Scary Movies: Frankenstein (2025)

[More spoilers than usual follow]

I suppose every horror movie fan has an idea of how a Frankenstein film will go, though this one is a bit different in that it hews much more closely to Mary Shelley’s original novel than any other version I’ve seen. It opens in the Arctic in the 1850s, where a Russian ship on an expedition has been trapped in ice due to the pigheaded insistence of its captain that they pursue their goal of reaching the North Pole, no matter the danger. The crew is working with pickaxes to free their vessel when they spot a ragged, half-starved man in the distance. They take him in and the captain puts him in his stateroom, where the ship’s doctor nurses him back to health. After a day, the man has recovered enough to explain his story to the captain and the doctor.

The man, of course, is Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and his story begins with him as a youth, when his surgeon father seemed to have sympathy and a gentle manner for everyone but him. The older Frankenstein is determined for his son to be as good a surgeon as he is, and if Victor has trouble remembering all the valves of the heart or the correct name of some obscure disease, then his father reckons a beating will help him remember better. In contrast, Victor’s younger brother, William, is their father’s favorite. Victor’s father dies when Victor is a young teen-ager, and he plunges himself into medical work, determined to be a better surgeon than his father and setting himself the modest goal of overcoming death.

After a disastrous demonstration of reanimating dead tissue using electricity at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh–the demonstration itself is successful, but the older doctors are revolted at the nature of the experiment–an arms dealer named Henrich Harlander (played by Christoph Waltz) is impressed and offers to bankroll Victor’s experiments of reanimating dead bodies, even providing him a lab in an unused castle. I was a little confused as to where this castle was located, as it seems to be in England, yet later on Victor has access to the corpses of dead soldiers from the Crimean War–so maybe the castle is actually in Crimea? Or otherwise, how are all the corpses from the war preserved for medical use?

Whatever the case about the castle, Henrich also has a beautiful young niece, Elizabeth, who happens to be engaged to Victor’s brother, William. Victor falls in love with Elizabeth and she shows some signs of returning his affection, but when he actually comes out with his feelings, she rejects his advance. Meanwhile, Henrich turns out to be dying of a disease and wants Victor’s work to keep him alive forever by transferring his mind to the stitched-together body Victor is working on bringing to life. Victor refuses as Henrich’s brain is already diseased and he doesn’t believe the transfer will work. They get into a fight and Henrich falls through some equipment as lightning strikes and is electrocuted, coincidentally sending a stream of electricity into the stitched-together body as well. Victor inspects the body but it doesn’t seem to be any different, so he goes to bed. When he wakes up, the body has been animated and the monster stands before him.

The creature, seeking connection, tries to learn from Victor, but Victor is not a good teacher and the creature only ends up learning his creator’s name. The creature is really strong, so Victor chains it up in the castle basement. Nor does Victor bond with his creation, as his idea of connecting are the beatings he learned from his father, which only upset the creature. Elizabeth and William visit the castle and Elizabeth is horrified to find that Victor has restrained the creature and treated it inhumanely. When she leaves, Victor sets the castle on fire out of spite.

At this point, we return to the frame story, where a monster has overcome the crew of the Russian ship, cruelly killing many sailors by dashing them against ice or the side of the ship. He climbs on board the stranded vessel and barges into the stateroom, apparently ready to kill Dr. Frankenstein. However, when he realizes Victor has been telling his story, he picks up where Victor left off, explaining what happened next to the ship’s captain and doctor.

During the fire, the creature manages to free himself from his bonds and escape, fleeing into the forest. There, he finds a hut where a hunter and his family live. The monster secretly watches and at night does chores for the family, leaving them wondering who their benefactor is. When winter comes, the family leaves but their blind, aged father remains behind. The old man befriends the monster, teaching him to read and speak and enjoy poetry. One night the monster returns to the castle and comes across Victor’s notes, learning about the horrible, experimental nature of his creation. When he returns to the hut, wolves are attacking the old man. The monster drives them off but the old man is dead, and when his son returns and finds the monster crying over the body, he believes the monster killed his father and drives him off with his gun.

Lonely and realizing he will never be accepted by humans, the monster seeks out Victor to demand he create a mate for him. Ironically, Victor is at William’s house and it is the day William and Elizabeth are to marry. Victor refuses to create a companion for the monster and the monster attacks him. During the fight, Elizabeth comes across them and attempts to intervene, but Victor accidentally shoots her while attempting to hit the monster. The wedding guests attack the monster and William is injured in the melee. The monster takes the gravely wounded Elizabeth to a cave where she dies in his arms.

Victor comes across the scene and vows to hunt the monster down. The monster flees with Victor in pursuit. They eventually reach the Arctic, where Victor catches up to the monster and blows him up with dynamite. The injured Victor attempts to return home when he comes across the ship from earlier in the movie. But the monster of course survived the explosion, and tracks Victor to the ship.

At the conclusion of the monster’s story, Victor is moved and apologizes for his misdeeds. He calls the creature his son, while the creature calls Victor his father. Victor dies of his injuries, and the monster leaps from the ship and uses all his strength to free it from the ice. The ship’s captain orders the crew to set sail for the south, realizing how foolish his monomania has been, and the monster trudges off into the sunset.

Frankenstein (2025)
Story/Plot/Characters— A highly intelligent script, a sympathetic monster, expert acting and direction, and wisely used big budget sets and effects. Still, there was a certain lack of crispness or sharpness to the plot? I sometimes found myself a little vague on where the setting was situated, or why Victor has such a change in heart in his treatment of the monster, or that Henrich’s true motivations come a bit of out of nowhere. But these are quibbles for an overall excellent production. (3.5 points)
Special Effects— The most up-to-date big budget special effects by probably the current director who best integrates special effects into movies in a meaningful way. (2 points)
Scariness— More of an emphasis on the monster’s emotional aspects make this less of a scary movie, although there are moments. (1 point)
Atmosphere/Freakiness— Lots of Gothic atmosphere, updating the castles and mad scientists of the Universal movies in a way that speaks to our current era. (2 points)
Total=8.5 points (Best Horror Movies Ever)

A well-produced update of the familiar Frankenstein story that hews closer to Mary Shelley’s original novel than any other previous version gives us a new addition to our “Best Horror Movies Ever” category, and one that slightly edges out the famous 1931 Universal production. Ninety-four years from now, will horror lovers remember Guillermo del Toro’s as the classic version, whether than James Whale’s?