Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein dreams are alive
[August 26, 2025]
By JAKE COYLE
NEW YORK (AP) — On the first day of shooting “Frankenstein,” Guillermo
del Toro held up a drawing of the creature he had made when he was a
teenager.
“He said, ‘This is like Jesus to me,’” recalls Oscar Isaac.
For the Mexican-born filmmaker, Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel and the
1931 film with Boris Karloff are his personal urtexts: the origin of a
lifelong affection for the monsters del Toro has ever since, in reams of
sketches and in a filmography doted by them, breathed into life. For a
misunderstood kid growing up in a devout Catholic family, Frankenstein’s
creature, unloved by his maker but graced by Karloff with empathy and
fragility, cracked something open.
“I felt I was being born into a world that was unforgiving, where you
either have to be a little white lamb or you were doomed,” del Toro
says. “The moment Karloff crosses the threshold in the movie, backwards
and then turns, I was like St. Paul on the road to Damascus. I said:
That’s me. It was just an immediate and absolute soul transference. And
I think that’s never gone.
“It was forgiveness for being imperfect,” adds del Toro.
“Frankenstein,” which Netflix will release in theaters Oct. 17 and on
its streaming service Nov. 7, may be the culmination of del Toro’s
artistic life. It’s his chance to, finally, unleash a movie — a grand
saga of creator and creation, father and son, God and sinner — that he’s
been dreaming of decades.
“It’s the movie that I’ve been in training for 30 years to do,” del Toro
said in a recent interview from Toronto, where he was mixing the film.
A book that ‘changes with you’
Del Toro first saw the 1931 film when he was 7. He read Shelley’s book
at 11. Ever since, monsters have been less a narrative device to him
than an abiding personal belief system. As long as 20 years ago, he was
talking about his hopes of making a “Miltonian” adaptation of Shelley's
novel. Time, though, he thinks has helped. As a child, he identified
with the creature. After becoming a parent, he understood Dr.
Frankenstein in a new way.
“It’s one of those books that changes with you,” he says. “So the movie
changed. You feel like you’ve been dreaming about it for so long.”
In the film, an epic adorned with massive sets and lavish costumes,
Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi as the monster. Isaac
initially met with del Toro with no project in mind. Their talk turned
toward their fathers.
“By the end of that conversation, he said, ‘I want you to be my
Victor,’” Isaac says. “I didn’t really know he was doing Frankenstein.
Then he gave me Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ and the Tao Te Ching and
said, ‘Read these two things.’”
Isaac, 46, had long known del Toro, but it was their first film
together. For the actor, the collaborative experience reminded him of
his breakthrough role with the Coen brothers.
“It felt like doing ‘Llewyn Davis’ again. And I haven’t had that since,”
Isaac says. “It’s the kind of feeling of a family all building this
thing together in an incredibly communal way.”
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This image released by Netflix shows Christoph Waltz, left, and
Oscar Isaac in a scene from "Frankenstein." (Netflix via AP)
 An awards player for Netflix
Netflix, along with producers J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber, are
betting “Frankenstein” will be one of the fall’s top films. It’s
premiering at the Venice Film Festival before stopping at the
Toronto International Film Festival. Del Toro's last film,
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” won the streamer its first best
animated film Oscar. In 2018, del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” won
best picture. “Frankenstein” is all but sure to be in the Academy
Awards mix this fall.
But there have been more than a hundred Frankenstein films over the
years. Yet it’s also been a long time (Tim Burton's “Frankenweenie”
in 2012?) since one really grabbed audiences. For del Toro, what
makes his “Frankenstein” unique might be the depth of feeling he has
for it.
“I believe you can cover ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ and be
Joe Cocker or not. But the only thing you have is your voice,” says
del Toro. “It’s very Catholic because it’s coming from me. I’m
interested in answering why did God have to send Jesus to be
crucified.”
Inspiration from a halftime show
Del Toro's “Frankenstein” was also made with particular fidelity to
Shelley, and seeks to avoid some of the more simplistic
characterizations that have been done over the years. The conception
of Victor Frankenstein was less mad scientist than an artist and
showman. Isaac even took inspiration from an R&B icon.
“For one scene, when Victor goes into the tower for the first time,
imagining his lab, I even watched a rehearsal of Prince coming to
the Super Bowl and the way he looked around the stage, that kind of
ownership,” says Isaac.
Del Toro, 60, sees himself in both Frankenstein and his monster, and
wanted a “Frankenstein” that reflect the perspectives of both.
“Since ‘Nightmare Alley,’ I tend to think of the protagonist and the
antagonist are sometimes the same character,” del Toro says. “That,
I guess, happens after turning 50. You start to see the world as a
paradox, as opposed to a dichotomy.”
It's tempting to see del Toro, himself, as a kind of Victor
Frankenstein. He’s a maker of monsters, a conjurer of fantastical
things. But despite having contemplated his Frankenstein movie for
many years, he didn't want to make a preordained movie, electrified
into life by his genius. He wanted to more gently shepherd it into
being.
“Contrary to the doctor, I’ve learned to listen. When you’re a young
filmmaker, you talk about the movie you see,” says del Toro. “What
you learn with the decades of experience is that the movie is
talking. And it tells you what it needs to be. People ask what comes
with age as a director. I say, you understand that making films is
not a dictation. It’s not a hostage negotiation with reality.”
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