It's Alive! First Look at Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is set for release on Netflix in November 2025, and this month saw the trailer land on the official Netflix YouTube channel.
The film features Christoph Waltz, Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Jacob Elordi.
I enjoyed the sound design in the trailer – it should sound great in the cinema.
The set and costumes look good to me as well.
The locations appear accurate to the book and convey a sense of the cold and isolation. Some of the filming was done in Toronto, Canada, and some in Edinburgh, Scotland.
And, some of the scenes are recognisable. Though Del Toro said in 2008 that it wouldn’t be a direct adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, it will be ‘an adventure story that involves the creature.’
I do have a slight gripe, though. The bloody electricity!
When I read the book, I was surprised that the monster isn’t brought to life by electricity and lightning and a crazed Viktor Frankenstein screaming, ‘More Power!’
I don’t know why so much of Frankenstein in pop culture depicts the use of electricity when it isn’t accurate to the source material.
Check out the trailer here 👉 Frankenstein
When I was looking up this film, I learned that Maggie Gyllenhaal is directing a Frankenstein adaptation set in 1930s Chicago called The Bride, starring her brother Jake Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale (which one’s the bride?).
"I don’t know why so much of Frankenstein in pop culture depicts the use of electricity when it isn’t accurate to the source material."
It's adjacent to the period in which the book was written, though. Mary Shelley was inspired by Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta's experiments with electricity on living beings. Filmmakers just took it as a given from knowing that...