My first introduction to the world of Frankenstein’s monster was as a child, when my dad’s go-to costume for Halloween was to paint himself green! This movie’s depiction of the iconic monster is obviously quite different to that childhood memory.
I’m not sure what made me so eager to watch this movie, maybe it was the deep infatuation I have formed with the actor Mia Goth after her performance in ‘Pearl’, or perhaps I was just curious about how the set’s makeup artists managed to make Jacob Elordi look anything close to ‘ugly’. Either way, I forced my boyfriend to watch it with me the day it was released on Netflix.
My boyfriend, who is an extremely observant person (which can sometimes be annoying when watching a film), immediately pointed out during the first scene that the movie almost looked animated. He was right – this film has that slight ‘uncanny valley’ feeling about it, almost like when you first watched the film ‘Polar Express’ as a child and spent the first 30 minutes trying to figure out if the characters were real actors or not. Obviously, in this film, the actors are real people, but post-production editing to enhance the ambiance through weather, in scenes such as the frozen boat and the lightning tower, gave the impression that the characters were going in and out of a Disney film.
The 2025 depiction of Frankenstein follows the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, through his childhood, dealing with the death of his mother and the ‘tough love’ attitude of his father. The audience is introduced to his background in medicine by way of his father (the preeminent doctor of his time), as he subjects his son to quizzes on anatomy with ruthless adherence to detail. This traumatic beginning lays the foundations for the man that he would later become – one who was capable of so much, but who lacked the love and comfort of a warm childhood that would have made him the well-rounded man he could’ve become.
The filmmakers continue this concept throughout the film, demonstrated at times by his tendency to drink milk, while those around him reach for more “adult” beverages such as wine. This preference for something so often considered childish seems to be his way of (consciously nor not), trying to fill the void left by his troubled beginnings. Perhaps there is also an irony to be found in his content consumption of a drink as bright and white as milk – with clear connotations of purity and holiness, given his chosen line of work.
The foreshadowing of death is particularly prevalent in this depiction, and cleverly hidden throughout the movie, most notably so, in the costuming. The striking red gown of Victor’s late mother being an indication of her gruesome (and bloody) ending, as well as Victor’s red gloves, appearing halfway through the movie, as he starts his expedition of body collecting. The red gloves convey the metaphorical and literal idea that he has ‘blood on his hands’. While the movie progresses, more and more red articles of clothing start to appear, for example, Elizabeth’s red umbrella and the stone angel, in time with the disturbing turn in the storyline.
The costuming is outstanding in this movie, from head pieces to the stone coffins of the protagonist’s late mother and father, the artists behind this film are clearly immensely talented.
Although this movie does have some amusing sequences, like the confessional box scene, this film is a deeply graphic and saddening one. As the protagonist grows up, trying to escape from his loneliness after the death of his parents, he creates a completely new ‘fresh’ persona. As he became more and more frustrated with his creation, not believing his ‘monster’ was as intelligent as he thought it should be, he turns cruel and violent towards it – a direct reflection of how his father treated him as a child.
Elizabeth, Victor’s brother’s wife, traps a butterfly she caught outside in a small lantern, which symbolises the trapped feeling of both Dr. Frankenstein and his creation. The ‘monster’ being trapped in chains in effect almost tethers the doctor to him as well, leaving him flying around in a lantern of his own making.
This cruelness allows us, the audience, to feel sympathy for the ‘monster’, seeing his innocence and almost childlike nature as he plays in the running water around him, trying to make sense of this new world. This sharply changes the narrative from one where we pity Viktor for the hardships he has endured, to one where we condemn him for inflicting those same hardships onto someone else as an outlet for his own frustration. As the film goes on, you, the audience, begin to wonder who the ‘monster’ in this story really is.
This new updated version of the story ‘Frankenstein’ creatively introduced the perspectives of both Frankenstein and his ‘monster’, in two separate chapters. We are shown Victor’s past, and what led him to his frenzied pursuit of life beyond the classical definition of death. Through the ‘monsters’ chapter, we are shown his true loneliness in a world where people will hunt and kill you just for who you are, and his journey to figuring out who he is and where he came from. It also shows us the despair that comes with the eternity of existence that Viktor has forced upon him.
I was particularly surprised by the writer’s choice to make the creature of gentle nature, showing compassion for both human and animal, going as far as giving a wild deer half of his own food, a complete switch from past portrayals of Frankenstein. Hardly the behaviour of a monster.
Overall, I think the director, Guillermo del Toro, has done a spectacular job at bringing this story alive in a completely new light. To create such a strong sense of sympathy in a being so outwardly ‘weird’ or ‘ugly’ is not an easy feat. Del Toro has managed to turn a story about a scary ‘monster ‘into film that questions the source from which it came, one encapsulating the true nature of both Frankenstein and his ‘monster’.
