Guillermo del Toro brings his interpretation of Mary Shelley’s classic horror Frankenstein to the big screen.
Horror maestro Guillermo del Toro has been dreaming of creating his take on the famous Frankenstein story for 30 years and now his time has come to finally release it into the world.
In this version, Oscar Isaac stars as Victor Frankenstein, a surgeon and scientific genius who becomes obsessed with the idea of bringing the dead back to life.
With the financial backing of Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), he collects dead bodies from the battlefield, takes the pieces he likes best, and stitches them together to create one human being, which he reanimates with lightning.
Although his experiment works and his creature (Jacob Elordi) comes to life, Frankenstein quickly becomes disappointed with what he’s made and treats the monster like a prisoner, chaining him up in the basement.
Only his sister-in-law, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), can see that there is more to the creature than meets the eye, and insists that Frankenstein must give him more time and patience to become the intelligent human he hoped he would be.
At this point, the film switches perspective to the monster’s, following his travels after he escapes his dungeon and tries to survive on his own in the world. This is a refreshing change to the typical story and one that brings humanity to the often one-dimensional character.
While Isaac is charming as the rock star scientist, Elordi delivers his career-best performance as the monster. It’s a difficult role that requires an unusual physicality, an otherworldly voice and hours of prosthetics, but he rises to the challenge. Despite the layers of make-up and prosthetics, and the lack of dialogue, he can express so much emotion and make us empathise with his monster.
Del Toro’s film is visually breathtaking. Every frame looks beautiful thanks to the stunning cinematography and the epic scale of the sets. Expect Frankenstein to do well in the craft categories this awards season, particularly with production design, costume design and hair and make-up.
But it’s thankfully not a case of style over substance – this tells a juicy, heartbreaking story with a surprising amount of graphic violence.
You can tell that del Toro has thought long and hard about how to make this film and can sense his passion for the material, resulting in one of his very best films.
In selected cinemas from Friday 17th October and on Netflix from 7th November.
By Hannah Wales.
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