Mary Shelley once referred to Frankenstein as her “hideous progeny,” referring, in part, to all the ways it subsumed her authorship and became something bigger than she could have imagined. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein—the movie he’s been yearning to create for decades now—also looks huge, although the images presented in its full-length trailer are as gorgeous as they are hideous. Some Netflix movies end up feeling rather small or too, for lack of a better word, “Netflix-y” (you know it when you see it), but not this one. Del Toro’s creation is lush and bursting with sweeping shots and striking landscapes.Â
The trailer puts an emphasis on the Creature’s (Jacob Elordi) tale, as he lays out his primary ultimatum. “If you are not to award me love,” he says, while his maker (Oscar Isaac) dances with his beloved (Mia Goth) at a ball, “then I will indulge in rage.” That rage takes on an almost supernatural quality, even more than the obviously surreal aspects of the story itself. The Creature has the strength to push over an entire frozen ship full of men trying to shoot him—an impressive feat for a being made entirely of sown-together corpses. (The ship also serves as a fun Easter egg of sorts for anyone who read the novel. Poor Captain Walton never gets his due in these movies.)
“Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation,” the film’s logline reads. Hopefully this film won’t lead to its own creator’s undoing when it finally goes forth into the world. We’ll see how the battle between creature and creator turns out when Frankenstein streams November 7 on Netflix, after a limited theatrical run beginning October 17.Â
