Frankenstein
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro
Based on: Mary Shelley’s novel
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance, David Bradley
seen on: 17.-20.2.2026

Content Note: stalking

Plot:
A large ship stuck in the ice at the North Pole picks up a half-dead Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). Frankenstein is being hunted by a creature (Jacob Elordi), and there is no escaping it. As they wait for the creature to come back, Frankenstein shares their story, a story that starts with his experiments of reanimation that ultimately led to the creation of who now hunts him.

Frankenstein is a very pretty film and an often very faithful adaptation, but it is also approximately 300 years long and obviously decided that subtext or ambivalence is something for another time.

I was really looking forward to this film, loving both del Toro and Isaac, and generally having an appreciation for Frankenstein, though I can’t exactly say that I loved the novel. But this is definitely not the best thing that del Toro ever made. I don’t know how much of it has to do with the fact that it is a netflix production. But this fact might at least explain why no subtext was allowed in the film (second screen problems and all). I mean, the dialogue literally features the line „Victor, you are the monster.“ Verbatim.

This is even more absurd because, really, the film gets rid of any and all ambivalence in the characters anyway. Victor Frankenstein is a narcissist, a murderer, and a stalker who is obsessed with his brother’s fiancée Elizabeth (Mia Goth). [The stalking is quickly brushed off, by the way, because Elizabeth is so very charming or something.] [To be fair, I thought that this portrayal of the relationship between Elizabeth and Victor was the most interesting part of the film.] Meanwhile, the creature is all kindness, doesn’t attack anybody (unless attacked first) and certainly doesn’t kill a child. And I get where he’s coming from. As puzzledpeaces so aptly put it: “The monster never did anything wrong in its life!” is basically del Toro’s mission statement. But at the same time, making the Creatures humanity hinge on his moral goodness (and possibly intellect) really is a whole other problem.

The movie has a great sense of style, as you’d expect from a del Toro film, with beautiful, atmospheric sets that always verge on the entirely fantastic and costumes that are absolutely statements. It made me regret that the film never hit cinemas here (or did I miss it completely?). Then again, I don’t know if I would have liked to sit through this film in one evening. It took me three or four to finish it (which is not just because of the movie but also because there is a toddler running my home), and the movie seemes to last forever.

It is not a movie that is forgettable, and there is something to be said for that for sure. And I did go ahead and text puzzledpeaces about it after having finally finished – not something I am in the habit of doing with just any movie. But I wanted to talk about this one. Even if it was mostly to express my disappointment.

Summarizing: I was hoping for more from this film.