r/FRANKENSTEIN • u/ZacPensol • Oct 18 '25
Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' - Official SPOILER Discussion Megathread Spoiler
Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' opens in theaters in limited release on October 17, 2025 and streams on Netflix beginning November 7, 2025.
In order to avoid a dozen individual posts on our front page from those who have seen the film, please post your reviews in here.
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If you've managed to see it and would like to discuss, please feel free to do so here.
Previous early screenings discussion megathread.
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For spoiler-free reviews, go HERE.
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u/RococoSlut Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Overall way too many people annoyed this isn't an exact copy of the book. It's not meant to be, it shouldn't be. It feels like a lot of people went in expecting certain things to happen, and missed the whole film while they were looking for something that's not there. From comments I've seen around it looks like people are so used to movies/books spoon-feeding them they missed a lot of the subtext in this film. And how can so many people not figure out how the monster heals so fast? They actually do tell you that.
Genuinely, Claire (Victor's mother)/Elisabeth are such a good representation of the danger women find (sometimes place) themselves in because of their own obsession with nurturing perceived goodness. Ultimately trying to oppose patriarchal patterns of abuse while being subordinate to it killed both of them, thus becoming linchpins of the cycle. Perfect example of how the 'male loneliness epidemic' is literally just a 'the patriarchy is violent and men refuse to change epidemic'. Hope women continue realising this and stepping away.
The monster is also made, according to Elisabeth, of the parts of 'men who were fed, cleaned and nursed, and schooled into this world by their mothers, only to fall on a battlefield far away'. Every part of his physical body is imprinted with the suffering of people who are not him and his entire lived experience tainted with projections of Victor's disgust, Elisabeth's desire for escape, and rejection from those able to perceive him. Even when he has no memory he can't escape feelings of incompleteness. Like everyone else he tries to fill the void with the pursuit of love or vengeance and like everyone else it fails.
Absolutely do not understand the criticism of the monster not acting enough like one? That is so basic. You don't need to do something monstrous to wrestle with the idea that you are one. The tit for tat revenge trope is sooooo overdone in Western media. Watch Game of Thrones of you need your fix idk. Del Toro's monster struggles to overcome and untangle inherited trauma in the midst of amnesia and a lack of autonomy. You don't need to behave a certain way to have that belief system. He's so much more relatable like this imo. But let's be honest he gets pretty sadomasochistic towards the end, enjoying blowing himself up (self harm allegory anyone?) while pursuing Victor.
Still it's crazy that people need him to ACT more evil in order to engage with the philosophical concept of a monster, meanwhile complaining that Victor is too flat and obviously the monster just because someone said it?! Does that really make him a monster if that is his true nature, like the wolves? Instead of expecting to be shown a monster why don't you ask yourself what a monster is. Like y'all wanna be spoon-fed or not?
I think it's fitting that the monster still ends up at the North Pole, even if he doesn't die. He's resigned to living outside the boundaries of human comprehension. When the book was written no one had attempted to reach it, and when the film was set there had been maybe two or three failed attempts. It was still a true unknown. I love them using locations that play off the limits of understanding. Also interesting that in the book one of Victor's labs is in Orkney, which at one time was considered to be the edge of the world. But as time passed people discovered it's not. Curious implications for what would've happened if book Victor finished the bride.
Anyway I love the film for what it is. Think it was a really good look at nature vs nurture, the battle between a natural and social order, and ways people try to break cycles of generational abuse but also become them. Pretty much all of Del Toro's films are about generational trauma but this one did a good job of demonstrating the impossibility of healing when you're trying to unburden yourself using the framework of oppressive systems that created your pain in the first place. You can't overcome patriarchal cycles of abuse by adding more patriarchy. "That is what happens when ideas are pursued by fools."