Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro
Based on the novel: Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz, Kyle Gatehouse, Lauren Collins, Sofia Galasso, Ralph Ineson, Burn Gorman, Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Country: United States and Mexico
Running Time: 150 min
Year: 2025
BBFC Certificate: 15
For more than 30 years Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been a visionary director, crafting some real gems of horror and fantasy. His craft has taken us from independent origins to Oscar-winning glory, from his Spanish language gems like his debut Cronos (1992), my personal favourite of his films The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and the creepy fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) to comic book adaptations of Blade (2002’s Blade II) and Hellbox (2004’s Hellboy and 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army).
The Shape of Water (2017) would be the film that would win him Oscar glory, taking home four accolades including Best Picture and Best Director. Throughout his career del Toro has mixed original stories and adaptations of novels or comics, and his most recent three have all been adaptations of written works – Nightmare Alley (2021) and his two latest movies, both for Netflix, Pinocchio (2022) and the subject of this review Frankenstein (2025).
Frankenstein, if it needs any introduction, follows Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) quest to create life, ultimately creating a Creature (Jacob Elordi). In del Toro’s version we follow Victor, an outstanding surgeon with a huge ego, who has suffered a challenging childhood, from being controlled by his abusive father Baron Leopold Frankenstein (Charles Dance) to suffering the loss of his mother, Baroness Claire Frankenstein (Mia Goth), who dies giving birth to his younger brother, haunting Victor.
Victor, who is adored by that grown up younger brother William’s (Felix Kammerer) fiancée Elizabeth (also played by Mia Goth), has aspirations to play God and beat death and starts experiments by reanimating a human, made from corpses assembled from the Crimean War, and funded by wealthy arms manufacturer Henrik Harlander (Christoph Waltz).
The heart of the film is The Creature finding his way in the world and Victor’s reaction to this – embodying his own father figure with echoes of the childhood he suffered in the way he treats The Creature.
It’s a gorgeous looking film from the outset of the framing story, a snow covered opening as The Creature tracks down Victor to near where a ship is grounded and where creator and creation will recount the tale of how they ended up at the end of the world, to the gothic interiors of the scientist’s home. Real locations, mostly in parts of Scotland including Edinburgh, are used wonderfully and support the sense of time and place well.
The Academy Award winning production design by Tamara Deverell and costume design by Kate Hawley are fabulous. The film would also win Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the Oscars for Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey. The film is beautifully lensed by Dan Laustsen, who has worked with del Toro a few times now. Another who has collaborated with del Toro on a few occasions the film’s composer Alexandre Desplat, who provides a beautiful and haunting score.
Key moments that fans of the novel or previous film adaptations will know are staged well. The laboratory is a suitably over the top and elaborate creation and the birth of The Creature is marvellously stages and feels fresh thanks to the incredible design, supported, as is much of the film, by the use of CGI.
The framing story is well done thanks to the aforementioned production design with the ship that was created for the film, where Victor, and later The Creature, tell their tales, is an excellent creation, while scenes involving The Blind Man (David Bradley) are given extra weight and poignancy in this rendition of the tale. My only criticism would be it’s slightly – every so slightly overblown, and, for me, would have benefited from a careful trim here and there.
Oscar Isaac’s version of Victor is generally unlikeable; a man obsessed with creating life but caring little for whom he hurts along the way. His ultimate treatment of The Creature – shunning him and attempting to murder him by setting fire to his home – is utterly cruel and he is, at times, a mirror of his overbearing father.
Jacob Elordi is outstanding as The Creature, providing more humanity for the character than any other version since Boris Karloff most memorably played the role in the iconic 1930s Universal version, whilst still maintaining the monstrous side that makes him scary. Some of the scenes of the film of The Creature’s rage in the second half of the film are brutal, humans thrown around like ragdolls and wolves viciously killed.
Mia Goth is also fabulous in a dual role as Victor’s ill-fated mother and his younger brother’s fiancée, who Victor has strong feelings for. Her empathy for The Creature, and interactions with that character and Victor are highlights of the film. She is almost unrecognisable as Victor’s mother thanks to prosthetics and changes to her fore brow and cheeks.
The rest of the cast is also great, particularly David Bradley who gives my personal favourite of his performances as The Blind Man whom the creature befriends after escaping from the aforementioned fire that Victor started to kill his creation. Final mention for the always excellent Charles Dance and Christoph Waltz who embody their parts perfectly.
The structure of the film works well, opening and closing with the same framing device as the book with Victor tracked to the ends of the earth by his creation. In between, the film tells the story first from Victor’s perspective and then The Creature’s, which creates a different dynamic to the other film versions.
Some characters and their motivations are also changed from the book but the spirit of it is there, whilst del Toro adds his own spin on elements and leaves us with a hopeful ending and an element of redemption for Victor. It also ends on a beautiful, memorable image.
Del Toro also takes inspiration from previous film versions of Frankenstein, including the creature being shot in the eye, like Christopher Lee’s version is in Hammer’s seminal The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which launched the British studio into the horror mainstream and was the first horror film I ever saw. Mia Goth’s hair and attire also reminded me of Hazel Court’s take on Elizabeth from that same film – while her wedding dress looks like one of Elsa Lanchester’s costumes in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
In closing, Guillermo del Toro triumphs again with one of my favourite film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It is a gorgeous adaptation of the novel which sees del Toro retain key elements yet also forge his own journey. The set contains two cuts – the original theatrical version that also aired on Netflix and Frankenstein: The Reborn Cut, a new, extended director’s cut of the film. Both cuts are worthwhile, the new director’s cut adding a little bit of richness and allowing certain scenes more chance to breathe. I enjoyed both.
Film: 
Frankenstein is released on separate dual-format 4K UHD and Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD editions on 26 October 2026 as part of the Criterion Collection. I reviewed the dual-format edition, which includes the theatrical cut of the film on both 4K and Blu-ray plus the same treatment for Frankenstein: The Reborn Cut, the new 158-minute extended director’s cut. Extras-wise the 4K discs just contain an audio commentary on The Reborn Cut, with the remaining extras on the two Blu-ray discs.
The picture quality is strong throughout, with no blemishes, plenty of fine detail and a strong colour palette. The level of detail that can be seen in the costume and production design is great and the beautiful lighting looks fabulous. It is a very pleasing transfer. The sound quality is also really good, music and sound effects coming through strong, and dialogue clear.
Director-approved 4k UHD and Blu-ray special edition features:
- 4K digital master of the theatrical version of the film, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- 4K digital master of Frankenstein: The Reborn Cut, a new, extended director’s cut of the film, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- Two 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the films and special features
- New audio commentary on The Reborn Cut featuring director Guillermo del Toro
- The Anatomy Lesson: Director’s Cut, a new documentary on the making of the film
- The Parlour, a collection of conversations on craft featuring del Toro; actors Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Oscar Isaac; cinematographer Dan Laustsen; production designer Tamara Deverell; costume designer Kate Hawley; and creature designer Mike Hill
- Q&As moderated by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and musician Patti Smith
- Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat conducted by film-music scholar Jon Burlingame
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by scholar and author Christopher Frayling
The audio commentary on the Reborn Cut 4K and Blu-ray discs is, as you would expect, first class with del Toro providing a rich amount of detail about the film. He shares the importance of the book and the impact of seeing James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) on his life but also how he wanted to bring his own voice to it. It is an incredible commentary and if you have time for just one of the package’s extras, I recommend making it this one.
The first Blu-ray disc contains three extras. It opens with The Anatomy Lesson: Director’s Cut, a 60-minute documentary featuring loads of behind-the-scenes footage and reflections from cast and crew. There are some interesting background details, a chance to see artist’s impressions and designs for the sets and costumes. These designs and behind the scenes footage are the best elements of the documentary, alongside the interviews with del Toro and star Oscar Isaac.
The second of the disc’s extras is a 32-minute Q&A moderated by director Martin Scorsese and featuring del Toro, stars Isaac and Elordi, production designer Deverell and costume designer Hawley. There are some interesting comments about some of the religious elements that del Toro brought to the visuals. It is my favourite of the extras outside of the commentary with Scorsese a great moderator and all of those involved in Frankenstein on fine form and providing more detail in half the time than the making of documentary.
The first Blu-ray disc closes with a two-minute trailer.
The second Blu-ray disc contains the rest of the extras opening with The Parlour, a collection of interviews with del Toro, actors Elordi, Goth, and Oscar Isaac, cinematographer Laustsen, production designer Deverell, costume designer Hawley and creature designer Mike Hill. Â They can be played as one 36-minute piece or as five separate interviews and see del Toro and Laustsen discussing cinematography, Goth and Hawley focusing on costume design, del Toro and Elordi commenting on The Creature, Isaac and Deverell chatting about production design and del Toro and Hill looking at the design of The Creature. There are plenty of clips and each are worth watching with plenty to glean.
A second Q&A is included with Patti Smith moderating and featuring del Toro and Oscar Isaac. Again, there is a lot to take from this one with del Toro, who also wrote and directed the film coming across as warm, enthusiastic and full of great anecdotes and commentary. Isaac also provides some interesting insights. I particularly enjoyed del Toro’s comments about the use of symbolism and colour in the film, in particular the colour red. Musician Smith gives some interesting takes too and moderates well.
The extras conclude with a 17-minute interview with composer Alexandre Desplat conducted by film-music scholar Jon Burlingame, which is essentially a Q&A as it was recorded in front of an audience. Desplat is fun and entertaining and his comments about working with director del Toro are a highlight, as well as his approach to composing.
In closing, Criterion have provided a fantastic dual-format 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Guillermo del Toro’s most recent film, 2025’s Frankenstein. The director’s fingers are all over this release, which delivers two cuts of the film – including a slightly longer new director’s cut, alongside the theatrical – excellent picture and sound, a brilliant new commentary with the director, and well over two hours of interviews, two outstanding Q&As and documentary. It is a release that is likely to delight fans of the director and film.
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