by: Julia Valencia
Opinion Editor
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel first introduced the story of Frankenstein, and since then, countless creatives have adapted and recreated their own renditions. Most recently, Guillermo del Toro, a Mexican filmmaker and author, has taken on the challenge of inventing a new way to tell the story of Frankenstein. Del Toro specializes in directing horror and fiction movies, finding a way to highlight the grotesque beauty in them, with some of his previous projects including Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water.
Frankenstein, starring Jacob Elordi as the creature and Óscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, is performing well in the theaters and on Netflix. The movie, which Netflix released on Nov 7, has an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, attracting over 29 million views within its first three days on streaming platforms.
Though the movie received many positive reviews, some critics wrote that they had hoped for the film to be more faithful to its source material. Del Toro revealed in an interview with Variety that “the usual discourse of Frankenstein has to do with science gone awry, but for me, it’s about the human spirit. It’s not a cautionary tale: It’s about forgiveness, understanding, and the importance of listening to each other.” When creating the movie, Del Toro wanted to emphasize the heart of the novel rather than an exact recreation of it. He felt that previous versions of Frankenstein had all been too derivative, and he wanted to make something that had not only more emotional depth, but more ingenuity.
The movie is split into two parts: the first shows Victor Frankenstein’s life and his creation of the creature, while the second shows the creature’s life, highlighting his journey and innocence. The film shows the unfortunate reality of generational trauma, with Victor abusing the creature the same way his father had abused him. Victor resents the creature for not living up to his expectations, eerily similar to how Victor disappointed his father. Victor, distorted by his craving for greatness, highlights key vulnerabilities of human nature: power corrupts; a human can not play God.
The movie gives the impression that something terrible is going to happen–that the creature will kill Victor, or that the authorities will discover the creature. The music crescendos, and the lighting changes, just for something minuscule to happen. Despite the creature proving himself again and again, the audience is made to think that he will do something malicious. Fascinatingly enough, Victor, the tragic villain of the story, is the one that viewers should be wary of. This provides an interesting commentary on how society will often misplace blame, and that people are hesitant and slow to change their opinion based on their first impression.
(Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Variety)