Frankenstein (2025) – Guillermo Del Toro

5/10

Craft factor: 100%

Fun factor: 45%

Recommend? Yes, if you’re okay with the length

“Some of what I tell you is fact. Some is not. But it is all true.” 

Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein (2025)

It’s hard for me to judge this film because as a movie alone, Del Toro’s Frankenstein is very good. As an adaptation it is not so good. To best enjoy this movie give it the grace of being a reimagining.

This film is not scary in a horror-movie sense but it succeeded in horrifying me like few films have before. There were several moments that made the hairs on my neck go up, and fear pound in my chest. In this way it is a very successful adaptation of the novel. This movie is long and arduous. It does not stray from the visceral. Like the novel, it tries to afflict physic damage on you.* But instead of elaborate phrases and delicate prose, this movie employs enthralling visuals, impeccable sound, and the brilliant work of its cast to hammer it’s point home. Jacob Elordi (Monster) cannot be praised enough. I have not seen enough 

Fans of the novel may dislike that the middle of the story follows a different plot. I won’t spoil anything here, I’ll just say Del Toro’s Frankenstein felt like a faithful adaptation despite the changes. It is different though, so watch it for yourself and decide if you like it. Personally I prefer the book’s plotline. I just felt that at two and a half hours there was room for the original plot, even if it is a tad rushed. But I respect the decision to simplify the middle into a narrative that can be pulled off to the fullest, rather than risking depth and richness for accuracy’s sake.

Guillermo Del Toro’s visual style is perfectly suited for Frankenstein. For the uninitiated, Del Toro produces visual masterpieces in which every frame is the most beautiful in any movie. This makes for a perfect fairy tale style that helps give credibility to what is happening. In a world so much beautiful than ours, who’s to say life cannot be created? Maybe it only takes just the right–or wrong–mind to do it.I would recommend reading the book before watching it. The book has incredible prose. Every phrase blasts open your mind and makes you vulnerable to the terrible revelations it contains. Truly Frankenstein is a book that hurts to read, and that is high praise. It’s a real-life necronomicon that leaves you feeling more than a little mad. Plus it was written by one of the most iconic female authors, Mary Shelley, published back in 1818, in a time of great oppression against women in England. She published it anonymously with many peers assuming it was her husband’s work. In 1831 it was republished with her name on it.