Frankenstein review: Guillermo del Toro's gory and goofy Edinburgh-set tale rarely sparks into life
Frankenstein is by turns gory and goofy, writes Alistair Harkness
Guillermo del Toro has been dreaming about making his own version of Frankenstein since he was a kid and you can tell it means a lot to him from the way he’s brought the full force of his considerably filmmaking craft to bear on this lavish Netflix-funded take on Mary Shelley’s much-adapted tale.
Unfortunately, it rarely sparks to life. By turns gory and goofy, the film eventually settles into a mode of overblown gothic melodrama, repeatedly bludgeoning us with theme-explicating dialogue to ram home the point that, yes, the monster is really Victor Frankenstein, not his stitched together creation, and yes, playing God is a bad idea.
Given the influence of Shelley’s novel on everything from Godzilla and Jurassic Park to Under the Skin and Poor Things, one might have hoped del Toro would have a more interesting take on it, especially given his track record of weaving cogent political subtexts into the likes of The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth and his recent stop-motion animated version of Pinocchio. Sadly not, though he does have a few touches of his own that make it intermittently interesting.
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Shot and set partly in Edinburgh, it’s at its most entertaining when Victor (played by Oscar Isaac) is scandalising Edinburgh’s medical establishment with his galvanic experiments in re-animation.
Attracting the interest of a wealthy arms manufacturer (Christoph Waltz) who offers to bankroll Victor for macabre reasons of his own, they’re soon scouring the battlefields of Europe for suitable corpses.
READ MORE: Hollywood crews take over Edinburgh's Royal Mile to film Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
Del Toro doesn’t stint on the horror here (we see bodies sliced and diced in forensic detail), yet he dresses it up with an oddly jaunty score and Isaac’s mad scientist turn frequently teeters on the brink of comedy.
As the creature, meanwhile, Jacon Elordi’s tall, rangy frame gives Victor’s scar-covered creation a wounded nobility that’s right for the role. But as we switch perspectives to hear his side of the story, the film doesn’t give him much to sink his teeth into. The end result is all style, very little substance.
Frankenstein is in cinemas from 18 October and streams on Netflix from 7 November
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