If there was an ultimate ranking of influential horror monsters, Frankenstein’s creature would surely be well up there. The monster originated in Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel, which introduced the world to the iconic creation, who was formed from a hotchpotch of parts that are fused together by the character Victor Frankenstein. As well as being the inspiration for the “mad scientist” trope, Shelley’s Frankenstein novel was later adapted for the big screen on countless occasions, leaving a permanent mark on the horror genre in general.
Guillermo Del Toro is the latest director to put his unique stamp on Frankenstein, with a much-hyped Netflix adaptation starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth. Like Frankenstein himself, Del Toro had to play scientist when he was making the film, pulling together a lifetime of inspiration, putting a new spin on a well-done concept, and throwing in some unexpected scares along the way. For those who’ve already seen and loved the movie, we’ve pulled together some surprising facts on how Del Toro’s Frankenstein was made…
Guillermo Del Toro has actually been fixated with Frankenstein since he was a child
Like the cousin who’s… um… 300 years older than you, Del Toro has such affinity with Frankenstein novelist Mary Shelley, he feels as though she’s family. Rather than mustering up a faux interest in the story in exchange for that fat Netflix cheque, the director has been thinking about Frankenstein since he was 11 years old. “The most important figure from English legacy is, incredibly, for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley, and she has remained a figure as important in my life as if she were family,” he has said. “And so many times when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me that dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream are impossible, I think of her.”
Del Toro has grown up thinking about Shelley’s work, and has even referred to it as his version of the Bible. “I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion,” he previously explained. Del Toro’s Frankenstein film had been cooking for a while, as it’s been over a decade in the making…
The Oscar-winning director was already plotting his big screen Frankenstein adaptation a decade ago
The Oscar-winning director was already plotting his big screen Frankenstein adaptation a decade ago. As far back as 2010, he spoke with Collider about how he was planning to adapt what he described as his “favourite novel in the world” but there was originally a different actor in the role of Frankenstein’s creature. In that same interview, Del Toro spoke about his frequent collaborator – contortionist and actor Doug Jones – saying he would be playing the creature. Jones, however, had doubts about the role as he had the classic “big-boned, lumbering” creature of previous Frankenstein adaptations in mind, which he didn’t feel was suited to his slighter physique. After that, Andrew Garfield was lined up for the role of Frankenstein’s monster.
Andrew Garfield’s abrupt departure meant Jacob Elordi had just four weeks to prepare for Frankenstein
Andrew Garfield was the next actor lined up to play the creature, but he dropped out far down the line due to “scheduling conflicts” after the 2023 Hollywood strikes. When Frankenstein was shooting in 2024, Andrew ended up filming psychological thriller After The Hunt, as well as the Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree, the latter of which is yet to be released. Andrew Garfield’s abrupt departure meant Jacob Elordi had just four weeks to prepare for Frankenstein. It was a bad day to be Frankenstein’s makeup artist Mike Hill, who had spent nine months designing his creature look based entirely around Andrew. Even more so when Del Toro and his team were left with only nine weeks to recast and design the role.
“You can’t be under more pressure than that,” Del Toro reflected. Jacob Elordi stepped up as the creature, after the director was drawn to his “gangliness and his wrists” (we’re sure there’s a compliment in there somewhere). While the Frankenstein crew only had nine weeks to recalibrate after Andrew’s exit, Jacob himself had a mere four weeks to prepare for the role, although he reckons it worked out for the best. “Because I came in so late, everything happened on top of each other at the same time,” he said. “I was shooting as I was seeing, as I was understanding.”
Luckily, Jacob Elordi’s dog was on hand to help him get into character as the creature before he began filming Frankenstein
Jacob got into character for his role as the monster by observing how his golden retriever, Layla, moves. “There’s a real innocence in the way she moves and the way that she loves,” he said. Jacob was also influenced by the Japanese Butoh style of dance, which is characterised by its “highly charged stillness and very embodied slow motion.” By contrast, it only took Oscar Isaac about an hour to land the title role in Frankenstein.
Oscar and Del Toro first met for lunch three years ago, when the director was still to write the screenplay for Frankenstein, and bonded while talking about their fathers
“About an hour in, he started talking a bit about Frankenstein. We kept talking, and by the end of it, he said, ‘I think you need to play Victor’,” Oscar recalled. Johnny Depp inspired a change of hairstyle for Victor Frankenstein. Oscar and Del Toro’s Victor Frankenstein originally had a white streak in his hair, but after realising it was reminiscent of Johnny Depp’s Sweeney Todd character in Tim Burton’s 2007 film, it went. “I was like ‘I don’t know it looks a little bit like Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd’,” Oscar explained. “We were about to shoot and I came out and was like [to Del Toro] ‘What do you think? I’m not sure if it’s right.’” Del Toro responded by yanking off the streak and declaring: “Off! Victor’s done.”
Mia Goth spent time in a convent to prepare for her role in Frankenstein
While Del Toro gave every member of the cast a bespoke stack of books to help them get into their character’s mindset, Mia went one step further with her preparations. She spent time in a convent to make sure she nailed her part as Victor’s brother’s fiancée Lady Elizabeth Lavenza. She explained: “I was spending some time with nuns for a little while. There’s a quietness to them that I observed. It was really helpful to me understanding Elizabeth.”
It took five whole months to finish the design of Frankenstein’s lab
After a trip to Scotland – and the 19th century Wallace Monument in particular – Del Toro and production designer Tamara Deverell had their vision for Frankenstein’s famous water tower-turned-lab. The lab in question took Deverell five months to design, using 3D rendering to visualise all the gothic details and nail it down, before finishing it with stone, tile and green patina to give a sense of decay. And there’s a meaning behind all the circles you can see in Frankenstein, too. Nothing is there by accident in Frankenstein, and if you were paying close attention you’ll have noticed that circles come up… a lot. “You’ll see a lot of circle motifs, which, to Del Toro, represent the circle of life, the beginning, the end, the endless ouroboros, the snake eating its tail,” production designer Deverell says. “It’s a definite theme, and I do my best to incorporate it as many times as I can.”
Meanwhile, the costume brief for Frankenstein was ‘dandy punk’
Del Toro shifted the timeline of his Frankenstein slightly so that it took place in the 1850s as opposed to the late 1700s, which costume designer Kate Hawley said was about “trying to give it a more modern sensibility.” The director came to Hawley with notebooks filled with drawings he’d been working on for years, and banned “* black hats and Dickensian tropes”. In other words, he wanted colour, and lots of it. “Guillermo wanted Victor to be a dandy and have a little bit of a punk element,” Hawley explained. She was inspired by everything from blood cells to beetle wings and the irreverent grandeur of Soviet–born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, which explains Frankenstein’s color-drenched costume.
Jacob Elordi wore 42 prosthetic appliances to transform into the Creature
Prosthetics artist Mike Hill designed 42 pieces for Jacob, with 14 on his head and neck alone. “[The Creature] is a resurrected soldier out of a mass grave, basically,” Del Toro said. “The makeup needed to reflect that but [also] have a beauty.” Hill explained that they kept things looking raw to align with the “tale and period setting”, which meant avoiding too much VFX. “The only parts that are Jacob are the tip of the nose, the upper lip and his chin,” he revealed. “The rest is all rubber prosthetics and a new sculpted brow.” And the transformation took 11 hours to complete. Incredibly Jacob didn’t complain about having to do the full body prosthetic transformation twenty times, which is some feat considering the process took between nine and eleven hours. Luckily, the lighter “top half” version only took six or seven hours…
Del Toro’s Frankenstein pays homage to another horror master
One of the four locations used for Frankenstein’s residence was Wilton House in Wiltshire. Del Toro was drawn to the location after discovering it was also used by horror genius Stanley Kubrick in his historical 1975 film Barry Lyndon – one of Del Toro favourites. The soundtrack was delicate for a reason, but not without teething problems. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat teamed up with Del Toro for the sixth time on Frankenstein, and was keen not to make the music too violent and monstrous. “It was about being delicate,” he said. “You’re going to love this creature. As brutal and huge and strong, he’s actually fragile and sensitive.” The pair even squabbled over finding the right balance between dramatic and soft, with Desplat explaining: “At times I wanted to do something very restrained and very French. He said, ‘More Mexican, more Mexican, more Mexican!’”
The end result was brought about by an orchestra, 80-piece choir, church organs, electronic sounds, and Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing
Frankenstein is streaming now on Netflix.
MORE FILM NEWS:
22 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Probably Never Knew About How Wicked Was Made
Alexander Skarsgård Clears Up Everyone’s Big Question About His Pillion **** Scene
People Are Actually Here For Macaulay Culkin’s Idea For A Home Alone Reboot
