Frankenstein received a limited release in theaters beginning October 17, followed by a November 7 release on Netflix.
Stories of intergenerational trauma are nothing new: they are chronicles of pain that is passed from parent to child and, over time, right to the next child, never breaking the cycle. As Mrs. Potts once said, it's a story as old as time itself. From Kronos eating his babies, only to suffer the eventual wrath of those children under Zeus, who passed on his own twisted problems to his countless children, to Michael Corleone's fall into the very underworld his father hoped he would rise above, the pain is real.
It's also a great way to tell compelling stories. Which brings us to Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro.
Almost everyone knows the story of Frankenstein and del Toro – who was I'm trying to make a film based on the cult novel created by for at least 20 years—in no way different from Mary Shelley's work that anyone other than OG fans might notice. Some characters are missing, others are added, but the core of the story remains intact: man creates the monster, man rejects the monster, the monster gets angry. But not only are these bones intact, they also appear to have been extracted (cut?) from Dr. Frankenstein's finest selections, his best specimens, because this iteration of Frankenstein, like his Creature, is a beautiful, haunting thing that makes classic themes feel fresh and new.
Not only is Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) the monster for most of the film – a replica of everyone's favorite question “who is the real monster?” line – but he is a monster that was spawned To monster, his strict and cruel father Leopold (played by Charles Dance, who at this stage of his career is destined to play the same pathetic asshole over and over again). So of course, this generational pain continues to rear its ugly head—or perhaps in this case, not so ugly—as Victor brings his creature to life, played by the scarred but still movie-star handsome Jacob Elordi.
Elordi is a marvel here (and his Thing displays Marvel-style superhuman abilities, which is fun), belying his roles as bad guys or unlikable characters in games like Euphoria, Priscilla, and Saltburn. No, while the Creature in GDT's Frankenstein can ruin your mood if he has to – and in fact he corrupts both men and beasts in impressive ways – del Toro writes him and Elordi plays him in the best tradition of Karloff, a sympathetic, moody bastard who just wants Friend. That the actor also seems to channel the body work of GDT regular and Creature player extraordinaire Doug Jones only highlights how different Elordi's Creature is from past incarnations. He turns his body, twists his waist, leans forward and backward, and tilts his head in a way that always reminds us what, after all, the Creature's body really is series of bodies who are still getting used to each other.
On the other hand, Isaac as Victor sometimes risks becoming too obnoxious. When his Being is born, sincere moments of affection arise between them. But the newborn's apparent inability to develop and grow—in terms of speech, he can go no further than repeating “Win-or” over and over again—frustrates the brilliant and, frankly, stupid doctor. Like his father before him, Victor punishes his child rather than educates him. And so the cycle continues, and the Creature never even has a chance at a normal existence, despite his appearance. But as a result, Isaac's Victor almost becomes the film's villain, which may not be a new concept in the Frankenstein mythos, but sometimes works against the film during the character's darkest moments. (Colin Clive, who played the mad doctor opposite the monster Boris Karloff, always evoked sympathy, mind you, even when he was operating at the peak Looney Tunes.)
And then there's Mia Goth, who brings the otherworldliness to Elizabeth Harlander's character that has become something of a trademark of the MaXXXine and Suspiria actress. In the book, the character, named Elisabeth Lavenza, is accepted into the Frankenstein family and eventually marries Victor, but in this version she is engaged to Victor's brother William (“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Felix Kammerer). William usually does not survive into adulthood when he is present in Frankenstein's story, falling victim to the Creature in a brutal act of revenge. But again, del Toro tweaks and twists these plot elements: William becomes Victor's traditional love interest and also gives Elizabeth an uncle in Christoph Waltz's Heinrich Harlander. And while Waltz is generally a welcome addition to any film, his character – the benefactor who pays for Victor's experiments – ultimately doesn't add much other than help make the film a little longer than it needs to be.
Frankenstein is full of blood, dismembered limbs, severed jaws and crushed skulls, but it is not a horror film. Like the director's 2015 gothic romance Crimson Peak, the film feels expansive, immersing the viewer in a world where a sad wife's crimson dress is set against the stark backdrop of a dark castle. It is a place where the city streets are red with the blood of slaughter, where the frozen battlefield is marked by an ice-covered horse still galloping with its rider on horseback. And at the same time, the beauty of creation itself is contagious, as when the Elordi Being encounters the sun for the first time. As Vikor tells him: “The sun is life.”
Del Toro also wears his geek reputation on his sleeve. The Creature's design is clearly inspired by the comic book legend. Frankenstein by Bernie Wrightsonwhile Victor's early experiment involves half a corpse coming to life in a thrilling but somewhat funny scene that seems ripped straight out of Return of the Living Dead. The combination of influences fused together and brought to life by genius is especially appropriate here, given the subject matter of this film and the more than 100 years of adaptations that Mary Shelley's work has endured. And del Toro's love for the source material itself is always on display, as the director tells his unique version of this classic story while maintaining respect for Shelley's book, which he clearly lives and breathes.
Anyone who knows the book can tell you that there is no happy ending in sight for either Victor or the Creature. But for del Toro, the cursed Frankenstein family deserves redemption after all these years of suffering and self-inflicted pain. The fact that GDT chose to tell its story in two parts – one from Victor's point of view and the other from the Thing's point of view – only proves that it is ultimately a story of redemption and forgiveness. Will the Creature be able to forgive Victor for his parental mistakes? Will Victor be able to break the long cycle of violence? Well, you know what they say: All you need is love.
