We’ve known for decades now that Guillermo del Toro is a master of horror, and his latest endeavor, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s prolific novel Frankenstein, is already being embraced as one of his best yet. After its premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, del Toro’s decade-long passion project, which stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Christoph Waltz appears to be well-received as a lush, emotional, and highly accurate retelling of the classic tale. Frankenstein hits theaters and then Netflix later this fall and the reviews for the film confirm that the hype behind the movie is warranted.
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Steven Pond of The Wrap called Frankenstein a “wildly enjoyable and deeply touching movie,” and claims that del Toro’s passion for the story “drips from every frame” of the upcoming film. Given that the filmmaker recently asserted that Frankenstein isn’t meant to be a cautionary tale about AI, but rather an unconventional yet complex family drama, Pond’s review of the film as “a remarkable achievement that in a way hijacks the flagship story of the horror genre and turns it into a tale of forgiveness,” implies that del Toro has squarely hit the mark in what he hopes to achieve with the movie.
While it may have taken a decade for del Toro to bring Frankenstein to the big screen, his love affair with the Mary Shelley’s tragic monster tale, famously first adapted for the screen by James Whale in 1931, goes back much farther than that.
“I’ve been following the creature since I was kid,” del Toro said in a press conference for Frankenstein in Venice (via Variety). “I waited for the movie to be done in the right conditions, both creatively in terms of achieving the scope to make it different, and to make it at a scale that you could reconstruct the whole world.”
Del Toro is known for crafting lush, fantastical worlds and populating them with creatures as grotesque as they are beautiful. As the man who helmed Oscar-winning masterpieces like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, there’s a certain standard of storytelling expected from del Toro. And here in Frankenstein, he seems to exceed it, paying homage to both the novel and other films about the monster that have come before his movie, but also finding something new and immediate to say with the classic tale.
“With burnished, beautiful cinematography from Dan Laustsen, a highly-charged score from Alexandre Desplat, and exquisite production design from Tamara Deverell, del Toro’s film is unquestionably one of the most beautifully crafted films you’ll see this year,” James Mottram of RadioTimes.com raved, giving the film five stars.
Both Mottram and Pond not only praise the sumptuous aesthetic of Frankenstein, but also the performances from its all-star cast. With so much positive hype swirling around the already highly anticipated film, we’re more pumped than ever to check out del Toro’s monstrous passion project.
Frankenstein releases in theaters October 17th, and hits Netflix on November 7th. Are you excited for Guillermo del Toro’s latest film? Let us know in the comments!
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