How to write Frankenstein
I have never read the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. I really SHOULD DO THAT, but I’m currently working through Dracula, ok? That being said, I have watched the original movie adaptation, and I have watched Del Toro’s Frankenstein adaptation. I think a comparison of these 2 films really illustrates everything I love, and everything I hate about the character in pop culture.
Frankenstein (1931)
I do know quite a bit about Mary Shelly’s original novel, enough to tell you this movie changes almost every aspect about it. From critical plot points to the most innocuous things this movie is NOT the novel (like, seriously they just make a new guy with the name of the novel’s main character for no reason??) The moment when I really started hate watching this film though was the scene where Igor (the scientist’s henchman) watched a university lecture through a window. In this lecture the professor shows off two brains, one from a “normal person,” and one from a criminal. He talks about how the criminal brain is misshapen and degenerate. You can probably see where this is going, but when Igor goes to steal a brain he ends up having to take the criminal brain. This is the one scene that really defined the movie for me. The core conceit of the movie is essentially “criminals are basically animals and don’t have normal human brains and thats why the monster is like that.” The rest of the movie is basically just the monster going around murdering hapless dames and children and then being set ablaze by the townspeople. I really, really did not like this movie.
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Frankenstein (2025)
Del Toro’s Frankenstein is the antithesis to the 1931 film. Rather than being about monstrosity and cruelty, its about humanity and kindness. It’s about forgiveness and fatherhood and god and so many other things. Frankenstein isn’t a monstrous brute, hes essentially a scared child. He is made violent towards the end of the movie because violence was inflicted on him by his creator, victor, who himself is the way he is because of his own father. Classic cycle of abuse stuff and it’s very creatively applied here. It wouldn’t be fair to compare certain things like set design and costumes since so much time has passed between the movies releases but it’s worth bringing up for its own sake. The costume and set design in this movie is absolutely beautiful. The entire process of creating the monster is this wonderful exploration of different practical and special effects and prop design. I think of it like the coo-coo clock scene from Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio. The point of these scenes may progress the plot, but one of the main motivations was clearly to revel in the art form of cinema itself and explore whats possible and its just an absolute joy to watch.
As Del Toro says in the above video, the movie is about “the cycle of horror” and how it takes a “pure soul” to break it. The original Frankenstein could never have dreamed of something so radical. That such an “abomination” and “affront to nature” could be a good person. The original Frankenstein has no belief in autonomy, the monster is evil because he has an evil criminal brain. In Del Toro’s Frankenstein the monster is exposed to both cruelty from his father and kindness from Victor’s bride, and even though the monster has the strength of 100 men, he is a brute, he can do whatever he wants, he chose to forgive Victor, because he isn’t defined by his father’s actions, and unlike the 1931 monster, he isn’t defined by his father.
