Frankenstein (2025 | US | 149 minutes | Guillermo del Toro)
Not a lot new I can tell you about the story of Frankenstein and his monster that you probably don’t already know. I’ll hit the highlights in case you’ve been waiting all your life to learn Mary Shelley’s story but never got around to reading or watching. A megalomaniac with an overbearing father and sweet, yet overly-pampered, younger brother follows his paternal footsteps into medicine. Saving lives isn’t enough, he wants to control life, conjure it. His method is taking viable body parts from various deceased and creating a patchwork man, literally shocking him into being, never considering the consequences of his actions till it’s too late.
The story is a metaphor for many things and if you read it in high school English I’m sure you discussed more than your fair share of conclusions, so I’ll digress from that. However, what I’ve read of and from her, Mary Shelley loved the macabre. Dark stories that hit at the heart of our deepest desires and most crippling weaknesses. Intensity is the key. I had an inkling, but even while watching del Toro’s take on this story, I was confident Shelley would be enthralled by his re-imagining. He kept very close to the story itself, which I truly appreciate, and literally brought our imaginations to life. The darkest, most raw emotions are ripped from the page and splattered all over the screen.
Del Toro has always had the ability to take a story, dismantle it down to its studs and rebuild with the most visceral emotions laid bare. Much of his work has at least a few scenes that linger, but in the most disturbing of ways; not because it was emotionally moving… or perhaps fear and shock is emotionally moving in its own way, and he has that on lock (think the pale man from Pan’s Labyrinth). Taking care to avoid AI and post production, the gothic director took on all the stunts, special effects and fantastical shots while shooting. There’s something almost tactile about that level of effort to make a movie look exactly as you want it as you create it. While these days digital effects after filming are hardly discernible from live action, I believe there’s something almost subconscious that takes hold when a film is created without it.
It is obvious that Guillermo del Toro loves the monster and his psychotic maker just as Shelley did and you can feel it throughout the film in the acting, script and visuals. Bringing to close view something that maybe we don’t want to look at, but if it helps us to question our humanity, we’re better for it. Highly recommend checking this one out in the theater despite it’s quick turn around release on Netflix in a few weeks.
Frakenstein arrives in select theaters 10/24 and Netflix 11/7