Frankenstein (2025) Movie Review

By: Brian Trainor

After an unconventional theatrical release, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, finally arrives on Netflix. The movie, a Netflix exclusive, had an extremely limited theatrical debut on October 17, 2025. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival prior to its release on August 30th. However, its limited run in theaters signals Netflix’s promotion for academy award reception for the film. It then arrived on the streaming platform on November 7th to immediate praise from a wider audience. 

The film, starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as The Creature, is a modern day retelling of Mary Shelley’s legendary 1818 novel. It strips away the green skin and the bolts in the neck, for a grittier portrayal that is drowned in blood and shades of gray. 

Surprising to no one, the legendary director’s fingerprints are all over the movie. Seeing Jacob Elordi as the creature is quite the shock; but like many of Del Toro’s other films, dealing with otherworldly figures, it is done masterfully. Oscar Isaac’s portrayal of the mad doctor Victor Frankenstein steals the show, the first part, anyway. His obsession with the creation or in his belief the prolonging of life, drives the conflict between himself and every other character he comes into contact with. His performance breathes new life into a character who is over 200 years old and he brings a viscerality to the screen that somehow adds depth to a story that is tried and true. The tagline of the movie “Only monsters play God” is a haunting four words that are definitely driven home throughout. The moments between Victor and The Creature are detestable at times and Victor’s reaction to his creation are what truly shows the real monster of the film. 

The film is broken up into two sections in which we are given Victor’s story and The Creature’s story.

After a brief introduction, we get Victor’s story. The film attempts to humanize Victor by making his childhood sequence intense. We see him suffer abuse at the hands of his father, played by Charles Dance, as well as the horrific death of his mother in childbirth with his younger sibling. It is Victor’s obsession with his mother Clare, who is played by Mia Goth in a double role (in which she also stars his love interest Elizabeth Lavenza), that we see a trigger for his further obsession to create life. Throughout the movie we see Victor interacting with a model of a pregnant woman most obviously pointing to the way that life is created. There is also a connection between Victor and his mother through the color red. During the introduction of his mother she is draped head to toe in red. Later when she passes away she leaves a red handprint on young Victor’s shoulder from her own blood. Victor’s red motifs are slightly more nuanced. He wears red gloves while he works with the corpses and in the making of The Creature. The red hands symbolize his own way of giving life. Even after he finishes his creation he goes to bed wrapping himself up in a red blanket. 

As for Jacob Elordi’s phenomenal portrayal of The Creature: an eleven hour makeup session really turned the 6’5 Australian actor unrecognizable.

Though he briefly appears on screen in the first 9 minutes of the film, he is hidden by clothing and darkness. It is not until about an hour in that we see him for the haunting creation Victor made him to be. Gone is the green skin and the baggy black suit. Elordi’s creature is grey and fleshy and bare. He wears nothing but a loin cloth for a large chunk of the film and when he finally does put on clothes they are robes as opposed to ill fitting tailoring. He immediately steals the show from Oscar Isaac and every minute of his half of the story is surely a treat. From his escape from Victor’s burning lab by diving down a water slide (not joking) to his learning how to read. He goes from newborn to fully fledged adult in such a short span. When he stumbles upon the DeLacey family, his interactions with the grandfather who is credited as the “blind man” are heartwarming and certainly a spot of brightness in an overall dark movie. 

Overall the film did what it was supposed to do. It was certainly a faithful adaptation of Shelley’s 1818 novel. But with Guillermo Del Toro’s flare it feels fresh and gritty all at the same time. The stars did what I expected of them and it payed off tremendously. I found the film to be compelling, as an English major it was excellent to see the novel come to life in a way that I didn’t really expect. And as a fan of many of the actors involved it was nice to see it all come together.

Brian Trainor is a third year English student with a minor in Philosophy. His interests include reading, music, film, and repeatedly overreacting to Philly sports. He hopes to graduate in Spring 2027 and to pursue a career in Education.

(Cover image courtesy of TV Insider)