So, after I had a little rant about an upcoming adaptation of an iconic piece of gothic literature a few weeks ago, I only figured it was right that I actually talk a little about an upcoming adaptation of the same genre I’m actually excited for. Any overlap in the form of Jacob Elordi purely coincdental. Anyway, with that said, let’s take a look at the trailer for Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein!
Taking on a story that’s such an iconic part of the horror genre’s backbone as Frankenstein is will always be a challenge, for a number of reasons – but one of the most prominent is that it’s been done before. And not just done before, but done well, and famously; Boris Karloff’s take on the Monster is arguably one of the most singularly recognizable images in horror cinema if not horror as a whole, and getting out from under the shadow of that reputation is one of the hardest parts of Del Toro’s take on this story. The themes of traumatic inheritance, parental trauma, and the eternal Other are just as relevant today as they ever have been, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to feel like well-trodden ground by this point.
But, if anyone can do it, I think he can. In his post-Oscar-winning era, I feel like Guillermo Del Toro has been allowed to go full-throttle on the more distinct aspects of his movies once and for all, and this trailer is no exception. There are a few moments here that are just so quintessentially Del Toro – the frozen battlefield, the shadows of the morgue – that marriage of horror and beauty and an odd, magical mysticism that makes his work so utterly his. Not all of his films work for me, but they are all singular in their approach and clear in their themes, something that’s going to benefit this adaptation no end.
His choice to lean into a more book-accurate version of the Monster, too, is one of the most interesting parts of this trailer; giving him actual dialogue and putting him at the front and centre of this story as a character rather than just a symbolic figure, putting a little more space between his previous iterations and this one.
I think what I’m most looking forward to about this movie, though – and something that’s clearly on show in this gorgeous trailer – is how seriously Del Toro seems to take this story, and the gothic lens through which he’s telling it. For a character as iconic as Frankenstein’s monster, there’s so much iconography to get tangled up with, so many references and previous versions to trip over or pay homage to, but this trailer speak to something With so much genre fiction hampered by knowing nods in the direction of genre conventions, there’s something refreshing about seeing a director approach this with such an unabashed embrace of both the beauty and the grotesquerie that make up this genre and will serve this story in particular so well.
With that said, I would love to hear what you think of this trailer (and this adaptation as a whole) in the comments below! Are you excited? Got your doubts? Somewhere in the middle? Let me know!
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By Louise MacGregor
(header image via Netflix)
No But Listen 