The streaming movie landscape is in a funny spot. On the one hand, it’s loaded with watch-while-you-look-at-your-phone slop featuring prominent actors going through the motions. Remember Happy Gilmore 2 earlier this year? You probably don’t! On the other hand, the proposition of a “free-to-watch” movie (even though you’re paying for a subscription to the service) leads to surprising pop-culture moments that might not have happened with a traditional theatrical release (for example, the massive success of KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix). Netflix is also home to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a film that’s as premium of an experience that you can get on a streaming service. It probably won’t have the Netflix cultural impact of HUNTR/X – although I bet Oscar Isaac could sing the hell out of “Golden” – it is a film that’s worthy to be obsessed over as one of del Toro’s best dark fairy tales to date.
But first, confession time: I’ve never really cared about Frankenstein’s Monster. Sure, I read Mary Shelley’s classic novel once in college, but the bolt-necked brute in platform shoes never really appealed to me as a Universal Monster (I’m more of a Gill-man stan myself) and the only Frankenstein movie I’ve ever gravitated toward is Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, which is among the best comedy films of all time and I will not accept any counter-arguments whatsoever. So, I approached Frankenstein as a del Toro fan first and a Frankenstein fan a distant second. And I loved it!
Del Toro weaves a story of discovery, terror, humanity, regret and redemption, all told against a tapestry of gothic visuals that makes even the grotesque look beautiful. The titular Victor Frankenstein (Isaac) has dreams of defeating death after his mother (Mia Goth) dies giving birth to his younger brother, William (Felix Kammerer). Those fantasies of crafting a being immune to death, coupled with funding from the opportunistic Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), lead to the creation of the Creature (Jacob Elordi), a grim composite of body parts from different corpses that learns to become man. But as the Creature attains humanity, Victor begins to lose his. Meanwhile, the increasingly unhinged Victor falls deeply in love with his brother’s fiancée, Elizabeth, who is also played by Mia Goth, and you are right to make a lot of narrative assumptions about what this means.
Speaking of narrative, the film begins where it ends, as Victor is rescued by a Royal Danish Navy ship in the North Pole, where he found and confronted his creation. Victor tells his side of the story leading up that point, then we hear the tale from the Creature’s perspective. The he said/it said structure makes the 2.5-hour runtime fly past, and I’m proud to say I only stopped to look at my phone twice during my viewing – the first time was to see when the novel was published and the second was to confirm whether Mia Goth really played Victor’s mother and his love interest.
Visually, del Toro clearly spent a lot of time crafting the heightened reality of Frankenstein, from Victor’s ultra-stylized laboratory to the Creature’s intensely detailed makeup effects that required Elordi to spend 11 hours in the makeup chair. And speaking of craft, del Toro gets exceptional performances out of his cast, namely Isaac and Elordi, whose father/son, master/subject relationship propels the film toward its surprisingly heart-wrenching conclusion.
Bafflingly, Frankenstein didn’t release on Netflix until after Halloween, and since a lot of our collective streaming time is likely going toward holiday films for the next few weeks, it might seem difficult working a grim monster tragedy into your viewing schedule. That said, I strongly suggest making time for it soon if you haven’t already. Heck, watch it on Thanksgiving! It will definitely force you to look at carving the turkey from a whole new perspective.
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