Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation has been released in select theaters and will be available on Netflix starting November 7th. Del Toro has made a name for himself by exploring the humanity of so-called “monstrosities”, most notably with his Academy Award-winning The Shape of Water. His signature blending of scientific fiction, fantasy, and horror genres makes him a natural successor to the great legacy left by the mother of science fiction herself, Mary Shelley. After a week out in theaters, the reviews are rolling in. Was Guillermo del Toro able to meet the lofty expectations of film and literature buffs and make mother Mary proud?
Critical Reception
The intricate wielding of beauty and brutality in Frankenstein essentially begs a creative like del Toro to bring it to the screen, and, spare a few middling reviews, he soared. Stakes were high, given the story’s numerous adaptations and reiterations, but del Toro’s, as The Hollywood Reporter puts it, feels “like a lightning-charged act of reanimation.” The most frequently praised aspect of the film is del Toro’s world-building. The cinematography, the scope, and the costumes (specifically the hauntingly beautiful, yet otherworldly costume design of Frankenstein’s monster) immerse the viewer into the gothic, fantastical story that still holds the lifeblood of Shelley’s work whilst creating something entirely its own. The New York Times eloquently describes the 2025 film saying, “Shelley’s skeleton is there, but the flesh around it is del Toro’s.”
Del Toro not only honors Shelley, but, as New York Times writer Alissa Wilkinson notes, weaves in the themes from John Milton’s Paradise Lost that prelude Shelley’s text, where a distraught Adam rebukes God:
“Did I request thee, Maker from my Clay / To mould me Man? Did I solicit thee / From darkness to promote me?”
– Paradise Lost by John Milton
Milton’s work shapes the Creature, played by Jacob Elordi. Del Toro offers both sides of the story, splitting the film between Victor Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac, and the monster. Del Toro omits the usual brainless lunk; instead, Elordi’s monster is more like a newborn, exploring the world, while Victor watches as an anxious parent. When the Creature acts independently, Victor begins to fear his creation, prompting an exploration of consciousness and the dangers of playing God.
Some critics, however, are not as impressed. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw awarded it three out of five stars. Despite praising the intricacy and visual splendor of the film, Bradshaw despairs that for all of the painstaking attention to detail, Frankenstein holds “deep focus but also [is] strangely depthless, like hi-tech stained glass or illustrated plates in a Victorian tome; pictures whose luxurious beauty underscores the film’s reverence for the source material and for itself, but which for me impedes the energy of horror.” Bradshaw argues that del Toro’s film was never going to risk “bad taste”, but perhaps this in ways holds it back. He compares it to Poor Things, which holds many of the same themes and fearlessly took them on, encouraging rather than hiding from moral discourses over the subject matter, making it, in Bradshaw’s opinion, “far more interesting.”
Cast Performances
Elordi’s role is career-pivoting. Accessing a vulnerability, wrath, and complexity that have wowed critics and viewers alike, Elordi brought an unforgettable take on the Creature that honored Shelley’s vision. Academy Award nominee Oscar Isaac toes the line between a caricature of a mad scientist and the deeply raw unravelling of a man suffering from a manic drive and comes out triumphantly on the other side. Mia Goth’s performance as Elizabeth is captivating, but, as Bradshaw notes, far too sparse; Goth’s rare, eerie comedic talent was hardly utilized in the film except for a fleeting moment in the church that didn’t give her enough to sink her teeth into. The two-time Oscar winner and endlessly entertaining Christoph Waltz accessed a sympathetic, heartfelt performance we don’t get to see from him often in Heinrich.
Frankenstein comes to Netflix on November 7th and, by all accounts, it’s one you don’t want to miss. Even less favorable reviews can’t help but marvel at the world del Toro has brought to life. Del Toro may have changed a few elements for the ease of the story, moving it forward about 60 years and placing it in England rather than Germany and Switzerland, but the literature vultures descended and hardly found anything they wanted to pick clean. Del Toro’s love for the original text and beautiful attention to themes of Paradise Lost show through in his faithful, creative rendition.
Learn more about the creation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein here.
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