Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro released his take on the famous 1818 novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly in November of 2025, Starring Oscar Issac, Jacob Elordi, and Mia Goth. Del Toro’s take on the story is all about forgiveness and self-acceptance. The meaning of life and what it is to truly live. The film begins with a ship in 1857, stuck in the ice. Off in the distance, the crew sees a fire and finds a broken man with a prosthetic leg being pursued by some sort of animal. They rush him back to the ship, but to their surprise, the beast chasing them is not an animal, but a man. The men on the ship fire but the man seems unfazed as he hurls crew members into the air, ripping off their body parts with monstrous strength. Eventually, they break the ice underneath it, plunging the monster into the water. As the captain of the ship asks “What manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him?”, the man they saved replies “I did. I made him,” as the first half of the film begins titled, “Victor’s Tale”

Part I begins with Victor as a child, and we see his close relationship with his mother, a mirrored image of his distant abusive father. Victor’s father is a doctor, and during the birth of Victor’s little brother, lets his wife die. From that day on Victor has dreams and visions of a gold and red angel surrounded by flames. It is a recurring symbol throughout the film, representing Victor’s ambition, hubris, and desperate desire to conquer life and death. We see as an adult Victor is showing off his work to a council, as he resurrects half of a corpse in front of the town. The council members call it unholy, but Victor’s work catches the eye of Henrich Harlander, played by Christoph Waltz, an arms dealer, and uncle of the Fiance of Victor’s brother, who has an undisclosed personal interest in Victor’s work. He personally funds Victor’s experiments as they renovate a castle and collect body parts from washed-up soldiers who died in war. While this long process is going on, an emotional affair between Victor and Elizabeth, his brother’s fiancée, is born. As the moment we’ve all been waiting for arrives, Victor has fully assembled his creature and is ready to zap it to life. A tension-filled scene plays as Victor rushes to set up the electrical prongs, ready to distribute lightning to the creature. It is now that we find out Harlander is suffering from fatal syphilis and wants his brain transferred into the creature. But Victor knows it’s impossible because his brain is already infected. A struggle between the two ensues as eventually Harlander slips in the rain and falls down a pit in the castle, killing him. With his only worry being his creation, unfazed, Victor continues the process, turning on his experiment sending bolts of lightning into the creature. Yet nothing happens, no movement, no life. Defeated Victor grudgingly goes to bed, having another vision of the angel, yelling at it saying that he failed. As he awakes the next morning, a figure stands before his bed. His creation, his creature has come to life. After years, he has finally conquered life and death. Beautiful scenes of the creature mimicking and being taught how to act by Victor follow. Jacob Elordi gives a phenomenal performance, with amazing and artistic prosthetics. Eventually the creature speaks, one word, “Victor.” Yet slowly, we see as Victor loses his sanity, becoming more and more frustrated by his creation, chaining it up and beating it, like his father once did to him. The creature yells out “Victor”, the only word he’s capable of saying, in anger as he bends a metal bar, fully showing it’s strength. Eventually, Elizabeth and Victor’s brother William, arrive to see his work. After making an excuse that Harlander went to town and would be back in a couple days, Victor invites them in, enthusiastic of his accomplishment, not what became of it. As Victor and William go to talk, Elizabeth is drawn by a noise from the lower levels of the castle. Down in the wet dark cellar she finds the creature. It is scared by her presence but after reassurance that she won’t hurt him, he comes closer. Del Toro gives us a beautiful scene of the two bonding. The creature gives Elizabeth a leaf, and is fascinated by her beauty. Shortly after, Victor and William find her down there and Victor drags her away. He expresses that she should not go near it, and believes she has an attraction to it. Elizabeth defends the creature and storms off after an argument about the morality of what Victor is doing. While she is gone Victor expresses it as a monster to William, and blames the death of Harlander on the creature, and explains that he will handle it. As William and Elizabeth are in a carriage on the way out, deep down Elizabeth knows Victor is going to kill the creature, and demands that they go back. In the castle, Victor douses every wall and floor with gasoline, preparing to burn it down with his creation inside. As he pours gas over the creature’s cellar, Victor begs with a demeaning tone, “Say one word. One word more. Anything. Make me save you.” The creature, with a grimace, only says “Victor.” He finishes pouring the gas and begins to walk away when he hears another word from the creature…. “Elizabeth.” A flash of jealousy washes over Victor’s face as he still lights a match setting the castle on fire. The creature screams his name over and over. Outside Victor listens to his name being called, and for the first time in weeks, his humanity snaps back as he realizes what he has done, rushing towards the door. But just as he reaches it an explosion pushes him back, blowing off his leg. We see as the creature is surrounded by fire in the cellar. He uses his strength to break his chains, and jumps out a water drain into the ocean below.

We then are back on the ship, as Victor finishes up his story to the captain. Yells from outside can be heard. As the captain opens the door, the monster is standing right in front of him. It grabs him by the throat as Victor yells at it to stop. The overpowered captain says, “Go on, beast. Kill us both. Confirm your maker’s tale.” The monster looks down at him, and speaks. “My maker… told his tale. Then I will tell mine.” as the second half of the film begins titled, “The Creature’s Tale”

Part II of the film starts where we left off, with the creature jumping into the ocean, but with a narration from the creature. “I called your name, and understood I was alone.” He wakes up, washed up on shore, and wanders into the forest. He finds a coat of a dead soldier and wears it, the corpse’s spine imprinted into the coat’s back, one of many small artistic details from Del Toro that truly enhance this film. The creature finds a deer, and is fascinated by it. A heartwarming scene follows with the creature sharing berries he plucked with the deer. Yet the scene is cut short as a group of hunters shoot the deer. In fear they fire at the creature as he runs away. After getting to safety we see how his wounds healed almost immediately. “My wounds had healed. But I felt so cold.” As he wanders, the creature comes across a cottage and hides out in the walls of the cottage. As the family who lives there returns, it is revealed to be the hunters, their daughter, wife, and blind old father-in-law. The creature stays in the walls, watching this family, and has a fascination with the old man. “The old man moved me. And his unseeing eyes were full of wisdom… These people possessed a sound. Used it to tell each other about feelings and ideas. They called them words.” The creature finds this family comforting slowly watching from within the walls, how they speak, and act. “I longed to be part of this family. To be their benefactor. What could I do for them?”After hearing the family worried about how long it will take to get kindling for the winter, the creature gets an idea. One morning the family wakes up to kindling galore stacked out front of their cottage. They thank “the spirit of the forest” for providing for them. “From then on I became their invisible guardian. The spirit of the forest. And on occasion, they too extended small kindness towards me. Clothes, bread. And for a moment, a brief, brief moment, the world and I were at peace.” Eventually wolves ambush the family’s sheep, getting in through a broken fence. The hunters go out killing as many as they can but the wolves get away with some sheep. “An idea, a feeling became clear to me. The hunter did not hate the wolf. The wolf did not hate the sheep. The violence felt inevitable between them. Perhaps, I thought, this was the way of the world. It would bunt you and kill you just for being who you are.” After the chaos, the creature fixes the fence, once more providing for the family. The family decides to go after the wolves, hunt them to ensure another ambush would not occur. The blind old man refused to leave and insisted to stay behind until they returned. He did indeed. Now alone with the old man, the creature had an idea. “I had formed in my imagination many ways I would present myself to the old man. Would he fear me? Welcome me? Turn me away?” The creature does reveal himself to the blind old man, and yet he welcomes him. He realizes that the creature is “The spirit of the forest” and thanks him. In a parallel to the blind old man in “The Bride Of Frankenstein”, he and the creature bond. Over months and seasons their relationship grows.The old man teaches the creature to speak and read, and about snow. “Have you never seen snow, my dear friend? It makes the world clean.. And new.” he teaches the creature. The creature learns and learns through books and literature. And eventually tries to tell the old man his story. “I… see memories. Different men. All… pieces. I… I remember f.. Fire and water. And sand under my feet. And a single word… Victor.” The creature tells the old man. He encourages the creature to go back from where he came to find anything to help him remember, and he does so. The creature returns back to the burnt-down castle now mostly rubble and covered in snow. On the ground he finds a letter from William addressed to.. Victor, with an address on it. He quickly returns to the cottage and sees a wolf in the open door. He rushes in to see the wolves eating at the old man. He fights them off, killing them and holds the dying old man in his arms. “I found what I am. What I am made from. I am… the child of a charnel house. A wreckage. Assembled from refuse and the discarded dead…. A monster.” The creature speaks with tears in his eyes. Yet the old man speaks his final words in opposed to what the creature has said, “I know what you are. A good man. And… you are my friend.” as he passes in the arms of the creature. The hunters barge in to see the creature over their blind old father and yell,l “What is that thing!?” “The thing from the woods…. What have you done to him??” They fire their guns endlessly into the creature, and in rage he kills them both. The creature bleeds, stumbling out into the snow and collapsing. “And then, there was silence again” but his death did not last long as his wounds healed, “And then… merciless life. How long did I die for? I do not know. But I saw my injuries healed. The cold winter air strung in my lungs. I felt lonelier than ever.” This springs an idea in the creature. He stretches to the address he read on the letter from William. There, he finds Elizabeth getting ready for her wedding, and upstairs… Victor. Sensing someone is in his room Victor demands that they show themselves, as the creature steps out from the shadows, revealing his intentions of coming there. “I need you to make a companion for me. One like me.” he asks. “Another monster?” Victor asks in astonishment. “Yes. We can be monsters together.” “I have found sanity at such a cost, and you here, are madness calling me back.” Victor expresses with tiredness. The creature then speaks one of the best quotes of the movie, “I cannot die. And I cannot live.. Alone.” As Victor further denies the request and demeans the creature, he breaks. “If you are not to award me love, then I will indulge in rage.” he grabs Victor, throwing him across the room. William comes running in from the commotion, and the creature throws him against the wall, hitting his head and killing him. Elizabeth rushes in as well, seeing the creature, and is happy to see it alive. Victor grabs his gun and points it at the creature yelling at Elizabeth to step away from it. Instead, she jumps in front of him, taking the bullet. The creature carries her out of the estate and into a nearby cave, and in the light of the moon, we the audience, see that her wedding dress directly resembles The Bride’s dress from “The Bride Of Frankenstein”. As the creature lays a dying Elizabeth down in the cave, she reassures him, “My place was never in this world. I sought and longed for something I could not quite name. But in you, I found it… Better this way… to fade… With your eyes gazing upon me.” She uses these words as her last breath and passes. Victor rushes in, and the creature turns to him in rage. He chases Victor out into the snowy tundras. For days, their chase ensues, until eventually the creature catches him in his tent. In fear, Victor pulls out a stick of dynamite, but the creature grabs it. “This? You put your faith in this? You think this will unmake me?… Light it then hope it does, but if it does not, I will come for you again.” Victor just stands there in fear. “Light it!” the creature rumbles, and Victor does. “Now… run.” The dynamite blows up, damaging but not killing the creature, as his narration continues again. “So, there you were, broken and discarded. And I, alive again. I could feel my singed flesh regrowing. The murmur of my blood pumping through my incessant heart. And once more minding no mercy, I had but one path.”

We are then put back into the ship where the creature is telling his story. “And here we are. Spent and done. No more in us to give or take.” We find out the blood all around the tent was the creature’s, and this whole time he was never the monster… Victor was. As victor slowly passes away, he leaves the creature with his last wisdom and advice, “If death is not to be, then consider this, my son. While you are alive, what recourse do you have but to live?” as he dies and the true story is out and told, the captain tells his crew to stand down as he lets the creature go, yet before he leaves he pushes the ship, freeing it from the ice, as the crew jumps and cheers. The film ends as the creature stares and smiles into the sunset with a single tear running down his cheek, now having the knowledge to truly live. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a beautiful and emotional film where almost every shot is a painting. Not a single detail is left unpurposed, and it gives a new depiction to be remembered of Frankenstein’s Creature.