Long inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic, Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro brings his own visionary touch to Frankenstein.

What Guillermo del Toro does here is deliver his own bold, definitive take on Mary Shelley’s classic tale with Frankenstein, a sweeping drama exploring the essence of humanity, desire, and connection. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), a brilliant yet tormented and egotistical scientist, pursues an obsession to create life, resulting in the Creature (Jacob Elordi). Their bond and conflict probe the blurred line between human and monster, challenging audiences to reconsider what it truly means to live and to feel.

While Victor is consumed with creating life from death, his younger brother William (Felix Kammerer) is engaged to Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth). Elizabeth’s uncle, Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy arms manufacturer, becomes a key supporter of Victor’s work, providing both laboratory space and specimens.

Set against the stark expanses of the Arctic and the brutal battlefields of 19th-century Europe during the Crimean War, the film charts the intertwined journeys of Frankenstein and his creation. del Toro’s vision is both haunting and heartfelt, a meditation on isolation, identity, and the universal search for understanding.

I’ve struggled to put my thoughts on this film into words since seeing it at TIFF. It isn’t my favorite Guillermo del Toro film, even as I recognize it as a deeply personal passion project. The production has clearly been years in the making, and del Toro succeeds in making the story his own. While the dialogue is original, it carries the rhythm of Mary Shelley’s prose, and the costumes and production design echo the past without being strictly old-fashioned.

In many respects, Frankenstein is del Toro’s homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood, even as he reshapes Mary Shelley’s creation into something distinctly his own. Few directors would attempt the scale he achieves—where others might build part of a ship, del Toro had the entire Horisont constructed, a Danish vessel captained by Captain Andersen (Lars Mikkelsen). Wherever possible, visual effects are captured in-camera, including an astonishing sequence where the Creature moves the ship.

For the Creature, del Toro turned to prosthetics master Mike Hill. The design is a sharp departure from Boris Karloff’s iconic look, now embedded in popular culture (including Clifton Hill’s House of Frankenstein in Niagara Falls, Ontario). Rather than a stylized figure, this Creature is assembled from the remains of soldiers who were strong and healthy at their time of death, resulting in something both grotesque and eerily human.

One can view Frankenstein as a culmination of del Toro’s cinematic contributions. That he chose to make it after winning the Oscar for 2022’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio with the late Mark Gustafson shows how deeply this story has marked his life. Del Toro has long centered monsters or similar creatures in his films—including his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water—so it feels only natural that he would eventually adapt one of the most iconic monster tales ever written.

At two hours and twenty-nine minutes, the film is long, but del Toro devotes ample time to both Victor and the Creature, even after the castle burns. Sitting in the balcony at the premiere was something of a blessing—I could avert my eyes during the most gruesome scenes, especially when Victor saws bodies apart to assemble his creation. As someone who isn’t a horror fan, these moments were the hardest to watch.

If you’re hoping for show-stopping dance number in del Toro’s version, I’m sorry to report that you’ll be disappointed. Whether this film will ultimately eclipse the 1931 Frankenstein with Boris Karloff remains to be seen. Universal Pictures (8) and Hammer Films (7) have both produced multiple versions of the tale, while Mel Brooks spoofed the early Universal films with Young Frankenstein. As of now, Shelley’s creation has inspired 422 feature films, 192 short films, and 300 television works—a testament to her enduring legacy, and one that del Toro now carries forward with a vision uniquely his own.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Guillermo del Toro
CAST: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, with Charles Dance and Christoph Waltz

Frankenstein held its North American premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations program. Netflix will release the film in select theaters on October 17, 2025, and stream globally on November 7, 2025. Grade: 3.5/5

Please subscribe to Solzy on Buttondown and visit Dugout Dirt.