Frankenstein’s creature is a monster made of love and craft.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is not a retelling — it’s a resurrection. A work decades in the making, the Oscar-winning filmmaker has reimagined Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece as a reflection on creation, compassion, and the complex bond between fathers and sons.
“This story found me when I was seven,” del Toro said during the press conference. “I saw Boris Karloff’s eyes and realized I had discovered my religion. The creature wasn’t a monster; he was a martyr.”
That devotion is palpable in every frame. Built with tactile sets, handcrafted prosthetics, and emotional intimacy, Frankenstein is del Toro’s most personal film to date. “Nothing in this movie is eye candy,” he said. “It’s all protein. It’s nutritious — everything you see or hear tells the story.”
The Soul Behind the Science
As Victor Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac delivers one of his most complex performances — a man driven by brilliance and blinded by grief. During the global press conference, I asked Isaac about the heart of Victor’s tragedy and if there was a single line or scene that made you pity him instead of judging him?”
Isaac noted, “Well, I never judged him. I don’t think the movie judges him either. It’s just the blindness of what he’s reacting to. I remember when Guillermo showed me those sixty pages — the first thirty and the last thirty — and when I read those last thirty, it was tears streaming down my face. His recognition of the creature as his son, and yet separate from him, and releasing him from this curse that was destined to keep going and going, I found incredibly moving. The grace in that moment — even after all the cruelty — that was everything.”
Isaac’s interpretation grounds the film in raw humanity. “Victor believes himself a victim,” del Toro explained. “Every tyrant does. They say, ‘Poor me,’ as they destroy everyone around them.”
Jacob Elordi, who plays the Creature, approached his performance with a childlike vulnerability. “Every line was something I’ve asked myself — ‘Why am I here?’” he said. “It’s a gift to play someone who begins in death and finds life.” To embody the reanimated being, Elordi studied Butoh, the Japanese “dance of death.” “Guillermo wanted me to start from the grave — to find grace in decay,” he said. He even found inspiration in his dog. “She gave me life,” he laughed. “That innocence became the Creature.”
The Women Who See Through the Madness
Mia Goth’s Elizabeth Harlander provides the emotional clarity the story demands — the soul who sees both Victor and the Creature for who they truly are. During our roundtable, Goth described her character as “a montage of femininity — a spirit, a mother, a romantic, and a maiden all at once.”
“Elizabeth’s superpower,” Goth said, “is that she sees everyone precisely as they are. She has no aesthetic criteria for her morals. She’d treat a butterfly and a cockroach the same way. That’s why she connects with the creature — she sees the soul, not the surface.”
Goth’s portrayal is serene yet fierce, a reflection of the calm she practiced on set. “I’d meditate before every shoot,” she said. “That quiet, peaceful space — that’s where Elizabeth lives.”
Costume designer Kate Hawley, a frequent del Toro collaborator, said their process was “alchemy.” “Guillermo gives you this beautiful, articulate framework,” she explained, “but he leaves room for instinct. The costumes weren’t decoration — they were anatomy. Each layer of fabric told part of the story.”
Mia recalled her first day on set: “It was silent. Everyone knew what time it was — Guillermo del Toro was making the movie he was born to make. No chit-chat, just reverence.”
And that reverence began early each day. “He’s up at 4 a.m. editing the footage,” Hawley said. “He’s already cutting what we shot yesterday. He doesn’t sleep — he dreams awake.”
Brotherhood and Burden
As William Frankenstein, Felix Kammerer brings emotional grounding to a story often defined by chaos. “William and Victor are classic brothers — one loved, one lost,” he said. “Victor’s the hoarder in the basement; William’s the golden child. But only brothers can tell each other the truth.”
Del Toro guided Kammerer’s portrayal through something intimate. “He sent me a picture of himself as a child,” Kammerer shared. “He said, ‘That’s what I want in William — sad eyes trying to do good.’ I kept that photo on set every day. Little Guillermo was never far.”
That connection defines the film’s theme. “It’s about forgiveness,” Kammerer said. “Even when you don’t want to forgive, you must eventually find love again. That’s what makes us human.”
Painting Light and Sound with Emotion
Behind the camera, Dan Laustsen and Alexandre Desplat reunited with del Toro to shape the film’s visual and emotional language. “We wanted the creature to be beautiful,” Laustsen said. “The first time you see him, the light touches his face like sunrise. We never shot him to be scary. The monster should look like a beautiful person discovering himself.”
Desplat’s score mirrors that evolution. “At first, the music trembles,” he said. “By the end, it breathes. You realize you’re not watching horror — you’re watching humanity. My job was to bring you inside these souls. You can only have empathy if you understand who’s in front of you.”
Laustsen added, “The last shot of the film — the Creature looking into the sun — mirrors his first moment of light. It’s a full circle of life. From darkness to forgiveness.”
The Faith of the Filmmaker
Frankenstein is del Toro’s cinematic sermon — a meditation on creation and compassion that transcends genre. “We are the books our parents write,” he said softly. “Forgiveness and acceptance make us human — and right now, they’re rare.”
Every department —from costumes to camera to score —speaks the same language: love as the antidote to horror. As del Toro put it, “Monsters are the most human of us all. They’re metaphors for outsiders. And through them, we learn who we are.”
Read my full review and catch it now in Select Theaters or stream on Netflix starting November 7th.
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Sean Tajipour
Sean Tajipour is the Founder and Editor of Nerdtropolis and the host of the Moviegoers Society and Reel Insights Podcast. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. You can follow on Twitter and Instagram @Seantaj.
