Publication Date: 11-20-2025

Frankenstein (2025) review

Dir. Guillermo del Toro

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

Guillermo del Toro has ostensibly wanted to make a Frankenstein movie since time immemorial. Well, at least since he was a child, and smitten by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus from 1818. While a true adaptation was always on his mind, del Toro has been making Frankenstein-inspired movies for much of his career. You need not look too deep into his filmography — Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water — to see how germane much of his repertoire is to the classic story.

After numerous false starts coupled with casting and logistical changes paused the project from happening, you’d be forgiven if, like me, you thought of the idea of watching Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix the same way you’d react to someone suggesting you listen to a Steely Dan album via a recording on a 2006 Razr. That said, del Toro’s passion project bypasses the “enhanced TV” look of most Netflix movies. On a purely visual level, this is the best looking movie to come from the streamer since David Fincher’s The Killer, with grandiose qualities akin to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.

But is it a great movie? That’s a more complicated question.

I’m not going to waste time in relaying the plot, for, by this point, if you have a modicum of interest in another Frankenstein movie, you know what you’re getting into. Guillermo del Toro’s film is extremely loyal to Shelly’s text. This iteration is divided into four distinct chapters: a prelude, centering around the Horisont ship, en route to the North Pole, which discovers Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) injured before bringing him aboard; Victory’s story, which chronicles his childhood, his relationship to his benefactor Harlander (Christoph Waltz), and the creation of his monster; the Creature’s story, revolving around the titular being (Jacob Elordi) and his quest for vengeance and survival; and finally, a coda, which sees Victor figuring out a way to call his creation his “son” as opposed to his “monster.”

Isaac is fully committed, and while he impresses, his best work will always be his performances where human interest shines; see Inside Llewyn Davis and The Card Counter for great examples. Mia Goth turns up as Elizabeth Frankenstein in a terrific yet underutilized role. Goth proves to yet again be one of the most transfixing actresses working today. For a woman who looks so unique, she sure knows how to chameleon herself to any given challenge. That said, the star of Frankenstein is indeed Elordi, who, for the first time, proves he’s more than a pretty face and can naturally assume a role that requires the characteristics of being feral, and, at times, grossly unhinged.

One of the most significant changes is an understandable one, and that’s shifting the film’s setting to 1857, several years after Shelley’s death. It permits del Toro and his ace cinematographer Dan Laustsen (who did some of his best work in Nightmare Alley) to capitalize on the Victorian era architecture and design. For a lesser filmmaker, this would feel like a pivot for the sake of hubris. For del Toro, however, who has proven he could all-but shoot static and make it look like snow in a Robert Frost poem, it’s an opportunity to flex what he does best.

Guillermo del Toro’s love for practical effects and towering setpieces is on full display in Frankenstein. Too often does the production swallow the characters. In cultivating an atmosphere fit to accentuate Shelley’s text, del Toro smothers the humanity of the Victor and makes his story, the longest of the film, smother the forward momentum. This is one of those two-and-a-half-hour movies that feels as long as it’s billed, and a lion’s weight of that is due to the aesthetics so often encroaching on the characters and their individualized storylines. Alexandre Desplat’s score knows when to swells. Laustsen’s visuals and del Toro’s framing know how to capture an exploding castle, and then reveal Victor’s disgusting wound. Even editor Evan Schiff knows how to present such a large story, when to cut, and when to let certain shots linger. Ultimately, however, it feels hollow, and more significantly, derivative on past del Toro works, which already found ways to incorporate themes of the Frankenstein story into original projects.

My review of Frankenstein (1931)

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen, and Ralph Ineson. Directed by: Guillermo del Toro.