This American Gothic, Science Fiction Horror film tells the story of a monster-creature that leads to the death of its creator, after his experiments have brought it to life.
FRANKENSTEIN. Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Charles Dance and others. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Rated MA15+. Check Classification Advice – contains bloody violence and grisly images.149 min.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media Australia
Oscar-winning Director, Guillermo del Toro, known best perhaps as the Director of “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), is a craftsman who puts imaginative story-telling vividly on film. The film captures the essence of the 1818 Gothic Novel, “Frankenstein”, by Mary Shelley. In distinctive fashion del Toro creates a story of beauty, feeling, and artistry.
Imagery is used to tell a horror tale of the creation of a monster by a brilliant, egotistical scientist. The monster is performed by Jacob Elordi, and the scientist by Oscar Isaac. Del Toro brings the film to imaginative life in a way that mixes horror and tragedy with romance, and we are given his philosophical reflection on what being human should mean. In the film, Del Toro explores the cruelty of the human species to bring death and horror on itself through war and the lack of forgiveness, and he directs the film by integrating compelling acting with arresting, visual imagery.
Del Toro directs with strong emotion and passion, and Jacob Elordi as actor brings a studied watchfulness to Shelley’s Frankenstein 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 was created out of stitched-together body parts from condemned men that comes together vividly as life, and the Creature appears as a hooded form wrapped in animal furs. The strength of the monster gives meaning to the statement that this is a Creature that cannot die, but one that cannot “live alone”.
Del Torro’s film drifts at times into melodrama, but the flair of his visual imagination reliably comes to the rescue. In the film, 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”. Characteristically, he fills his movie with distinctive imagery that is extraordinarily impactful.
Reviewed by Peter W. Sheehan, an Associate of Jesuit Media