Frankenstein (2025)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
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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.
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…
…on to Penny Dreadful and Poor Things…
Given the influence of Shelley’s novel on everything from Godzilla and Jurassic Park to Under the Skin and Poor Things…
…one that asks key questions about what it means to be human (as Bugonia does)…
…fondly reminiscing about Gene Hackman’s fabulous cameo in Young Frankenstein…
Young Frankenstein (4 ¾ stars, 1974, directed by Mel Brooks)…
…a throwback, I couldn’t help but think, to Peter Boyle’s erudite version of the monster in Young Frankenstein…
Heck, there have even been all sorts of stand-ins for the creature too over the years, from Peter Boyle putting on the Ritz in 1974’s YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN…
…although brilliant, Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein does not quite count…
The Creature’s endless weeks as unseen help to a blind peasant were done better by Mel Brooks.
Like the director’s 2015 Gothic romance Crimson Peak, this is a film that feels big…
…than it is Crimson Peak…
La tragedia se expresa mediante escenarios grandilocuentes, una banda sonora poderosa y un trabajo visual que Del Toro domina con naturalidad, algo que ya había explorado en La cumbre escarlata (Crimson Peak, 2015), película que hoy puede leerse como antesala de esta por su estilo gótico.
Think Mary Shelley meets Crimson Peak. If you loved that film, you’ll love this.
Frankenstein’s tower, a crumbling structure filled with dark secrets, hints at the pending doom of his monstrous experiment. Its architecture and surrounding landscape are reminiscent of the aforementioned Crimson Peak as well as Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Del Toro can be overwrought and sentimental, and while that blend of melancholy and the macabre has worked wonders in films like Crimson Peak and The Shape of Water, it doesn’t always serve him here.
The opening sequence, where the Creature wages a brutal attack on the trapped ship, combines period setting, primitive technology, and superhuman violence in a way that feels more Hellboy than his actual Hellboy films.
At the very least, this part of the movie looks excellent, with del Toro finding the perfect vehicle to show off his love of practical effects and creature design. Early prototypes for the Creature are particularly fun, with all the halting, wheezing and mechanical trickery that made Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth such memorable experiences.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is more Hellboy in its presentation than it is Crimson Peak…
Su cine siempre ha rezumado algo de la novela de Mary Shelley, en películas más personales como La forma del agua o en su participación en sagas como la de Hellboy: la relación entre humanidad y monstruosidad, la crítica a la violencia contra lo diferente, la capacidad de sentir de las criaturas, la creación de formas de vida, etc.
…the unorthodox father-son relationship between Bruttlehoom and Hellboy…
…from his version of “Pinocchio” and “Hellboy” to “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
…está en Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) convertido en un monstruo de piel desgarrada en Cronos (1992)…
Elordi, buried under nearly unrecognizable prosthetics and a creature design reminiscent of the marbled vampires from del Toro’s Cronos or Blade II…
A Catholic tableau come to fiery life, she’s a classic del Toro image, reminiscent of the winged seraphs in “Cronos” (1992) and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (2008).
Guillermo del Toro’s been talking about it since his 1992 feature debut, Cronos.
Del Toro has been mulling this project over for about 50 years, and his love of monster movies has been clear ever since his first film, 1992’s Cronos.
…del Toro – a director with a back catalogue that includes Cronos (1993) and The Devil’s Backbone (2001)…
…está en el robot con la cabeza plana emulando a Karloff en Pacific Rim (2013)…
Guillermo del Toro has tackled these ideas with such depth and beauty before—the sexual exploration we find in The Shape of Water, the unfettered and terrifying lust of Crimson Peak, the maturity of two minds meeting in drift compatibility in Pacific Rim.
The movies of his I love — “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water,” “Pacific Rim,” “The Devil’s Backbone” — I adore with an almost frightening intensity.
Even somewhat disposable fare like “Pacific Rim” has a rousing message of unifying strength set against its blockbuster spectacle.
His work alternates between character-driven atmospheric horror—The Devil’s Backbone (2001) Crimson Peak (2015), and Nightmare Alley (2021)—and big-budget Hollywood blockbusters like Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and Pacific Rim (2013).
Kate Hawley’s (Pacific Rim; Crimson Peak) costume design is refined and thoughtful…
Elordi, buried under nearly unrecognizable prosthetics and a creature design reminiscent of the marbled vampires from del Toro’s Cronos or Blade II…
…the type of brutal kills that could be found in del Toro’s earlier work like Blade II.
Beyond Fest Celebrates the Career of Guillermo del Toro With a Stacked Cinematic Retrospective
The screenings will include favorites like ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,' ‘The Shape of Water,’ ‘Blade II,’ and more.
Comic book adaptations Blade II (2002) and Hellboy (2004) position literal creatures, Blade (Wesley Snipes) and Hellboy (Ron Perlman), as the last line of defense against murderers and villains…
This is easily Del Toro’s most violent film since Blade II…
It is a closing as reflective as the final moments in one of his early great films, “The Devil’s Backbone.”
…si El espinazo del diablo iniciaba con la pregunta “¿qué es un fantasma?” en Frankenstein podría pensarse en “¿qué es un monstruo?”, asunto que, dicho sea de paso es constante en el cine de del Toro…
…está en el incomprendido niño fantasma de El Espinazo del Diablo (2001)…
The movies of his I love — “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water,” “Pacific Rim,” “The Devil’s Backbone” — I adore with an almost frightening intensity.
It’s what led to finding childlike wonder in the age of warring destruction, as seen in films like “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
…del Toro – a director with a back catalogue that includes Cronos (1993) and The Devil’s Backbone (2001)…
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Of course, Kenneth Branagh’s insane 1994 adaptation, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, probably hewed closest to the novel, and that movie and this one share a similarly frantic, gothic-romantic expressionism.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1 ¾ stars, 1994, directed by Kenneth Branagh)…
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 film retains a lumbering Classics Illustrated quality, compounded by the running time of two-and-a-half hours, even longer than Kenneth Branagh’s disastrous 1994 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein…
He is not the egotistical showman of Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
It has been 31 years since the last major Hollywood adaptation of Shelley’s acclaimed work, Kenneth Branagh’s poorly-reviewed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein…
…and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula…
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…
No, this isn’t at the Megalopolis level of director passion projects, but it’s also not Mad Max: Fury Road either.
There’s a wastefulness that comes with ultimate creative freedom, and while this is by no means “Megalopolis” levels of that, they do share some bones in their unfettered approaches.
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, too—but that story was an original take on a Frankenstein myth, making the comparisons odd to account for.
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…
…let’s not forget Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie (4 ¼ stars, 2012)…
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is akin to Tim Burton’s Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, or Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige.
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…
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…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…
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.
This adaptation also borrows a few aspects from other versions, including Nick Dear’s 2011 play and the 1957 Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (fans of that movie will note an unmistakable, much-appreciated visual reference in one scene).
There’s been Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Frankenweenie, Frankenhooker, and my favorite, Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.
Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker (1 ¾ stars, 1990)…