Frankenstein Movie REVIEW [Venice Film Festival 2025]

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein sees the fantastical auteur’s heart poured into his trademark mesmerising craftsmanship, breathing new life into the Godfather of all monsters.

“What does it mean to be human?” is the question as the centre of Mary Shelley’s timeless gothic novel Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus. This same question has been at the heart of many of Guillermo Del Toro’s masterworks, so and adaptation of the classic by one of today’s most creative filmmakers has always felt inevitable; so it is a joy to witness an auteurs heart and soul be laid bare in a work that feels deeply personal and wholly distinct, yet entirely faithful to the deep questions of humanity, life and death, despite emerging within an ocean of already endless adaptations of Shelley’s works.

It takes no time at all for Del Toro to immerse us in the ruthless and unforgiving world of Frankenstein, where in 1857, at the frigid shores of the North Pole, the German ship Horizon finds itself stranded, trapped in a prison of ice, with Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen) and his men sparring no expense in working tirelessly to free themselves from their icy shackles and finally return home.

Unexpectedly, they find a wreckage where sled dogs sit howling to the moon next to a burned down tent, eventually discovering a man seemingly only half alive, who once taken to safety aboard the ship reveals his name to be Victor Frankenstein (Oscaar Isaac), a brilliant scientist who lives his days on a hunt for his monstrous creation (Jacob Elordi). Del Toro, fully aware of how tried & true the story of Man and Monster has become on screen through the years; he imbues his version of the tale with traditional Del Toro magic, structuring the narrative as a story about stories themselves: the stories we tell, the stories we keep and the stories we ache to forget.

The director’s adulation for monsters has been no secret throughout his career, he gives a part of himself to the stories he tells, like any great artist worth their merit, and perhaps that has never been truer than with Frankenstein, his story poses the question of what it means to be human, but instead of seeking unfathomable answers, he rejects the very notion that it could ever be answer. The weight of existential dread is felt from the moment Victor begins telling his tale, or at least his version of it, and permeates throughout the film, becoming a character in it of itself.

Dragging the dagger deeper into the heart of the tale, we witness Victor’s ruthless and unnurtured upbringing under his watchful father Leopold (Charles Dance), whose professorial disposition towards his son immediately twists the question proposed in the novel into “What makes a monster?”, tragically ensuring Victor’s obsession becomes not just to best his father academically, but to outdo every man like him, Victor’s mission statement after the too early death of his mother Claire (Lauren Collins) during labour of Victor’s younger brother William (Felix Kammerer), is to conquer death.

A path that maybe could’ve been avoided after being rejected by scientific peers, if not for the intervention of Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz); an excentric, and most importantly for Victor: wealthy, arms merchant who offers himself to be Victor’s patron, providing infinite funds to support his research and experiments, after being fascinated by the idea of death no longer being an end, a worded by Victor, during a presentation at Edinburgh university.

To Victor, Harlender is the physical embodiment of salvation, an angel sent from heaven to combat the angel of death’s statue that haunts Victor’s dreams since childhood at it starred at the genius from across his room into his bed since he was a child, the angel Victor blames for taking his mother. Harlender proves himself to be a kind soul to Victor; not only is he offered a laboratory to work on freely with everything he may need provided, but Harlender also brings Victor and his brother William back together, as the merchant’s niece Elisabeth (Mia Goth) is to wed the younger Frankenstein.

Yet again Victor finds himself at a crossroads, becoming enchanted by Elisabeth after the two bond over their, very different yet similar, shared fondness for the “other”, yet again a Del Toro quality he injects into his characters and world. Visually, what started as an oppressively bleak world gains new colour once Elisabeth becomes part of Victor’s life and a romance between the two nearly blossoms into life with genuinely tender chemistry between Isaac and Goth. But Victor’s obsession is all consuming, Del Toro’s old friend & frequent collaborator Dan Lausten’s juxtaposes the beauty and tragedy with the quite literal definition of “movie magic”; every shot is transportive, it immerses us into each set and every bit of emotion captured in each character’s face.

This is the clear work of artists keenly familiar with one another sensibilities, the camera brings the horror while never failing to capture the beauty that is seen through the eyes of Victor’s creation when he’s finally brought to life in one of the best sequences of the year where a frenetic Isaac battles the elements, and seemingly the will of God, to achieve his goal and finally bring the patchwork man to life. Victor has finally conquered death, or at least that’s one half of the story…

From here on Elordi delivers the performance of his career, balancing both anguish and tenderness using only body language and facial expressions; his moves twitchy and unsure like that of a wounded animal in fear of the world he does not yet know despite his imposing frame, paired with a captivating Oscar Isaac who poetically mirrors his own creation in the film: once a kind and pure boy hurt and shunned by the world, even those who were meant to love him, now a bitter and egotistical man who despises what he brought to the world.

Chaining the Creature in the sewers below his laboratory never to be seen by others, appalled by the imperfections he sees in his deeds, and perhaps refuses to accept about himself. Victor’s frustration with the Creature grows every day, be it due to the autonomy shown or the lack of instant growth and intelligence, Victor becoming just as stern, unforgiving and ruthless as his father once was to him, and, just like Victor once chased his father, his Creature now chases him across landscapes and years.

In a story about stories, a story about monsters, it’d be disingenuous for Del Toro not to offer the Creature’s POV; and after barging into the ship, taking the lives of several of Anderson’s man who try to stop him, Victor’s son finally meets him and gets a chance to share his truth. This is where Del Toro, the lover of all monsters and myths, takes down on a surprisingly powerful heart wrenching route where we see the world through the Creature’s pure eyes, a world where cruelty and hate are a human disease, spread through the fear of the other and the unknown.

But there is endless beauty to be found in tragedy; most notably when we see Elordi flesh out his character thanks to Del Toro’s brilliant writing as Victor’s conquest, despite living in overwhelming fear travels the vast landscapes lost and lonely, taking what he can from the world but secretly watching, secretly learning and reading, and even learns to communicate, eventually connecting with a blind man (David Bradley) who bears no hate towards the complete stranger, but simply shares what little he has with this newly found kindred soul and eventual friend, despite his family unknowingly attempting to harm the Creature simply because it does not look natural or of this world.

Del Toro wisely lingers in these beautiful moments between the Creature and the blind man, the simple kindness of spending time together, sharing a roof and a meal and a walk through the forest proving themselves better and more nurturing teaching tools than those Victor ever proved to his would-be-son. The visual language of the film contrasts Adam’s tale with that of Victor, transforming from a hateful and bitter world into one that is full of kindness and empathy, a world where forgiveness and love can exist; but these are concepts that while understood by the Creature they aren’t felt, they haven’t been lived, constantly reminding him of the biggest curse… he can’t die.

Consumed by anguish, the thirst for vengeance and connection brings him to hunt down his father, continuing the endless cycle of hate that is all consuming to men and all creatures; but where there is savagery and brutality and death and pain, Del Toro, in his clear reverence and love for mystery, offers a sense of wonder amidst the tragedy and ultimately the hope that as long as we’re here, as long as we seek answers to myths and monsters and the truth of men, the sun can rise again, the day begins a new, and we can have another chance.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein sees the fantastical auteur’s heart poured into his trademark mesmerising craftsmanship, breathing new life into the Godfather of all monsters. This beautifully haunting tragic tale as old as time about monsters & men & stories is visually immaculate & thematically soulful.

FINAL GRADE: A+

Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein will be coming to Netflix in November 2025, after a limited theatrical release in select theaters on October 17, 2025.

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