Over the past few decades, director Guillermo del Toro has established himself as a filmmaker with a flair for the macabre, maximalist sets, and spellbinding creature designs. But even in the midst of spectacle, intricate makeup designs, and strenuously detailed settings, it’s the characters that give his stories their soul. Their emotions match the ornate gowns and deep worldbuilding, and their journey towards love, adventure or survival quickly envelops the audience. These characters fit into the dreamy worlds del Toro develops for them, and it is because of their visual and narrative achievement that they become so memorable.
Del Toro’s latest creation is one of his most ambitious, a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that looks and feels unlike any other previous cinematic adaptations of the cautionary tale about a megalomaniacal genius and a creation that’s no longer under his control. Although Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the creature (Jacob Elordi) share much of the film’s screentime, the character of Elizabeth (Mia Goth) plays a pivotal role in both men’s storylines. When introduced, she’s engaged to Victor Frankenstein’s brother, but quickly establishes her presence against the men talking over her.
For Victor, Elizabeth was his intellectual equal, someone who understood his obsession, had her own quirky interests in bugs (a favorite topic for del Toro), and wasn’t afraid to challenge him. However, she ultimately rejects him, possibly out of loyalty to her fiancée or because she recognizes that Victor’s obsession with his work is the only love he’s truly capable of. Their relationship disintegrates when she sees how he’s treated his creation. It’s interesting to note that Goth also plays Victor’s mother Claire, pointing to a Freudian fixation on replacing the maternal love he lost when she died in childbirth. For the creature, Elizabeth is his first source of true kindness, a balm to Victor’s cruelty, and someone to look for in this hostile world.
Frankenstein is not the first time del Toro has written complicated roles for actresses. In fact, his movies are full of impressive female characters who can be kind, powerful, dangerous, and sympathetic. Starting at the beginning of his career with Cronos, del Toro introduces audiences to Aurora (Tamara Shanath), the granddaughter of the main character Jesús (Federico Luppi), who is innocence personified and unfazed by the supernatural circumstances now affecting her beloved grandfather. Cronos is mostly about an ancient device that acts as a vampiric fountain of youth, biting and then transforming Jesús. Aurora is the first to notice something wrong with her grandfather and accompanies him to the climatic showdown to prevent a rich man’s fail-nephew from stealing the device for their own purposes. She gives her grandfather something to fight for even though he, at that moment, is immortal and protects her at all costs – even from his newfound appetite for blood. Eventually, Aurora sees order restored from the supernatural, even if the result is tragic.
Del Toro’s next film, Mimic, is perhaps the first draft of his version of Frankenstein. In a sense, the movie is about a creator and a creation that escapes from their control, and in Mimic our Victor Frankenstein is actually Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino), a brilliant character who, in trying to stop a plague (i.e., trying to stop death, not unlike Victor), develops the Judas bug to combat cockroaches spreading a disease that’s killing children. Unfortunately, the Judas bug evolves into a monster now preying on human victims. Dr. Tyler jumps in to stop the killer invasion before it’s too late.
Returning to the subject of the Spanish Civil War, which he explored with The Devil’s Backbone and the concept of innocence confronting supernatural powers in a violent world, del Toro gave the somber tale of Pan’s Labyrinth an Alice in Wonderland twist. Mixing both real and imaginary horrors, the story follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a 10-year-old girl whose mother grows sicker as her stepfather grows even more ruthless in hunting down those still loyal to the Spanish crown. In the midst of so much violence and cruelty, Ofelia is another figure of innocence and kindness, refusing to hurt anyone but herself to save her mother and escape to safety. She’s brave, holding her own against the mysterious Faun and the child-eating Pale Man, but she is not the only one. Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), the housekeeper, is a part of the resistance Ofelia’s stepfather is trying to hunt down, and she tries to do the right thing in impossible times, putting herself in harm’s way.
Pacific Rim not only let del Toro indulge in his love of monsters, it also introduced audiences to the character of Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a headstrong figure looking to prove herself to avenge her parents’ death in the wake of a Kaiju attack. She is every bit as capable as the male pilots of mechanical behemoths known as Jaegers, even if she needs some more experience compared to veterans like Becket (Charlie Hunnam). It’s notable that Mako and Becket’s story is not a romantic one but one of camaraderie. In order to pilot a Jaeger, two people share the mental and physical strain of the job through a neural link called “drifting.” In this state, they can see each other’s memories and feelings, gaining a sense of empathy that seems out of place in an action movie but is central to the film’s plot. Understanding each other makes us stronger, not weaker.
The film also inspired the Mako Mori test, a riff on the Bechdel test that advocated for films to have at least one female character who has their own plot independent of other men in the story. Because Mako is a woman in a line of work dominated by men, she is the only central female character, so she couldn’t pass the Bechdel test, but that doesn’t make her contribution less important to the story than that of her male peers.
Crimson Peak is perhaps the closest of del Toro’s previous films to Frankenstein, both in its Gothic roots and visual style. Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is an ambitious young writer trying to break through the male-dominated publishing world of the early 20th century, but soon finds herself in her own Gothic romance when a dashing English baronet, Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), arrives in her hometown, looking to fund a project on his crumbling estate, Crimson Peak. He’s joined by his intense sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), who serves as the dark counterpart to Edith’s innocence – literally so, as they’re often dressed in contrasting dark and light-colored dresses. Lucille has ulterior motives shaped by her traumatic past, while Edith is still led by her heart, and eventually her mind kicks in to solve the mystery she was too lovestruck to pick up on at first. If Frankenstein is about a father-son relationship through the story of the creator and his creation, then Crimson Peak can also be seen as a tribute to love lost, be that in the loss of Edith’s father and the protection and comfort he provided, or, later, the loss of another man she loved. Edith can hear and see ghosts quite clearly, and while these monsters look frightening at first, they end up being key to her survival.
Survival also comes in the form of connection and communication in del Toro’s Oscar-winning love story The Shape of Water. Set in 1960s America during the Cold War, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaner at a government facility, befriends and later falls in love with the humanoid creature she rescues from her workplace lab. She connects and communicates with the creature in a way few other people in her life do, and in turn, forms a romantic bond that saves them both. Elisa, like Elizabeth in Frankenstein, advocates for the creature when his handlers no longer consider him valuable, seeing their life as something more than what mad scientists deem important. It’s yet another message about empathy, this time disguised as a love story about outsiders.
The heart of a movie can also belong to its villains, as evidenced by del Toro’s adaptation of the film noir staple Nightmare Alley. Set in the postwar years, the movie follows Stan (Bradley Cooper) and his abuse of a newfound power others warned him to avoid. But Nightmare Alley also features two great performances from Rooney Mara as Molly, the softspoken partner-in-crime who eventually decides to break away from Stan’s many deceptions; and Cate Blanchett as Dr. Ritter, a consummate femme fatale with the perfect sense of intrigue and power to manipulate an already pretty corrupt Stan. Throw in a supporting turn from Toni Collette as Madam Zeena, the world-weary professional con artist, and the three set the stage for Stan’s hubristic downfall. Nightmare Alley may have the distinction of being the only del Toro movie where everyone is capable of deceit and treachery.
Like the creature itself, Frankenstein is built from the parts of many of del Toro’s favorite themes and visual motifs. Just as important as the film’s sumptuous jewel-toned color palette and ornate sets is the creature’s innocence, Victor’s selfish motives, Elizabeth’s interest in insects, the appearance of death and angels, of dreams and religious iconography, and the plea to understand people who are different. In Frankenstein, that message is Elizabeth’s to tell, and time and again, we see that del Toro writes fantastical stories for monsters and men – and women.
- Release Date
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October 17, 2025
- Runtime
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149 Minutes