[31 Days of Horror XII] Day 16

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelson, David Bradley, Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro
149 mins. Rated R for bloody violence and grisly images.

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) has been wanting to make an adaptation of Frankenstein for decades, so much so that I specifically remember actors he wanted in specific roles that eventually aged out of those roles. Now, thanks to Netflix’s deep pocketbooks, he’s gotten his chance to deliver on that dream. The result is exactly what I expected in terms of visual style, performance, and production, while he makes a few very interesting choices in how he sticks to and deviates from the source material.

Told in flashback aboard a ship in the Arctic, Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac, Dune) recounts his life story: losing his mother, his dedication to conquering death, the love he shares for his brother’s bride-to-be, and his eventual creation of a Creature (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn) made from the flesh of dead bodies and electricity from the heavens. When the Creature is loosed upon the world, it goes on a journey of self-discovery, leading him back to Victor with a deadly request.

There have been countless adaptations of Frankenstein over the many decades of cinema, and what I find so interesting each time are the elements from the novel that are kept as well as where the filmmaker deviates from them. Now, I’m not beholden to accuracy in adaptations (the best adaptations make changes and sometimes sacrifices to deliver the best movie possible in this particular medium), but having read the novel a few times, it’s fascinating to see how these directors interpret the material to fit their vision. In del Toro’s case, he’s taken a harder edge to the titular doctor himself, perhaps not as villainous as Hammer’s interpretation, made famous by Peter Cushing, but his unrelenting need to control everything around him feels natural to the book and something we don’t often see in Victor: he’s an asshole, which ties back to a line in the film, “only monsters play God.” There’s a moment when Victor narrates his childhood and his father’s preference for his brother, and he’s seen hiding behind a tree, back bent, clutching and hiding, a traditional pose for a monster-in-hiding.

It’s easy to see that del Toro favors the monsters in his monster tales. He’s made no secret of that, and the statement is just as true with his version of the Creature. It became obvious to me within a few moments of seeing the characterization of the Creature that it’s been on del Toro’s mind for so long. Knowing that he, at one time, envisioned Doug Jones in the role can still be seen, as can someone like Luke Goss, who the director has worked with several times, but Jacob Elordi is drop-dead terrific as well. In part due to the makeup effects, he completely disappears into the role, and had I not known it was him, I wouldn’t have guessed it. His tall and thin framework make for a physical and foreboding beast that takes in all the energy of the room he’s in. Del Toro even imbues his creature with a supernatural strength and healing ability that make him a Creature who may not be killable, a frightening but ultimately tragic sentence to bestow on one so damaged and broken.

Del Toro has spoken of his love for this story so often in the past, and he’s got great respect, not just for the novel, but even eventual adaptation, most notably the design of Universal and Hammer’s output from the 30s and 50s, respectively. He’s made effort not to directly reference those films, including avoiding the iconic “It’s Alive!” or the look of the Creature, but his production design pulls enough from the time periods that I could see how much the story and characters have influenced much of his career. Early on, there is a funeral scene that feels pulled out of the gothic blood-red Hammer aesthetic, and the statuesque, towering building that makes for Frankenstein’s laboratory is both haunting and impractically beautiful. I also loved his visualization of the framing story’s ship and Captain, played by Lars Mikkelson, something that doesn’t often appear in adaptations of the novel. It’s always been one of my favorite pieces of imagery from the book, and he captures it well here, with masterful work by Director of Photography Dan Laustsen.

It’s odd to think that the biggest criticism is that this is mostly the movie I expected. It’s elegant, gothic, emotional, and thrilling, and if you asked me to describe a Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein, I could see a lot of this film in my answer, but again, it’s where he differentiates from the others that really makes this worth seeing, including a fantastic role from Mia Goth (Pearl) as Elizabeth, fiancé to Victor’s brother, who shares several powerful scenes with the Creature. I appreciated those moments in particular, as she doesn’t feel like any other version of the character in any other adaptation of the story.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is another signature vision from one of our greatest storytellers. This is a Frankenstein film that embodies the filmmakers’ greatest strengths, and there’s great love for his version of the characters and story. The movie is gorgeous and grotesque, and it expounds on some of my favorite elements, like the Creature’s time with the Blind Man (David Bradley, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). Del Toro makes good on capturing his vision of the story, and he’s aided by great performances from his entire cast. See it in a theater so hopefully Netflix continues releasing films this way and then see it again on the streamer. Hell, I know I will.

4/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

• For my review of Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, click here.