Frankenstein is Guillermo del Toro’s magnum opus. Everything that he’s done before this has been a learning lesson and an experiment to give him the skills to create this visually stunning, often frustrating, and familiar tale about one of the most famous monsters. Because we know Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s a classic for a reason. But del Toro manages to tell the story again in a way that feels even more thought-provoking while giving perspective on creation, man’s will, and how cyclical life can be.
At the heart of Frankenstein is the relationship between Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi’s monster. And I’ve got to say, as much as I love Isaac as an actor, it’s Elordi’s monster that really stole the show for me. This is coming from someone who hasn’t watched him in anything. But he did an astounding job at being this imposing but sympathetic creature being thrust into a terrifying new world. And through his monster I felt a sense of almost kinship with him because of the undeserving cruelty he experienced.
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There’s also something about the physicality of a Elordi that speaks of an actor (and director) who had a specific vision for this monster and made sure everything was perfect, to the smallest detail. The way that he moved while being in head to toe prosthetics was eerie but also nervous and curious. His monster was a fully fleshed out character to the point where I forgot that was Elordi at all. All there was was the monster.
Me praising Elordi doesn’t mean that Isaac didn’t shine in his own right. Let me clarify that.
Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein was probably the most frustrating character of the film. And it’s not because he was a bad character. It’s because his arrogance made him the monster he always feared. And when he reached adulthood you realized that he had twisted that arrogance into someone focused but detached from his own humanity and the realities of what he had created, life. Basically if you’re someone who talks to the screen, you’re going to be saying a lot of things to Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein. And it’s not going to be pretty.
Finally we have Mia Goth’s Elizabeth Lavenza. As someone who has watched her absolutely kill it in movies like Pearl and X, I think Frankenstein was her weakest performance in years. She didn’t get the development that I wanted and I couldn’t understand her intentions besides acting as a spark to develop other people’s journeys. Like if you’re going to give me Goth in such stunning looks, like that blue feathered one, the least you can do is give her more to work with that makes her into a fully fledged character instead of an afterthought.
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Besides the lack of development for Goth… everything else was seamless in Frankenstein. The cinematography was haunting, the costume department created this complimentary gothic and morose aesthetic, and the design department understood del Toro’s vision in creating a very specific world, his world, while honoring the source material. Even the location scouts, they deserve their flowers because they came together and understood del Toro’s vision to the point where I’m like, “How can del Toro top this?”
Ultimately, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein was a cautionary tale about how far humans will go. If not in the name of science then in the name of being right and imposing their will, humans take things too far. Within that space of going too far, suffering happens. Pain happens. Loss happens. But it’s also important to remember that from that pain, there is rebirth. And that’s 100% for Frankenstein.
Frankenstein hits select theaters on October 17, 2025. It premieres on Netflix on November 7, 2025.
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