Frankenstein (2025)- BFI London Film Festival 2025
Review
149min
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller, Sci-fi
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth…and more
Writers: Guillermo del Toro and Mary Shelley
-Synopsis-
A brilliant and ambitious but troubled and egotistical 18th century Swiss scientist goes too far in his obsession with playing God by creating life and beating death, destroying his life and those around him with his fearsome but tragic and complex creation in this adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic by the writer/director of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘The Shape of Water’.
After decades of building a reputation as a visionary filmmaker with a stylish penchant for the gloomy and fantastical exploration of the human condition and its darkest recesses, in both the Spanish and English languages, and having also dabbled with his own gothic horror in 2015 ‘Crimson Peak’ and adapted a literary classic with ‘Pinocchio’—Guillermo del Toro returns and reunites with Netflix to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition of adapting Shelley’s all-time classic 19th century Promethean parable and tragic warning tale about the perils of playing God . . . in his own inimitable way.
Oscar Isaac stars as Dr. ‘Victor Frankenstein’ himself, a European nobleman from a difficult upbringing turned bold and ingenious but arrogant and intractable physician, obsessed with upending the natural order and cheating death by creating life, turning his back on academia to pursue his passion when wealthy industrialist ‘Henrich Harlander’ (Christoph Waltz) agrees to bankroll his gruesome experiments and provide him with all the gadgets and body parts he needs, and so ‘The Creature’ (Jacob Elordi) is born. But things quickly take a turn and get out of control when he abandons his fearsome but mournful creation—which quickly learns about humanity, for better or worse, and sets off on its own vengeful odyssey—while the good doctor falls for Harlander’s niece ‘Elizabeth’ (Mia Goth) who is engaged to his younger brother ‘William Frankenstein’ (Felix Kammerer), as the tragic paths of creator and creation soon converge and head far north towards a bleak Arctic conclusion.
Unsurprisingly with an adaptation from a filmmaker with such a distinct vision and style, this ‘Frankenstein’ takes clear narrative departures from both Shelley’s classic source novel and its many adaptations over the last century or so, switching up character backgrounds and plot locations as well as the historical period setting, moving what was originally a late 18th century tale to what seems like the mid-19th century, although del Toro doesn’t always specify times and places. Perhaps the biggest detours though are in the nature of the main characters and in particular Dr. Frankenstein’s creature creation, who is not only a more complex, multi-dimensional and articulate persona than many of the adaptations over the years, and both physically and psychologically distinct as well, but most notably is framed as an immortal and indestructible figure who at times comes uncomfortably close to comic-book superhero/villain territory.
Yet despite its creative narrative flourishes and a more animated and passionate take on a sombre Protestant European story, which reflects Guillermo del Toro Catholic and Latin-American perspective, this ‘Frankenstein’ is still very much a European gothic story which stays largely faithful to both the spirit and text of the 1818 novel.
As we’ve come to expect from any film by the Mexican visionary ‘Frankenstein’ is sumptuously stylish and dressed to the nines, as the director and his design teams breathe new stylistic life into beautiful palatial halls and corridors as well as grimy and bustling streets of Victorian Scotland and Britain where some of the film was set and much of it was shot, as well as masterfully re-creating the period in Toronto sound stages—including Frankenstein’s strikingly bleak and imposing tower lab/lair—whilst adding del Toro’s design aesthetic blending 19th century mechanics with more than a bit of steampunk for the good doctor’s toys and tools, not to mention the dazzling costume design.
True to del Toro’s cinematic horror instincts there’s plenty of gory and graphically violent action too, more dynamic and visceral than we’ve seen from an adaptation of Shelley’s work before, and all the bloody body horror to match as the crimson red runs free. With all the film’s striking visuals vividly but sombrely captured by his regular cinematographer Dan Laustsen (Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water), who had some stunning Scottish and Canadian landscapes to work with too. The film’s style credentials are further underlined and the mood set by the music, in the form of sumptuous and lyrical full orchestral score by Oscar-winning French maestro Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water), ranging from whimsical and waltzy to wistful and melancholy, to dramatic and epic too.
Yet this ‘Frankenstein’ more than a cinematic style exercise and there’s substance in this screen odyssey too, made possible by the life-creating and re-animation alchemy of the story, a mixture or real scientific theory and medical mumbo-jumbo, with a fair bit of folklore thrown in the pot, all visualised through del Toro’s distinct design vision. All creating a catalyst and foundation for the core of the story, the warning parable tale which made the classic Shelley source novel so definitive and influential, in this version filtered through the narrative notion that there are two sides to the story, two perspectives as narrated by both the creator and his creation.
It’s fair to say that this film stays true to its “only monsters play God” tagline and has an unwavering commitment to the notion that Victor Frankenstein is more of a monster than his creation. As such del Toro skews the narrative balance a tad too much by making the titular character so unlikeable and narrowly dimensioned, despite Isaac’s scenery-chewing best efforts, that “the creature”—so beautifully and frightfully drawn by Jacob Elordi’s performance—is the only truly likeable and relatable character in the film, and by far its most compelling. While the rest of the cast proves to be elegant well-dressed scenery for the most part, where even the irresistible charms of Christoph Waltz are fleeting.
Luckily the heart of the piece which elevates the drama is Jacob Elordi’s monster, with the imposing 6-foot-5 Aussie boasting the stature to truly embody the character physically while delivering a towering tour-de-force to bring it to life emotionally and psychologically. Impressively bridging several stages of an evolving immortal creation ranging from an animalistic newborn to a fast-learning and resentful infant, all the way to vengeful yet vulnerable and refined man, longing for the release of a death he won’t’ have and lashing out at the life he can’t lead—not to mention some subtle sensuality which flirts with ‘Dracula’ territory.
Ultimately del Toro’s vision may not prove to be the finest or definitive screen take on a literary classic, but boy it’s a hugely entertaining and captivating effort nonetheless, not to mention a marvellously moody and visually mesmerising piece of 19th century horror, amounting to a worthy addition to the over a century old pantheon of adaptations and re-imaginings of Shelley’s all-time classic gothic horror critique of man’s hubris in playing God.
The Bottom Line…
A sumptuously stylish, atmospheric, visceral and surprisingly stirring addition to the well-established cinematic tradition of adapting Mary Shelley’s beloved 19th century promethean warning parable, with ‘Frankenstein’ Guillermo del Toro successfully fulfils a lifetime ambition while delivering an engrossing and magnetic screen spectacle built on the strong stylistic foundations of its visionary director, and dramatically carried on the broad shoulders of its co-star Jacob Elordi.
‘Frankenstein’ is out in selected cinemas now, and streams on Netflix from the 7th of November.
Similar films you may like (Home Video)
Victor Frankenstein (2015)
Modern re-telling of the classic 19th century cautionary tale and monster story, told from the perspective of Frankenstein’s assistant and confidant “Igor” as he helps the gifted but obsessed medical student to create life out of death, to the great consternation of a religious police inspector hell bent on stopping a doomed endeavour in the story of the man, behind the monster, behind the legend that defied God.
Directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy and Jessica Brown Findlay among others.
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