Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 film “Frankenstein,” an adaptation of the classic Mary Shelley novel “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus,” shows us what a film adaptation should be. From the set construction to the costumes to the writing and performances, “Frankenstein” delivers the themes and story of Shelley’s novel to a modern audience, captivating and devastating viewers. The film is now streaming on Netflix, after a limited theatrical release. 

Following the rough flow of the original work, the film begins in the ice of the north, where a ship stuck in a frozen wasteland discovers Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. Once they rescue Victor, he tells his tale aboard the ship to the captain, only for the story to be continued by the Creature when he forcibly enters the ship’s cabin. Between the retrospective bulk of the film, we return to the ship for brief moments of the present, ultimately ending back where it began.

All of the main scenes from the novel are present in del Toro’s “Frankenstein:” Victor feverishly builds and animates the Creature from the parts of various dead men; Victor scorns the Creature post-creation; the Creature learns from a peasant family through observations as he lives in secret on their farm; the Creature requests a companion from Victor; Victor’s loved ones die due to his ‘mistake’ in creating the Creature; and the twisted father-son duo end in a cat-and-mouse chase northward.

Where the film differs from the novel is in the beauty of adaptation that shines through. The film is set in the mid-1800s, allowing for electricity to be used in the animation process. Elizabeth’s character is Victor’s future sister-in-law, not his own bride, and has a much larger, more important role in the film. Many characters have been cut, and some have been transformed into new ones to allow for points to be better explained. 

Perhaps the most prevalent change is to Victor’s own character. Victor is more directly egotistical, full of self-importance and hubris and reluctant to admit to mistakes. He does not run from the Creature upon animation, but instead chains him in the laboratory’s basement while angrily trying to teach the Creature to speak. In his frustration, Victor’s cruelty is revealed. In his mission to best his own abusive father, he in turn became one to his creation.

Victor’s faults are constantly brought to light by Elizabeth, whose character acts as a foil to Victor and who is frequently there to call him out for his failings. She is the object of his desire, a woman with a keen interest in science and the world around her, who is religious and caring, and who is unafraid to call out injustices and wrongdoings. 

Elizabeth forms a connection with the Creature and is one of the only people to treat him kindly. Upon her death, she bids him to take her with him and tells him that she has been searching for something more all her life, which she found in him. 

Guillermo del Toro employs strong characterization to extract the novel’s themes and bring them to the silver screen. The arrogance of Victor, the kind melancholy of Elizabeth, and, most importantly, the gentle goodness of the Creature are modes of displaying the hubris of man. By forming Elizabeth into a more present and active character, the film can better comment on how creating life is inherent to women’s bodies, how creator and creation are intrinsically linked, and how the nurturing of life is more crucial than the creation of it.

Gothic is the story, and gothic is the film; the set design, lighting and visuals are quite beautifully crafted and stunning to watch. Intricate laboratory equipment, vast expanses of mountain wilderness and the pivotal gloomy tower where the Creature is made all instill a sense of the sublime in line with the tones of Gothic literature.

The costuming features such gorgeous garments that hold immense detail and meaning. Victor, whose mission to make life was formed from his mother’s early death, wears many red articles of clothing, particularly gloves and a scarf; his mother was clothed almost solely in head-to-toe red during flashbacks of his childhood. When he confesses his feelings to Elizabeth, and when she, in turn, dismisses his affections and gives him the information he needs for reanimation, she is wearing a red gown and bonnet for the only time in the film.

The Creature has a bulky mass of clothing when he is first introduced on the ice. As we learn his story and see his journey, we see he gathers clothing from various places in his life and does not remove anything, reflecting his continuous hardships and pains that he collects and cannot leave behind. Elizabeth largely wears blues and greens, which connect her to nature and to the blueish skin of the Creature whom she grows fond of.

A key change from book to film are the deaths of those closest to Victor. The film has him accidentally kill his friend and benefactor, Herr Harlander, during a fight, and then covers it up when Elizabeth and his brother come to visit. Victor’s brother William and Elizabeth are killed at their wedding when the Creature comes to ask for a companion; Victor shoots Elizabeth under the guise of attacking the Creature, though he knows he cannot die, and his brother suffers fatal wounds when the Creature pushes him off in self-defense.

Victor is the reason for each of their deaths, though he time and again blames the Creature for them. Couple this with his cruel nature, and the crux of the novel appears: Victor is the monster, not his creation. Del Toro hits that nail on the head, having Elizabeth scoff, “Only monsters play God” to him, and William proclaim, “You are the monster” with his dying breath.

Victor is contrasted by the Creature, who treats animals he encounters with gentleness and care, who helps the family he watches and befriends their blind grandfather, who tries to save Elizabeth when she is shot, and who, in his last act of the film, frees the ship from the ice and enables the crew to return home. His kind nature starkly contrasts Victor and forces the audience to see who is the monster and who is the man.

“Frankenstein” delivers all of the moody Gothic feel, intense relational tensions, and questions of humanity and monstrosity that Shelley wove into her novel, but in a unique, fresh fashion. The film captures the essence of the story and presents it to viewers with awe-inspiring visuals, jaw-dropping costumes and gory action sequences to form a creature of its own.