Release Date – 17th October 2025, Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 30 minutes, Director – Guillermo del Toro
After achieving his dreams of bringing life to a creature assembled from the dead, Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is hunted by his attacked creation (Jacob Elordi).
In a London Film Festival where press queues featured bold (and sometimes irritatingly pretentious) claims such as “Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t as good an actor as everyone says he is” one of the most baffling was “I can’t think of a worse director to have tackled that story.” An undoubtedly bold, and I would presume largely disagreed upon, view in relation to Guillermo del Toro and Frankenstein.
Throughout his life and career del Toro has radiated a love for monsters, often highlighting Frankenstein as a key influence. Adapting Mary Shelley’s novel feels like a perfect marriage for the writer-director, tingeing the story with his passion for seeing monsters in the everyday. Perhaps explaining why his take is much more direct in viewing Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) monstrous side, having delved further into madness after his creation comes to life, and the humanity within The Creature (Jacob Elordi). Perhaps in a similar vein to what he did with elements of Pan’s Labyrinth.
Having formed his creation, with much of Alexandre Desplat’s score as the scientist tinkers away at his dream of giving life back to the dead having a feeling of curious exploration which would be also fitting of a family adventure flick, Frankenstein quickly flees in disappointment at the surface of what he’s done. Although, The Creature is quickly on the hunt for him. For answers and revenge. Fuelled by anger and with little love shown from the rest of the world for his presumed monstrosity.
Throughout the film, whether scenes in the frozen Arctic or Victorian Britain, the production and costume design, alongside excellent cinematography – The Creature stood alone in the ice as the sun sets creates one of the best shots of the year, almost eliciting an audible ‘wow’ from myself – are all excellent. Creating immersive detail which intensifies the gothic qualities at hand which del Toro himself is clearly just as lost in when it comes to the how his monsters fit in to what’s around them.
Yet, whilst surrounded by the strong visual detail Isaac still bursts from the screen with a truly fantastic performance. Outside of technical categories the film seems to no longer be even a proper outsider in the upcoming awards race, largely down to its genre. However, while Isaac’s name hasn’t widely been in the Leading Actor mix he’s more than deserving of recognition as the titular character descends into madness, regret and fear. All naturally growing over time. When we first meet him, having just been saved by a group of stranded sailors, he’s losing hope in frantically escaping Elordi’s figure, almost admitting that he has to properly confront his playing God.
There may be some points where it feels like things are perhaps being more gradually built-up to, especially in the half-condensed early years of the titular character’s life, but there’s still plenty of detail to be lost in throughout del Toro’s largely faithful adaptation. And as a whole the two-and-a-half hour run-time certainly isn’t felt across a narrative tinged with a love for monsters in the everyday.
Amongst the immense visual detail, Oscar Isaac’s central performance bursts from the screen in Frankenstein, a telling of the story which, while gradually paced to start, is made by del Toro’s love for monsters in the everyday.
Just A Little Bit Random 