Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is currently available to stream with a Netflix subscription, and after watching it, I'd say it's easily his best work yet. I say this as someone who believes Pacific Rim should be a. major IP, loved Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, and was admittedly creeped out by The Shape Of Water.
Be that as it may, I'm here with the scorching hot take that decades from now, the filmmaking community will get together and decide that Frankenstein will be Guillermo del Toro's best film. It may sound like a wild take given it's a movie primarily made for streaming and he's had award-winning feature films, but hear me out on this one.
Guillermo Del Toro Has The Perfect Style That Compliments Classic Monster Stories
I've always felt that Guillermo del Toro is a master of horror, but perhaps one who was born in the wrong era for the genre. The best horror movies of the day lean into gore and disturbing visuals that make you want to look away. It's not the del Toro style, which tends to take the ugly and find a way to romanticize it and make it beautiful.
Case in point, The Shape of Water is one of GDT's best-reviewed movies. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and yet it still draws a healthy amount of debate when viewers discuss if it's a movie that's centered around bestiality. I'm not here to get into that argument, but if you're not familiar, just do a quick search and read into the discourse.
To speak to the different strengths Guillermo del Toro has as a director, a lot of Frankenstein reminded me of what I loved about Crimson Peak. I remember being disappointed when I saw it because the movie wasn't remotely as scary as the trailer made it seem. However, I also couldn't get over just how hauntingly beautiful the visuals are. It's eerie and sometimes grotesque, but he finds a way to make the viewer see the beauty in objectively upsetting things.
His Vision Of Frankenstein Results In A Creature That Feels More Real Than The Original
Maybe it's unfair of me to compare the modern Frankenstein to the 1931 classic starring Boris Karloff since filmmaking has evolved so much since then, but there hasn't been a version of the character more prevalent in pop culture. For decades, we as a society have accepted the flat top head with neck bolts and green skin as what Victor Frankenstein created, and I know I never once thought about how bizarre that is.
What I love most about the new Frankenstein is that Jacob Elordi's character feels like a better representation of what a re-animated corpse would look like. This is especially coming from a surgeon believed to be as skilled as Victor Frankenstein, who would want more than just any corpse when it came to "defeating death," as he put it. Of course, his creation would be a mixture of the best parts of multiple bodies, rather than just one of a single cadaver.
I will say that I've heard the jokes likening the Engineer from Prometheus to Jacob Elordi's take on the character, and I love it. I always felt the Engineer was a creature that was crafted in the ideal human physique, so it totally tracks that if a human were to try and manufacture another human, they would only use the best parts imaginable, and it would come out looking more or less the same. Hell, maybe the Prometheus comparisons will encourage those who like Frankenstein to go back to that movie and appreciate what an underrated classic that was!
It Took Nearly A Century, But Mary Shelley's Book Finally Has The Film Adaptation it Deserves
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, and the beloved Universal adaptation came out over a century later. It's a classic, but more so because of what it did for Hollywood and sparked a major movement for monster movies, not so much because it's a great adaptation of the novel it was based on. Again, it was made at a time when feature filmmaking was arguably still in its infancy, so it's completely understandable that it feels a little choppy by modern standards.
That aside, Hollywood has had close to another century to make another Frankenstein that tops the attempt by Universal, and it took until now to make it happen. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein may be the first adaptation in decades that was long overdue and almost completely necessary.
Frankenstein is an iconic book, and in an ideal world, everyone would read Mary Shelley's classic. That said, not everyone is going to get around to it, so if putting an adaptation of it on one of the largest streaming platforms on the planet is enough to get it in front of audiences, than that'll be enough to protect the character's legacy and keep it relevant for many other decades to come.
I'll also add that in a world where new technology is growing rapidly and there are growing questions about the human consciousness and what it really means to be alive, a story like Frankenstein can show the price paid for conquering death. Eternal life rewards the recipient with the ability to never fear death, but based on what we see in this latest film from Guillermo del Toro, it can also lead the person who receives it to wish for it after decades in isolation. This movie needed to be remade for multiple reasons, which is precisely why I'll defend to the death that it is GDT's most important and best movie he's made in his career.
Frankenstein is available to stream on Netflix, along with many other upcoming movies on the platform. I'm always thrilled to find new, underrated movies on the platform, especially with the holiday season on the way. There's no better way to avoid talking about uncomfortable subjects than by bringing up movies and television!
