There are books that thrill you. Books that haunt you. And then there’s Frankenstein — a thunderclap in literary history that still echoes through the canyons of culture more than two centuries after it was first written. Penned by an 18-year-old Mary Shelley during a storm-lashed Gothic challenge in the summer of 1816, it remains a staggering act of imagination — a ghost story that became a creation myth for modern horror, science fiction, and the endlessly conflicted soul of man.
Now, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro — whose work has always reverberated with Shelleyan themes of loss, loneliness, and monstrous beauty — steps into the storm. His adaptation of Frankenstein draws closer, and today brings a major jolt of life: a brand-new trailer and an evocative poster revealing the creature in all its patched-together glory.
Del Toro’s Frankenstein recently had its world premiere in competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where early reactions praised the film for its emotional resonance, gothic atmosphere, and mournful beauty — a fitting homage to Shelley’s original text.
A staggered release now follows: in select cinemas from 17 October, before it reaches a global audience on Netflix from 7 November.
Del Toro, who both wrote and directed the adaptation, has made it clear this isn’t your grandfather’s Frankenstein. Nor, crucially, is it Hollywood’s. In recent interviews, he’s described the project not as a traditional horror film, but as an intimate, emotionally charged retelling of Shelley’s novel — one that leans into the tragic poetry of its characters rather than just the terror of reanimation.
Composer Alexandre Desplat, reuniting with del Toro after The Shape of Water, has spoken of the film’s score in similarly tender terms, calling it “lyrical and emotional”, designed to evoke pathos, not panic.
The cast is led by Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and Mia Goth as Elizabeth Lavenza. Felix Kammerer, fresh from his breakout in All Quiet on the Western Front, appears as William Frankenstein, with David Bradley as the Blind Man and Christoph Waltz taking on the role of Harlander. Rounding out the ensemble are Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance, and Christian Convery.
That del Toro has chosen Frankenstein as his next major work feels both inevitable and long overdue. His filmography has long functioned as a love letter to misunderstood monsters and doomed romantics — from Pan’s Labyrinth to Crimson Peak, from The Shape of Water to even Hellboy.
And so the creature stirs once more — but before it draws breath, behold the trailer: a haunting vision of longing, solitude, and the ruinous cost of creation.
