First Look at del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ Adaptation

Nora Geoghegan

Staff Writer

On Oct.1st, Netflix released its second trailer for the upcoming film ‘Frankenstein’, which takes on the perspective of Frankenstein’s monster.

The film is an adaptation of Mary Shelly’s gothic novel Frankenstein which was published in 1818.

The novel follows scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein who sets out to create the perfect human, which leads him to face unimaginable consequences as a result.

The novel deals with themes of uncontrollable knowledge and ambition, the dangers of “playing God” as well as prejudice.

The upcoming film is directed by Guillermo Del Toro who directed the Oscar winning film, ‘The Shape of Water’, as well as ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’. 

Guillermo Del Toro is known for his blend of fantasy and reality in his gothic horror films, as well as a reflection of his Mexican culture. Del Toro, being at the helm of this project, is making fans of his work excited about what he has to bring to this upcoming film.

In addition, the film has a star-studded cast with Jacob Elordi playing the monster, Oscar Issac as Victor Frankenstein, Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza, and Christoph Waltz as Henrich Harlander.

The film has been previously adapted before with Frankenstein, which was released in 1931, and ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ was released in 1935. Both films take on a more unorthodox approach from the source material, unlike the upcoming film, which is truer to the novel, but with the Del Toro flare we all know and love.

Del Toro told Netflix, “I’ve lived with Mary Shelley’s creation all my life,” “For me, it’s the Bible. But I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.”

However, Issac and Goth have different perspectives on the film. Issac has this to say to Deadline.com, “And it’s this very European story, but told through a very Latin-American, Mexican, Catholic point-of-view. So, it was just high passion all the time.”

Goth stated, “It’s a story about fathers and sons, it’s about forgiveness, it’s about redemption, it’s about understanding,” explained Goth. “And I think people might be surprised at how incredibly moving it is and how much heart there is. It’s a story that’s been with Guillermo his whole life; he’s been thinking about this since he was 10 years old.”

The film will be released in select theaters on Oct.17th and will be on Netflix Nov. 7th.