Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein isn’t exactly a horror film, nor is it a metaphor for AI, he claims.
The film, starring Jacob Elordi as the monster and Oscar Isaac as his creator, will premiere Saturday at the Venice Film Fesitval. Despite being over 200 years old, the story of Frankenstein has several themes that remain relevant to today’s audiences, including the dangers of technology.
Speaking ahead of the screening at the film’s official press conference, del Toro waded into the conversation around AI by affirming that his adaptation was not about the rapidly developing technology.
“It’s not intended as a metaphor for that,” del Toro said of AI, per Variety. “We live in a time of terror and intimidation, certainly. And the seminal question in the novel is, what is it to be human? What makes us human? There’s no more urgent task than to remain, in a time where everything is pushing towards a bipolar, understanding of our humanity.
“The movie tries to show imperfect characters and the right we have to remain imperfect, and the right we have to understand each other under the most oppressive circumstances,” he continued before adding, “I’m not afraid of artificial intelligence. I’m afraid of natural stupidity.”
While Frankenstein has been adapted many times, Del Toro previously spoke about his version of the film, vowing it wouldn’t be a horror movie. Speaking to composer Alexandre Desplat at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, he said: “Somebody asked me the other day, does it have really scary scenes?”
“For the first time, I considered that. It is an emotional story for me,” he continued. “It’s as personal as anything. I’m asking a question about being a father, being a son… I’m not doing a horror movie – ever. I’m not trying to do that.”
On how The Shape of Water director and Desplat were working together to finalise a score for the film, del Toro said: “We are finding the emotion. And what I can say is, for me, it’s an incredibly emotional movie.”
This particular version of Frankenstein is emotional for del Toro for a handful of reasons, one of which being the fact that he has dreamed of an adaptation of his own since childhood.
“I’ve been following the creature since I was kid. I waited for the movie do be done in the right conditions creatively,” he said Saturday before the film’s premiere. Now that filming has wrapped and his work on the film is done, he joked: “I’m in postpartum depression.”
In addition to Elordi and Isaac, the film stars Christoph Waltz as Dr. Pretorious and Mia Goth as Victor's fiancée Elizabeth Lavenza.
Frankenstein will be available on Netflix in November.
