Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, obsessively pursues a means to cheat death and prove that man can achieve godhood by creating life, albeit with dire consequences. For decades, Guillermo del Toro has expressed his desire to adapt Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, demonstrating time and again his reverence for the material throughout his filmography. From Shape of Water to Pinocchio, there is a clear love for monsters and practical visual effects in keeping with the Universal classics with a fantastical, fairy tale charm that has captivated his audiences. But often, as is the case with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi’s opposing roles as the mad doctor and monster respectively, we are invited to question who the real monster is. In this case, del Toro crafts a very close, respectful adaptation of Shelley’s classic with all the gothic trimmings and throwbacks to a bygone cinema era we might expect when we hear the word “Frankenstein” through a very del Toro lens.
In seeking life, I created death.
Visually stunning and taking notes from the original material, we see the Freudian relationship unravel between Victor and his creation from both sides as they recount their version of events during a wrap around segment that sees the two face off in the Arctic circle – a part of the book often ignored by other iconic versions to bear the name. It is in part as melodramatic and operatic as Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stocker’s Dracula (1992) – a film respected by del Toro even if he has less affinity for the aged vampire – while retaining the grim gothic sensibilities that accentuate the moral ambiguity that makes its characters so enriching, though with some clear character bias. Fundamentally, del Toro painstakingly reminds us that Frankenstein isn’t just about a misunderstood monster perceived to be terrorising a peasant village, but a complex cautionary tale about the relationship between creator and creation, where a scientist playing god in an age of atheism seeks to usurp nature, god and death by giving life to dead parts. What he naively believes to be a glorious achievement is in reality a life of suffering and ingratitude from his poor, rejected “monster”.
An idea, a feeling became clear to me. The hunter did not hate the wolf. The wolf did not hate the sheep. But violence felt inevitable between them. Perhaps, I thought, this was the way of the world. It would hunt you and kill you just for being who you are.
By its climax, where Shelley’s original is a gothic rooted in science fiction, del Toro infuses an operatic grandiosity that boasts of the fantastical, where we see the modern science world as magical and exciting as the characters within it. Costumes are extravagant and unique, especially Mia Goth’s in the dual roles as Lady Elizabeth Harlander and Victor’s late mother, Baroness Claire Frankenstein, which are particularly exemplary and theatrically thespian in nature. A mix of costumes, practical and CG effects result in an unquestionable stunning film that perhaps for some only falls short in del Toro’s clear bias that prevents the Monster from ever being anything other than a misunderstood outcast and his creator as an abhorrent, neglectful father.
