Still warm from the Oscar afterglow for Pinocchio, director Guillermo Del Toro is back with another creepy-cool revival of a beloved classic with Frankenstein on Netflix.
Even for those familiar with Guillermo Del Toro’s aesthetically macabre visuals, Frankenstein dazzles from the very first shot, depicting an icy landscape that recalls Ernest Shackleton photos, where a ship is stuck in the ice, and its crew encounters first a wounded stranger, and then the nightmare creature that hunts him, and the two find a (literally) captive audience for their tragic story.
There have been Frankenstein adaptations before, of course, dating back to Universal Studios’ 1931 version, directed by James Whale, but Del Toro’s take is being touted as the one most faithful to Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel about a tortured genius reanimating the dead and immediately regretting his life choices. The reanimated character is referred to in this 2025 version not as “Frankenstein’s Monster” but simply as The Creature, reverting to Shelley’s argument that the creation is simply an innocent victim of the scientist’s hubris.
Oscar Isaac plays the titular role of Victor Frankenstein, a genius scientist who experiences a tragedy that drives him to challenge the very laws of nature, and while he delivers nuance and a solid performance of a man giving in to his darkness, it is Jacob Elordi who steals the show with his tender portrayal as The Creature, created and discarded by his maker. And if you found yourself thinking of Del Toro’s Pinocchio while watching this version of the story, that’s intentional. “They’re ultimately about different fathers sending an inadequate, strange kid into the world, which every misfit and every Monster Kid can relate to. They are very much sister or sibling movies” the director has said in an interview. Treading back and forth between storybook fantasy and gothic horror, punctuating sentimental, almost melodramatic scenes with sharp moments of exaggerated violence, the film is a fast-paced and emotionally engaging experience.
You also can’t not talk about the captivating visuals. The inspiration for the look of the film largely comes from 50 pages of illustrations former Marvel Comics artist Bernie Wrightson did during the 1970’s for the 1983 edition of Mary Shelley’s novel, which show up in the post credits segment. These drawings in particular, inform the look of The Creature, which looks more Attack of Titan than the more familiar blocky green nuts-and-bolts image, which comes from makeup artist Jack Pierce’s original design, the rights to which belong to Universal Studio. The elaborate settings, gorgeous gothic architecture a la Crimson Peak, and the vivid pops of green that recall the stylistic sensibilities of The Shape of Water, juxtaposed with images of filth and gore, make for a richly layered, deeply disturbing, yet alluring visual experience one can’t look away from.
For a film with such a large scope and the two and a half-hour runtime, it’s very intimate in terms of emotion and character dynamics. Victor Frankenstein is the perfect example of a hurt person hurting other people, while his complex but innocent creation is just trying to be human in an inhuman world that treats him badly. This is the type of storytelling Guillermo Del Toro excels at, and this might be his most compelling work yet.