Guillermo del Toro doesn’t just craft creatures willy nilly–he pours his heart and soul into his monsters. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has spent more than 30 years chasing his vision for Frankenstein (a 2025 movie schedule release) and if his recent comments are anything to go by, he isn’t stitching a nightmare so much as shaping a poem. He says Jacob Elordi’s take on the Creature in the upcoming Netflix release is “staggeringly beautiful,” a choice that flips the usual script on what to expect with new horror movies and hints at a gothic tragedy built on empathy, not revulsion.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly ahead of the upcoming book-to-screen adaptation of Mary Shelly’s classic, Toronto premiere, the Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker laid out a design philosophy that reframes the myth. He didn’t want an “accident victim” patched together by Victor Frankenstein (played by Oscar Isaac); he wanted a vision made with intention, elegance, and care. As del Toro puts it:
Victor is as much an artist as he is a surgeon, and if he's been dreaming about this creature for all his life, he's going to nail it. It looks like a newborn, alabaster creature. The scars are beautiful and almost aerodynamic.
The Mexico-born filmmaker’s color choices only sharpen the sort of monster he’s trying to create. He continued:
The hues are pale but almost translucent. It feels like a newborn soul.
The word "newborn" really packs a punch. That pale, see-through skin hints at a fragile nature, with emotions almost visible just beneath the surface. It encourages us to take a closer look, to see this being as something starting out, not just a collection of parts. This is one of del Toro’s strengths—like he did with the Oscar-winning flick The Shape of Water, the filmmaker knows how to make you connect with something you’re supposed to be afraid of and then shows you how the world reacts to it.
Jacob Elordi being cast feels like a no-brainer. He’s tall and good-looking, but he’s also observant and has this unexpected, delicate side. His presence really shows a mix of awe and vulnerability. Even though some fans aren’t thrilled about him playing Heathcliff, it’s probably his physicality that he's clearly bringing to Frankenstein that caught the casting director's attention for the new version of Wuthering Heights.
Del Toro mentioned that the actor connected profoundly with the character. He added:
One of the things I thought needed the most intelligence, emotionally, was to track the evolution of the creature. He [Elordi] said something to me that was touching and real: 'This creature is more me than me,' He said, 'And people don't know that, and I'm going to be able to be myself through this.' He brought a truth to this performance that's really something to behold.
The mastermind behind Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army gave a shout-out to Elordi for his fantastic work with his body and voice, saying it was so polished that they were able to film a lot of scenes in just one or two takes. Based on this description, the character is really figuring out his movements and voice as he goes, which is precisely the kind of take I was hoping to see.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein hits select theaters on October 17 before it drops on streaming for those with a Netflix subscription on November 7. With its cool "newborn, alabaster" look and those "aerodynamic" scars, it seems way more like a living piece of art than just another monster movie. I’m really excited for it to come out!
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