Shambling Once More to Life

Once again, archaic machinery sparks and and ignites while a patchwork corpse is held aloft, strapped to a table in a brand new Frankenstein. This one comes from Guillermo del Toro who imbues the work with the lush, fantastically gothic visuals he's known for. It also has marvellous performances from a well chosen cast. Unfortunately, the screenplay offers a more morally simplistic version of the tale than Mary Shelley's original novel. Still, as a filmmaking spectacle, it's well worth watching.

For some reason a few critics have complained that Jacob Elordi is too handsome to play the creature. These critics likely have not read the novel in which Shelley's attraction to the creature is evident. As is well known, she belonged to a circle of authors united by common preoccupations for certain themes. Byron, Blake, even Wordsworth were united by their love for Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's Satan was an attractive hero for the Romantics who pondered the possibilities for a strong willed man, freed from the constraints of religion and morality. The creature is Mary Shelley's own Manfred. He is a victim of the amoral act of his creation but his triumph is also to be beyond morality.

This is something del Toro either does not understand or has no interest in. His version of the creature is innately moral and avoids perpetrating the murders and manipulations he did in the novel. It's a shame because I'd argue that, with a Napoleon in the White House, such questions are well worth exploring now.

Instead, del Toro is interested in the story as one of paternal abuse. Victor's kind and loving father in the novel becomes the cold and physically abusive Charles Dance in the film. This pattern of behaviour manifests again when Victor shows little patience with the fact that the creature comes to life unable to immediately speak fluent English. One consequence of this is that Victor often comes off as cartoonish. His motives often make no sense except from the idea that del Toro wanted him to be generally unpleasant.

Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz are both excellent in the film despite their roles being superfluous. Goth plays Elizabeth, Victor's childhood sweetheart in the book, now the fiancee of his brother in this new film. The love triangle, eventually becoming a square when the monster is introduced, may be more entertaining for others than it was to me. I certainly appreciated Goth's costumes especially since it was clear she did not, as Winona Rider did in Bram Stoker's Dracula, insist on wearing modern underwear.

Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Francis Ford Coppola movie, casts its shadow over this film as it does all fantastic horror made in the years since. Since its release in 1992, a lot of people have tried to do for Frankenstein what Coppola did for Dracula, most obviously Kenneth Branagh with his 1994 film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, made from a Frank Darabont screenplay del Toro admired. I wouldn't say del Toro has finally succeeded where others failed but the visuals are certainly there, even if they aren't as varied and innovative as the ones in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

As Frankenstein movies go, James Whale's films from the 1930s remain unsurpassed. But del Toro's has plenty going for it.

2025's Frankenstein is available on Netflix.