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But I digress. Since this is a GDT movie, you know there will be empathy for the character called “the Creature.” Following in the footsteps of Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Robert De Niro and yes, Peter Boyle, Jacob Elordi plays the role mistakenly referred to as “Frankenstein.” The correct moniker is “Frankenstein’s monster.” But the real monster in this story is named Frankenstein — Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the creature’s creator. He’s played here by a frenzied and committed Oscar Isaac. The director’s love of Shelley’s tale made “Frankenstein” a passion project. del Toro also loves James Whale’s take on the material — the 1931 classic “Frankenstein” starring Karloff made his 2012 Sight and Sound ballot of the ten greatest movies ever made, and in 2022, he replaced that film with Whale’s 1935 sequel, “The Bride of Frankenstein.” Hat-tips are given to both films, but this film deviates from the familiar versions you’ve seen. del Toro adapts Shelley’s novel more faithfully than any prior iteration while modifying some details and leaning into the Gothic nature of the work. Like its source material, this version presents “Victor’s Tale” and “The Creature’s Tale.” Equal time is devoted to each, but to whet our appetites, “Frankenstein” begins in 1857 with a violent prelude that immediately drops us at the intersection of these two stories. The Creature has chased his creator to the “Farthermost North,” where he encounters a massive Norwegian ship en route to the North Pole. The ship is stuck in the ice, and the crew is contemplating mutiny. Inside is Victor, whose name the Creature screams with rage as he plows through anyone standing in his way. We learn that the Creature not only has superhuman powers, but he can also heal from the most deadly of injuries. While the Creature demands that the crew turn Victor over to him, Victor tells his side of the story to Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). We’re introduced to Victor’s younger brother, William (Felix Kammerer), William’s fiancé, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), and Victor’s benefactor, Harlander (Christoph Waltz). Elizabeth will cross paths with the Creature later, bonding with him as a kindred trapped spirit. There’s also a flashback that explains Victor’s obsession with outrunning death. His mother (Goth in a dual role) died giving birth to William. A distraught Victor is told by his father, Leopold (Charles Dance) that “no one can conquer Death.” With the help of William, the adult Victor builds a lab to prove his father wrong. “Frankenstein” shows us this scientific process through trial and error, including a medical presentation where corpses scream in agony as they’re temporarily reanimated by electricity. Nobody remembers their first cries at birth, nor their last gasps before death; del Toro shows how Victor cruelly merges these, recreating two of the thousand natural shocks the Bard said our flesh was heir to in “Hamlet.” Eventually, Victor makes a successful Creature and, horrified by what he’s done, tries to destroy it. Unfortunately for Victor, he’s not successful. At this point, the Creature interrupts to tell his side. He shows us how he learned to speak and read before developing a friendship with a blind man (David Bradley) whose family he’d been observing. The Creature reveals the brutality of men who recoiled at his appearance and tried to kill him, forcing his own violent self-defense. The Creature also makes us feel his loneliness. His questions about why he exists, and why he must suffer, are so achingly human that it’s nearly impossible for us not to be touched — and to feel his rage against the man who made and deserted him. Elordi gives one of the great performances of 2025, humanizing the Creature in ways that run counter to the science-based megalomania of Victor’s version of their story. As she’s shown in movies like “Pearl,” Goth is a natural for genre material like this, always bringing her acting A-game to the most gruesome or salacious material. When Elizabeth asks the Creature “who hurt you,” Goth’s line reading almost made me cry. She looks like a porcelain angel of empathy in Kate Hawley’s excellent period costumes, which complement each character’s persona. Alexandre Desplat’s superb score and Dan Laustsen’s moody cinematography provide the appropriate atmospheric and emotional flourishes. As with all of del Toro’s movies, “Frankenstein” is full of visual splendors that feel real because they’re physically present. The gory effects are practical, and the scenery is built rather than green screened. (The director often joined in the building process.) The only upside to watching this on Netflix, rather than the big screen it deserves, is that you’ll be able to pause at any time to bask in the backgrounds. Through the old school art of set design, del Toro creates a playground within which his actors can roam freely. Production designer Tamara Deverell worked on “Nightmare Alley” (and, coincidentally, on Elordi’s Elvis movie, “Priscilla”). By giving his actors a three-dimensional world, del Toro sparks their imaginations — and ours. The result is a beautiful, bittersweet, and occasionally horrific look at what it means to be human. ★★★★ FRANKENSTEIN Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Based on the novel “Frankenstein; or: the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley. Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Lars Mikkelsen, Felix Kammerer, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, David Bradley. At Coolidge Corner, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, suburbs. 149 min. R (surgical gore, violence) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
