Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro takes on a Gothic classic, bringing a new version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the screen. Source: Australian Catholics.
Del Toro, perhaps best known as the director of Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), is a craftsman who brings imaginative storytelling to vivid life on screen. Frankenstein captures the essence of Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel in a distinctive fashion.
Imagery is used to tell a horror tale of the creation of a monster (Elordi) by a brilliant, egotistical scientist (Isaac). Del Toro’s film blends horror and tragedy with romance, offering his philosophical reflections on what it means to be human.
He explores the cruelty of the human species to bring death and horror on itself through war and the lack of forgiveness, and directs the film by integrating compelling acting with arresting, visual imagery.
Elordi brings a studied watchfulness to Shelley’s monster that is the soul of the movie. Del Toro invests his interpretation of Frankenstein by showing the monster’s thirst for the freshness of life that reflects both curiosity and hurt.
Frankenstein creates his monster out of stitched-together body parts from condemned men and the Creature, as he is referred to, appears as a hooded form wrapped in animal furs.
While the film drifts at times into melodrama, the flair of del Toro’s visual imagination reliably comes to the rescue.
There are strong scenes of blood-letting and gothic horror permeates the movie with dramatic effect, especially when the Creature begins to understand who and what he is.
The film boldly uses colour to create its effects, and both production and costume design reinforce del Toro’s intent. This is a film that soundly displays Del Toro’s skills. It is his strongest statement yet about the power of ‘forgiveness’ and what it means to be ‘human’.
Review by Peter Sheehan, Jesuit Media
Frankenstein: Starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Charles Dance and others. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Rated MA15+ (Strong themes and violence) 149 min. In cinemas now; Netflix from November 7.
FULL REVIEW
Frankenstein (Australian Catholics)
