Netflix’s Frankenstein review: a classic tale with del Toro’s signature flair

Guillermo del Toro has been thinking about Mary Shelley’s novel all his life. It has been described Frankenstein Described as “the quintessential teen book,” his famous Bleak House in Los Angeles is filled with versions of the creature from various films and plays. It is natural for the director himself to imagine turning it into a film. “I dream that I can achieve the best Frankenstein “Whether it’s great or not, it’s done. Ever,” he said a decade ago, “but if you do it, you’ve done it. Great or not, it’s done. You can’t dream of it anymore.”

Del Toro’s position Frankenstein Not a dramatic reinvention of the classic monster myth. Instead, he explores the story through the lens of the director’s ongoing preoccupations: finding beauty in the darkness, the taint of innocence, and the inevitable parent-child conflict. He then imbues the film with his own distinctive sense of style and attention to detail, transforming a 200-year-old story into something almost entirely his own.

The essence of the story remains the same. It is told from two perspectives: the first is Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), an egomaniac obsessed with the idea of ​​conquering death. He’s shown his findings to respected doctors and scientists, but mostly everyone finds his theatrics — which involve shaking a jagged log at a brief moment in life — disturbing and terrifying. That is until Victor meets Harlander (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy arms dealer who agrees to fund his reanimation research.

One of the film’s strengths is how clearly it depicts Victor’s obsession. His mother, to whom he was very close, died when he was young, and he spent the rest of his childhood being tutored in medical science by a cold and distant father. This combination created an inexhaustible desire to bring the dead back to life. With Harlander’s support, he was able to fully focus on this. He builds a laboratory in a remote tower and carefully combs morgues and battlefields for the parts he needs, examining corpses as if picking a steak from a butcher.

Frankenstein He gets into the nitty-gritty of this act of creation, which helps anchor the fictional story. For example, the creature was unusually tall, because Victor realized that it would be easier to work on larger parts of the body. Seeing all the work and thought that went into the process means that even though you know what’s coming, it still feels like a miracle when Victor flips the switch and the Stitched Together Man (Jacob Elordi) comes back to life.

Things change as soon as the creature opens its eyes. As Victor notes early on, “he never thought about what would come after creation.” There are some brief and sweet spots where Victor acts like a real father, but he also keeps the creature chained up in the basement. The creature is powerful and has healing powers—imagine a gothic Wolverine—but its mind develops slowly. For a long time, the only word he could say was “Victor.” This angers Victor to an incredible degree. In the end, he regrets his invention and tries to destroy it by blowing up the laboratory.

It’s a heartbreaking moment that thrusts an unsuspecting giant into a cruel world. From there, the story is presented from the creature’s perspective. It wasn’t long before the world similarly abandoned him, despite his gentle nature, due to his terrifying face. One of the few things keeping him going is Elizabeth (Mia Goth), Victor’s sister-in-law, the only one who views the creature as a person. Eventually, the creature – who cannot escape its bleak life through death due to its healing powers – pursues Victor to seek revenge.

Aside from some changes, this is generally the case Frankenstein It falls into most interpretations. But there are a few things that elevate del Toro’s ability to take on a long-running story. The first is how clearly and strongly he leans toward the patriarchal theme. Victor is a bad father, who only really cares about his offspring in terms of what gets out of them. He wants the creature to be intelligent and impressive to validate his work. When things don’t go right away, he expels the creature and exonerates himself from the whole ordeal. This wounded monster then spends the rest of his life trying to find some sort of meaning in his suffering, and—despite his understandable anger—never completely abandoning his father figure. The way the relationship culminates in the end is surprisingly moving.

Every element of the film is laser focused on reinforcing that theme. Isaac’s natural charisma makes him an ideal conqueror. Meanwhile, Elordi takes you on a true emotional journey, starting as a tall, doe-eyed child before becoming a terrifying and tragic monster. He also looks different from any iteration of the monster before, a pale man covered in geometric scars that somehow seems plausible and fantastical. All of this works in concert with the stunning set design, elaborate costumes, and haunting dream imagery that del Toro’s films are known for. Even the coffins look incredible.

It may have taken a while to get done, but you can really see where that time went while watching Frankenstein. Like the man-made monster at the heart of the story, the film brings disparate but familiar elements together to create something that feels alive and new.

_{Frankenstein Coming to select theaters on October 17 and streaming on Netflix on November 7.}