Guillermo del Toro
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Even though this take on the character looks distractingly similar to the Engineers in Prometheus, this does highlight how the Creature is less of a monster, so much as he’s grotesquely beautiful, in his own way.
Jacob Elordi is a very conventionally attractive man whose monster is designed like a blend of the Engineers from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy.
He looks like those God aliens in Prometheus.
…when the Creature is revealed for the first time, gigantic in stature and pale, translucent naked, he does resemble the Engineers from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus…
Jacob Elordi has the size (6’5”) to be the monster, but his design makes him look like a plastic god from the opening credits of “Prometheus.”
…he vaguely resembles the Engineers from “Prometheus” in the “Aliens” franchise.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Directed by Jack Arnold
influenced The Shape of Water (2017), Frankenstein (2025)
Themes Characters Plot
Unlike his “Creature from the Black Lagoon” riff, “The Shape of Water,” there’s almost too little del Toro here.
Shape of Water ran into issues over having the Gill-Man from Creature from the Black Lagoon fuck when he tried to pitch it to Universal before turning it into original IP…
The Shape of Water (2017), drew freely on The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)…
…whose Oscar-winning The Shape of Water might as well have been a reimagining of The Creature From the Black Lagoon…
But as expected from the director who made an Oscar-winning picture out of affection for the titular character in Creature from The Black Lagoon, del Toro shows endless sympathy for the monster in his lavish, wildly indulgent new adaptation of Frankenstein.
Some of the best monster movies, such as King Kong and Creature from the Black Lagoon , allow rivulets of romantic longing to run through their narratives.
Frankenstein (1931)
Directed by James Whale
influenced Frankenstein (2025), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), Hellboy (2004), Cronos (1993)
Visuals Themes
The flocked velvet and crumbling stone of Crimson Peak are reflected in the costuming—the capes and veils in a pair of funeral scenes are especially striking—as well as in Frankenstein’s hilltop lair.
And in much of his work — from Cronos and Hellboy to Pinocchio — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been an undeniable presence.
And in much of his work — from Cronos and Hellboy to Pinocchio — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been an undeniable presence.
…for my grandfather who loved James Whale’s Frankenstein and died the week I last re-read the novel…
The James Whale Frankenstein films in particular: big Erlenmeyer flasks, coils crackling with electric energy, Boris Karloff clomping around in that squared-off makeup.
…but also the 1931 movie and the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein…
Poor Things (2023)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
influenced Frankenstein (2025), The Shape of Water (2017)
Themes Visuals
Lanthimos’s similarly themed Alasdair Gray adaptation, Poor Things…
Poor Things (2023; Disney+, Hulu, rentable): Emma Stone plays a sort of female Creature in Yorgos Lanthimos’ adaptation of a novel that riffs on the Frankenstein mythos.
Having recently seen a variety of films inspired by Shelley’s work, including Poor Things, Lisa Frankenstein, and The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster…
…unlike the brilliant and far more interesting film on the Frankensteinian theme: Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things.
Given the influence of Shelley’s novel on everything from Godzilla and Jurassic Park to Under the Skin and Poor Things…
It’s not steampunk porn like Poor Things…
Rebecca (1940)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
influenced Crimson Peak (2015)
Themes Characters Visuals
Nineteenth-century Gothic has rarely looked so sumptuous as it does in Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak,” a lusciously atmospheric period homage to such classics as “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre” and “Rebecca” that also manages to integrate reminiscences of “Gaslight,” “Notorious,” “The Shining” and even “Dragonwyck” into the mix.
She may be channeling Judith Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers from Hitchcock’s Rebecca, but she’s no less effective for that, and she is harrowing in a scene when Lucille does nothing more than talk about her mother while feeding porridge to an ill Edith.
It plays as a miscalculation on del Toro’s part, like he’s nodding a little too vigorously at Mrs. Danvers from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca — a stated influence — though Chastain is able to shine in a few moments of quiet, emotional introspection.
It reminded me of silvery black and white classics like House on Haunted Hill , Gaslight , Rebecca , Dragonwyck , Wuthering Heights , et al – except of course that Crimson Peak lives up to its title and is awash with glorious, saturated color.
Though it draws inspiration from Rebecca, Notorious, and Jane Eyre, the sensibility is pure Del Toro.
You just know something ghastly is lurking under her unruffled demeanor — she reminds me of the Mrs. Danvers character in “Rebecca.”
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Directed by Mel Brooks
influenced Frankenstein (2025), The Shape of Water (2017)
Themes Visuals
Peter Boyle’s all-singing-all-dancing creature in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein…
…satires like Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974)…
I will confess to experiencing flashbacks to Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein…
…fondly reminiscing about Gene Hackman’s fabulous cameo in Young Frankenstein…
Young Frankenstein (4 ¾ stars, 1974, directed by Mel Brooks)…
Mel Brooks’s 1974 classic Young Frankenstein…
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Directed by James Whale
influenced Frankenstein (2025), The Shape of Water (2017)
Themes Visuals
…but also the 1931 movie and the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein…
…expanding the humanity James Whale achieved for in his classic 1930s “Frankenstein” pictures, “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein.”
Goth’s Bride of Frankenstein-inspired wedding dress alone should get costume designer Kate Hawley an Oscar nomination.
The old “Bride of Frankenstein” attempted to humanize the Monster (the blind hermit had a brief but telling scene), but the dominant themes of that classic were horror and camp.
…the films that came after it (Bride of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and even comedies like Young Frankenstein)…
…not that most of the sequels, remakes, and spinoffs since the franchise-best Bride of Frankenstein have been anything to write home about…
Nineteenth-century Gothic has rarely looked so sumptuous as it does in Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak,” a lusciously atmospheric period homage to such classics as “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre” and “Rebecca” that also manages to integrate reminiscences of “Gaslight,” “Notorious,” “The Shining” and even “Dragonwyck” into the mix.
There are nods at haunted house benchmarks The Haunting and The Innocents, as well as a bathtub scene with obvious reference to Kubrick’s The Shining.
Edith encounters several, among them a hideous corpse figure in the upstairs bathtub who’s an obvious nod to “The Shining” (one of perhaps three dozen literary or film references one could pick out).
For a motion picture where decaying, moaning spirits come knockingone set-piece involving a bathtub is highly reminiscent of a similar scene in 1980's " The Shining "it is the human conflict that intrigues the most, demanding one to continue turning each new lush, sinister cinematic page.
The father returns as a bloody beast with his skull caved in, and the heroine's mother keeps bursting into the room as a charcoal-blackened wraith, but the real wonder is the sumptuous production design by Thomas E. Sanders, whose darkly colorful sets were inspired by Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
But the story feels more like a pastiche of fondly remembered elements than an original concept -- a little of "The Haunting" here, a splash of "The Shining" (still the best haunted-house movie ever made) there.
The Blazing World (2021)
Directed by Carlson Young
influenced by Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Visuals Themes Plot
There are other visual cues lifted from movies like Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” like when the water comes pouring out like blood from the hotel elevator banks, and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," in the monster that flashes on-screen more than a few times.
Young has vision, that’s for sure, and the collection of influences and inspirations that dot “The Blazing World” run from “Alice in Wonderland” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” to “Coraline” and “Hansel and Gretel,” with a touch of the wacky 2019 social satire “Greener Grass.”
Cue a lengthy progression of variously unhinged dream tableaux, during which parallel-universe Margaret must complete a series of “Pan’s Labyrinth”-like quests that may or may not reunite her with Elizabeth.
It's a draining mishmash of Intro to Psych lectures mixed with dream journal excerpts swirled together with some not-so-subtle Pan's Labyrinth rip-offs.
While Young manages to keep things interesting through a chunk of the first act, the whole experience starts to fall apart when Margaret steps through the rabbit hole, embarking on the film’s reality-bending trip clearly inspired by Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Pan’s Labyrinth among others.
That said I'll admit I found myself thinking even more of Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth while watching The Blazing World than I did having to go all the way back to original descendant Lewis Carroll -- Pan and Blazing are both, after all, bound up in the sputtering sickened imaginations of what may just be a brain shutting down.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
influenced Frankenstein (2025), Crimson Peak (2015)
Visuals Themes
…and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula…
…which recalls both Interview With the Vampire and Bram Stoker's Dracula in vibe…
Her funeral recalls Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992).
…recalls Gary Oldman in his blood red armour in Francis Ford Coppola’s kindred goth opera, Bram Stoker’s Dracula…
…it’s honestly more similar to Coppola’s Dracula than either of them…
Francis Ford Coppola’s blood-soaked, bawdy, and shamelessly ludicrous “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” his “Frankenstein” is not…
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced Frankenstein (2025)
Themes Visuals Characters Plot
Frankenstein belongs in the long lineage of films about creation and possession, from Edward Scissorhands to Ex Machina…
There are shades of similarity to Edward Scissorhands in both visuals and soundtrack on more than one occasion…
…nos remite en más de una ocasión a la placidez incorruptible del “Edward Scissorhands” de Tim Burton…
With looming grace and the fluffy heart of a Golden Labrador, Elordi, standing in for a departing Andrew Garfield, turns out to be the most swooning Goth heart-throb since Edward Scissorhands emerged from Vincent Price’s laboratory.
…the monster shares a good deal more with Edward Scissorhands…
His journey recalls Edward Scissorhands in tone — watching him quietly observe a family from afar, acting as their unseen protector, and forming a tender bond with the family’s blind patriarch is deeply affecting.
The Orphanage (2007)
Directed by J. A. Bayona
influenced The Devil's Backbone (2001), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy (2004), Crimson Peak (2015), Pacific Rim (2013)
Themes
I was not a fan of the labored, overrated Pan’s Labyrinth, and I hated the equally contrived and pretentious ghost story The Orphanage.
One of those revealed credits is for executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, whose atmospheric Spain-set horror films The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth are another strong influence on The Orphanage, which as it happens is also an atmospheric horror film set in Spain.
But Del Toro has lent his name to The Orphanage anyway, "presenting" it in the manner of Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, in hopes that the Pan's Labyrinth maestro's name will lure the crowds.
Executive produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), directed by 32-year-old Juan Antonio Bayona with a script by Sergio G. Sanchez, the film is a spine-tingling, nerve-jangling knockout and a return to classics of yore.
By a wide margin, J.A. Bayona's "The Orphanage" delivers more goose bumps than anything Hollywood has served up in years – which I hope does not mean that Bayona, a first-time feature director and music video whiz, will be enlisted to direct "Saw V." Produced by Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), it's about Laura (Belén Rueda), a mother who purchases an orphanage that she hopes to restore as a haven for disabled children.
The Orphanage, the Spanish entry for this year’s Oscar foreign-language race, is a proud addition to this mini-trend, with an executive-producer boost from del Toro himself, creator of last year’s triple Oscar winner, Pan’s Labyrinth.
The Bride! (2026)
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
influenced by Frankenstein (2025), The Shape of Water (2017), Nightmare Alley (2021)
Themes Visuals
Then it becomes a Guillermo del Toro pastiche as Frank seeks a connection to humanity through the magic of cinema. If you saw The Shape of Water, you'll recognize the homework.
When the sexuality edges forward, it reminds of “The Shape of Water”…
Cinema history is filled with glorious genre hybrids that thrive on unexpected combinations. Just look at something like The Shape of Water.
…with Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN and now this film…
One of many times in which The Bride! is unfortunate in its timing so soon after Guillermo del Toro’s ravishing Frankenstein is the lab reanimation process, absent here of any mounting tension. The same applies to Bale’s monster, who swoons and chuckles over elegant movie musicals featuring matinee idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), but can’t match the depth of feeling Jacob Elordi brought to the role for del Toro.
…which was about a week after watching the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein and kind of getting to see these extremely audacious, kind of idiosyncratic visions of Frankenstein and the Frankenstein myth kind of in strange conversation with each other.
Independence Day (1996)
Directed by Roland Emmerich
influenced Pacific Rim (2013), The Shape of Water (2017)
Plot Dialogue Themes Visuals
It would be too easy to write Pacific Rim off as a bad mash-up of the worst components of Roland Emmerich’s alien-invasion extravaganza Independence Day (1996) and Michael Bay’s insufferable Transformer movies had it been directed by someone other than del Toro, the Mexican-born fantasy-horror auteur whose sharply pronounced visual acumen and obsession with everything weird, surreal, and uncanny has made him one of the most fascinating filmmakers of the past decade.
At one point, the squadron’s stern leader (Idris Elba, commanding in a stock role) delivers a pep talk virtually identical to Bill Pullman’s inspirational speech in Independence Day .
“Independence Day,” another Roland Emmerich joint).
There's plenty of strategic talk and grim pronouncements counteracted by inspiring speeches of the "Independence Day" variety, but the real stars of "Pacific Rim" are the set pieces.
Then there’s a kendo sparring match straight out of The Matrix and its kung-fu forerunners, a cheer-inducing pre-battle speech with echoes of Independence Day (“Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!”), and a finale in which a bomb must be placed in the aliens’ lair/cavern/alternate dimension.
See if you can catch those Independence Day and/or Deep Blue Sea moments and you’ll know the sort of “borrowing” I’m referring to.
The Innocents (1961)
Directed by Jack Clayton
influenced The Devil's Backbone (2001), Crimson Peak (2015)
Themes Visuals
Bursting with references both literary and cinematic, this is del Toro’s “The Age of Innocence” by way of Jack Clayton’s “The Innocents,” as brazenly over-the-top as those films were subtle, manifesting a ghost story in which Wasikowska’s Edith Cushing has far more to fear from the living than from the dead, and the female of the species is deadlier than the male.
Imbued with the aesthetic and tonal spirit of bombastic, luxuriantly-coloured, oft-melodramatic Euro-horrors of the 1960s (think the films of Mario Bava or Roger Corman's Edgar Allen Poe adaptations), Crimson Peak also has a dash of The Innocents (and thus The Turn of the Screw ) and specific Hitchcocks ( Rebecca and Psycho ) in its lush blood, as well as a bit of Brontë – a good chunk of the story could be interpreted as Jane Eyre with more literal ghosts.
Just as The Others looked to Turn of the Screw/ The Innocents as inspiration, The Devils Backbone is an homage to horror comic books, and comic books themselves play a part in the story.
With its complex characters and air of understatement, The Devil's Backbone is far different in style from the director's recent blockbuster, the gleefully ballistic Blade 2. Like Alejandro Amenábar's The Others, it harks back not only to the more restrained style of '60s horror pictures like The Haunting and The Innocents, but to 19th-century gothic-romance novels and the ghost stories of Henry James.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Frankenstein (2025), Pacific Rim (2013)
Themes Dialogue Visuals
Perhaps he feels that “Jurassic Park” warning (that just because man can doesn’t mean he should) has been sufficiently dissected in other horror movies.
Given the influence of Shelley’s novel on everything from Godzilla and Jurassic Park to Under the Skin and Poor Things…
Jurassic Park found the perfect balance when it comes to making the unattainable seem feasible: less is more—just enough to tease believability without providing a lengthy essay.
…you were too preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should”, as Jurassic Park‘s Ian Malcolm might say…
While Spielberg went to great lengths with “Jurassic Park” to maintain a sense of scale (and intrigue, and intellect, etc.), del Toro doesn’t seem to care that we believe any of what we’re seeing, because… robots and monsters!!!
And it's hard not to see an overloaded electrical outlet's worth of influences: the prehistoric creature design of "Jurassic Park" run amok; the rock-'em-sock-'em robots of "Transformers" and the dystopic futurism of "Blade Runner."
King Kong (1933)
Directed by Merian C. Cooper
influenced Frankenstein (2025), The Shape of Water (2017)
Themes Characters Dialogue
…in the spirit of The Simpsons′ immortal parody of King Kong…
Like King Kong, Elordi’s Creature is a lumbering giant always exuding tragic humanity.
…any more than Peter Jackson’s similarly cherished King Kong could replace its beloved source…
I think the TV edit of the original King Kong really did a number on a lot of guys at a young age (self included). We’re told “Kong falls in love and dies for it,” not “Kong sexually assaults a woman, kills and eats other people and wild animals so he can continue to do so, and though she survives the rescue, she will likely have PTSD the rest of her life.”
…much like when a “King Kong” movie must contain the line, “It was beauty that killed the beast.”
They often range from the ambitiousness of Peter Jackson’s King Kong to the fascinatingly disastrous wonders of projects like Megalopolis.
…it lacks the meticulous craft and brooding intensity that made last year’s “Nosferatu”—another retelling of an oft-worn tale—so hauntingly immersive.
Motion pictures can make familiar ancient texts feel new again through sumptuous imagery, as with Akira Kurosawa’s Ran or last year’s Nosferatu.
I find Frankenstein a more rewarding experience than last year’s Nosferatu…
Este caso recuerda lo ocurrido hace poco con Nosferatu (2024), de Robert Eggers, otro proyecto largamente anhelado que terminó realizado con solidez.
…it thrives where Nosferatu (2024) begins to struggle in its own second hour, under the dual burden of the weight of expectation and, worse, a sudden, unexpected shift in tone toward – arguably – camp.
…desde la nueva versión de «Nosferatu» (2024) de Robert Eggers…
Del Toro references “Star Wars,” “Blade Runner” and “Aliens” (it’s no coincidence that a character is named Newt), and his Jaeger pilots are more martial artists than flying aces, so throw some “Kung Fu Theater” in there, too.
There’s also a cameo from Hellboy stalwart Ron Perlman, who plays a character with the strangely evocative name of Hannibal Chau, a Hong Kong criminal who lives in a Blade Runner-like portion of the city, where he sells the body parts of slain Kaijus.
There are shout outs to Star Wars (Raleigh's brother tells him, "Don't get cocky," and I swear I saw scout troopers at one point), while the Hong Kong of 2020 is twin to Ridley Scott's dystopian Los Angeles in Blade Runner.
Pacific Rim is a war movie set in a near future that resembles in its combination of high technology with cultural and social dilapidation the grim worlds to come in Alien and Blade Runner .
Mine are Robot Jox , the 1998 Godzilla , Blade Runner , and the 1966 Japanese TV series Ultraman for various details of the scenario and design, all of it yoked to a storyline rather similar to Top Gun , though of course that film didn't invent the idea of the hotshot pilot with demons any more than Pacific Rim did.
Along the way, cinéaste del Toro quotes every movie from Blade Runner to Chinatown.
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Directed by Terence Fisher
influenced Frankenstein (2025), Crimson Peak (2015)
Visuals Plot
…some of Del Toro’s nods to the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), also here in abundance, and not just in the Creature design itself…
After so many versions of this story that dwell on the monstrous aspects, including Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and other offerings, or even those that attempt to give the Creature dimension, such as Branagh’s zippy Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), most feel surface-level at best.
…the notorious 1957 Hammer revision The Curse of Frankenstein…
Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein…
Terence Fisher’s Curse of Frankenstein…
Adapting broadly from Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel, James Whale’s 1931 classic horror film, and even cribbing some aesthetic inspiration from the 1950s Peter Cushing Hammer films, del Toro’s take on Frankenstein continues his knack for melodrama amidst the macabre.