women/Persons in distress
• Characters who possess some kind of Psychic Connection/Ability
• Gothic/Formalized Language

This film touches upon many of these tropes, such as the Gothic castle where Frankenstein performs his experiments. The grotesque nature of his experimentation and the body of the Creature is another trope found here, although this interpretation of the Creature is shown in an almost beautiful light, highlighting del Toro’s affection and admiration for monstrous others. Victor and the Creature are isolated from society and from each other throughout the film. At one point, the castle actually crumbles down around the two, hammering home one more Gothic trope.

Even the period, formalized language, sometimes heightened the emotional states of the characters, the constant sense of dread, anxiety, and fear permeating the film is all typical of Gothic tropes dating back to a film like Nosferatu (1922), Bram Stoker’s seminal Gothic novel Dracula (1887), and, of course, Mary Shelley’s novel.

In Sum

Frankenstein, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, is a masterpiece of filmmaking craft. A monumental achievement that will live long in the history of cinema, up there with and surpassing the original 1931 film. With this film, del Toro has infused Mary Shelley’s ground-breaking Science Fiction morality tale with all the spirit of her novel, as well as themes of parenthood, grief, loneliness, regret, and ultimately, family. This is family trauma, writ large on an operatic scale, about two people seeking the one thing they have always wanted… to belong.

Frankenstein premieres on Netflix on November 7th.