Director - Guillermo del Toro
Cast - Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Lauren Collins, Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz
Duration – 150 Minutes
Rating – 3
 
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is beautifully made remake that transports Mary Shelley's 1818 novel onto the screen in gothic splendor and emotional depth. With his 13th film, the Oscar-winning filmmaker brings the classic story to life with his trademark mixture of macabre elegance, haunting imagery, and profound humanity. Similar to his remake of Pinocchio, this adaptation of Frankenstein takes the source material to heart and adds thematic complexity and cinematic audacity.
 
It begins with a stunning sequence on board an ice-encased Danish ship, setting both the scope and ambition of del Toro's imagination. From there, the story expands into a grand investigation of scientific fixation, death, and what it is to be human. With equal ease combining the sensibilities of horror, tragedy, and dark fantasy, the film weighs its genre elements against literary devotion, remaining more true to Shelley's original novel than any of the preceding adaptations.
 
Oscar Isaac gives a riveting performance as Victor Frankenstein, conveying the descent into madness in the character with complexity and passion. His acting brings out the intellect and emotional instability of a man compelled to go against nature. Jacob Elordi lends surprise vulnerability and seriousness to the Creature role, especially in the latter half of the film, which focuses on the monster's own transformation. This view complicates the storytelling, adding depth to the emotional stakes and disturbing long-established audience sympathies.
 
Del Toro's perfectionistic attention to visual detail is evident on every frame. Working for the second time with cinematographer Dan Laustsen, the film contains lush, painterly sequences full of flickering candlelight, storm-lashed laboratories, and barren, snow-shrouded landscapes. The production design is lavish and deteriorating, reflecting the director's thematic duality of beauty and ugliness that characterizes her greatest work. Every detail—costume, lighting—is designed to enhance the mood, transporting audiences to a place where science and superstition meet.
 
The rest of the cast rounds out the production. David Bradley delivers a highlight-reel turn as the Blind Man, anchoring one of the movie's most emotionally impactful passages. Throughout, the cast lends support to a story that is both epic in scope and character-study intimate.
 
Musically, it's pushed along by a lamenting, sweeping score that identifies its emotional moments without overwhelming them. Sound design is just as accurate, ramping up tension and underscoring the unnerving presence of the Creature without resorting to cliche.
 
Ticking in at almost two and a half hours, the tempo is measured but never indulgent. Every chapter of Victor's narrative—and that of the Creature—is afforded space to breathe, underscoring the epic scope of the tale without losing momentum. Del Toro's direction is always tight and purposeful, never veering from the themes of death, ambition, creation, and playing god at the core of the story.
 
This remake is one of the most faithful and visually provocative interpretations of Frankenstein on record. Instead of reimagining the story, del Toro streamlines it—heightening its emotional resonance, underscoring its humanity, and casting a spotlight on the moral complexity at its heart. The outcome is a movie that respects its literary roots while making a strong case for itself as a work of cinema.
 
Frankenstein is a masterpiece of modern genre filmmaking. It achieves a judicious balance of literary respect and unflinching artistry, providing a monster movie that speaks on a profoundly human level. This is peerless filmmaking—a work of vision, craft, and storytelling accuracy—as emotionally resonant as it is visually dazzling.