Few directors feel born to remake Frankenstein the way Guillermo del Toro does. His lifelong fascination with misunderstood creatures finally meets Mary Shelley’s tragic creation in a film that feels both intimate and grand. Rather than another gothic retelling, this film feels like a personal confession from a filmmaker who has always seen beauty hiding inside the broken.
Set against candlelit castles and war-scarred laboratories, the story follows Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s obsession with conquering death and the aftermath that follows once his creation opens its eyes. Oscar Isaacs brings a feverish energy to Victor, shifting between brilliance and guilt so fast it feels painful to watch. The Creature, played by Jacob Elordi, is no lumbering brute. He moves with hesitation, like someone learning what it means to exist. His gaze carries both confusion and hope, turning every scene into a small heartbreak.
Del Toro’s version breathes with empathy. The camera lingers on trembling hands and flickering light, letting the audience feel every fragile moment. The production design draws on worn textures and physical weight, echoing the director’s love for things that look hand-built, tangible. Every corner of the lab feels alive with detail: polished tile floor, enormous medical instruments, rainwater pouring over wintered facades. The world looks ancient yet believable, as if the story has been waiting there for centuries. As if the world, itself, truly belongs within our own history.
The film’s tone walks a thin line between horror and sorrow. The reanimation scene is terrifying but also strangely tender. When lightning cracks, the score swells with a haunting melody instead of a booming crescendo. Del Toro dares moviegoers to see life as the uncertain element that it is: being thrust into the unknown with innocence, and not as preconceived monsters. The Creature’s later journey, wandering through frozen fields and candlelit rooms, turns into a meditation on loneliness and death rather than revenge. His search for meaning and acceptance feels painfully human, and the audience senses that Del Toro’s real subject is empathy itself.
The supporting cast deepens the tragedy. Christoph Waltz’s Harlander haunts the silver screen with artistic fervor, while Mia Goth’s Elizabeth brings compassion to a story often defined by cruelty. Their performances ground the spectacle in emotion, showing how fear and tenderness can live in the same breath.
Visually, Frankenstein stands among Del Toro’s most breathtaking works. The lighting flickers like memory; the color palette shifts from blue-gray laboratories to ash-laden rubble of past trauma. The Creature’s makeup is astonishing in its restraint. Instead of hiding him beneath layers of latex, Del Toro allows his pain to show through small details: seams that barely hold, eyes that seem too alive.
The film truly doesn’t have a flaw. If there is one issue most people will take up with, it will lie in the pacing. The film reads as though the gothic tale had come to vivid life, and the second act slows as it explores Victor’s guilt and the Creature’s education. This, however, gives space to yet the quieter moments that give the story emotional depth. Del Toro trusts silence more than spectacle, and the gamble pays off. When the final confrontation arrives, it feels less like a battle and more like two souls recognizing the same wound.
The final scene doesn’t roar with violence. It whispers. It lets the monster and the maker face each other without masks or illusions, and it ends with something close to grace. That choice turns Frankenstein from a tale of horror into a story about acceptance. Of creation, of failure, of what it means to be human.
Frankenstein is a haunting, compassionate triumph that reimagines one of literature’s darkest myths as an act of forgiveness. Del Toro has finally made the film he was destined to create, and it’s every bit as alive as the creature at its heart.
Rating: 5/5 atoms
Frankenstein is now playing in select theaters, and will be available for streaming on Netflix November 7th.
