Frankenstein Review: Guillermo del Toro’s Gorgeous, Gothic Reanimation is a Masterpiece
Venice Film Festival
With Oscar Isaac as the mad scientist and Jacob Elordi as the creature, the Mexican director finds fresh horror and revived heart in the Mary Shelley classic
Words by Alex Secilmis 30 August 2025
© Netflix
Frankenstein is not a horror film—at least according to its maker. After trying to get the project off the ground for nearly 20 years, Guillermo del Toro has reimagined Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel as an opulent tragedy that puts the emotional stakes of the warped father-son relationship under the microscope. Far from the thrills of a flashy popcorn chiller, del Toro has made a sensitive, meditative blockbuster about nature, nurture, and the torture of being brought into a violent world.
Still wounded by the loss of his mother (Mia Goth), Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is an arrogant, brilliant man singularly driven by an obsession to conquer death. We follow Isaac through the damp, cobbled streets of Edinburgh as he presents to the Royal Medical Society and finds a patron for his research in the slimy Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), a new character who introduces an external force for Victor to clash with. As he assembles a man (Jacob Elordi) from pieces of corpses, the only thing distracting him from his morbid pursuits is Elizabeth Lavenza (in a rather telling bit of casting, also Mia Goth). Elizabeth is his brother’s fiancée—a welcome departure from the novel, where she was his adopted sister. When his experiment eventually succeeds, he quickly becomes horrified by what he has created.
© Netflix
Unfolding on stunning practical sets, Frankenstein is an unabashedly grand film—a high drama drenched in incessant downpour and dressed in lavish costumes. Production designer Tamara Deverell builds a veritably epic world of desolate, dank towers and North Pole-bound ships, while costume designer Kate Hawley, reuniting with del Toro for the first time since Crimson Peak, outdoes herself with a plethora of striking garments, especially Mia Goth’s bright-coloured gowns covered in shimmering tulle. Grounding us in the 19th century, Alexandre Desplat’s decadent orchestral score ties all the elements together.
The lush world is half the film’s charm, with the other being the stellar cast. Imbuing the part with rockstar swagger and a bulging ego, Oscar Isaac is an inspired choice for this generation's Victor Frankenstein. He articulates the character’s single-minded intensity and deep-rooted pain with aplomb, ensuring we remain invested in a deeply flawed protagonist. Meanwhile, Mia Goth is enthralling as a woman who shares Victor’s love of creatures but not his vanity. Her ethereal, intense performance is a perfect match for a weighty Gothic tale about defying death.
© Netflix
While the cast is unanimously impressive, this is Jacob Elordi’s film. Looking like a deformed marble statue, Elordi’s monster is a rich, emotive, and heart-wrenching portrayal of corrupted innocence that lingers after the credits roll. It’s unsurprising that it was his turn as the lusted-after Felix in Saltburn that caught del Toro’s eye. Where he gave a disarming depth to the object of desire in Emerald Fennell’s film, in Frankenstein, he does the same to an object of fear and disgust.
© Netflix
When Frankenstein ultimately makes a significant change to its source material, the creative license feels entirely earned after its skilful expansion of themes in Shelley’s original. Del Toro stalled the project because he considered his favourite novel to be the “pinnacle of everything” and feared making anything less than great. Thankfully, the fears were unwarranted.