This adaptation of Mary Shelley’s much filmed book, published in 1818, has been written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Oscar Isaac stars as the brilliant but mad scientist Victor Frankenstein, and Jacob Elordi as the creature he creates.
As you would expect from Del Toro, this gothic melodrama looks magnificent. I fully expect production designer Tamara Deverell, amongst others, to be an award season contender. In fact, the only visual missteps occur with a couple of dubious uses of CGI when the creature escapes imprisonment and for the depiction of wolves and sheep.
Isaac does a good job of depicting Victor’s increasing derangement and Elordi is fine in a difficult role. There is also good support from Charles Dance as his cruel father, Christoph Waltz as his sinister benefactor and David Bradley as the blind man who befriends the ‘monster’. But Felix Kammerer is insipid as Victor’s brother, William, and Mia Goth struggles with the role of William’s irresistible fiancée, Elizabeth.
The film starts with a terrific sequence on an ice bound Danish ship before flashing back to Victor’s childhood, and that illustrates the main issues I had, the length (2.5 hours) and pacing. Whenever it built up momentum, the story then became becalmed. It also had no scares despite its horror trappings though I am not sure if Del Toro was aiming for them.
Not being a Hammer devotee, my gold standard of Frankenstein movies are from the Universal cycle of horrors, 1931’s Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein from 1935 in particular. Coming in at 70 and 75 minutes respectively, James Whale conjures up more chills in half the run time, giving Del Toro a lesson in economic storytelling.
Rating: 6 out of 10