Frankenstein

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. Who better to bring this seminal Victorian monster back to life than the maestro of the creature feature, the man who gave us Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Shape of Water? The movie does not disappoint. Beginning in the arctic then circling back to give us events from two different perspectives, this is first and foremost a ripping yarn, full of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts — but it’s a poetic and philosophical treatment, a movie of fine feeling and poignancy. It’s as much a fairy tale as a horror movie (though grisly in pieces, to be sure).

In terms of craftsmanship and visual allure, expect a full score card on Oscar night: music, costumes, production design, cinematography… It’s a film to transport us, a lavish, symphonic work. Oscar Isaac is an intense, tortured artist as much as a man of science. Christoph Waltz enjoys probably his richest role outside of the Tarantino canon as Frankenstein’s rich backer, one of those super rich philanthropists who only wants one small thing in return (immortality). Then there’s Mia Goth, torn between her fiance, his brother Victor, and a stunningly hot but oh so sensitive creature (Jacob Elordi). We’re lucky to have an epic of such pure delirium.

Frankenstein will be screening on 35mm film

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a breathtaking coup, an exhilarating riposte to the conventional wisdom about dream projects. The writer-director makes something almost new, and definitely rich and strange, out of a story we all thought we knew well. He spins out the tale in ways that make the movie not just jarring and frightening in the best horror tradition, but heartbreakingly poignant.

4/4 Glenn Kenny, rogerebert.com

The Toronto-filmed epic is a thing of grotesque beauty, body horror of such operatic spectacle and emotional impact, it makes you want to applaud with two severed hands.

Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Profoundly moving; a father-son story as much as a treaty on the perversion of science in the hands of greedy men. There is something dazzlingly contemporary about del Toro’s Frankenstein, radical in both its empathy for the most vulnerable (while not expecting them to be perfect) and its reverence for the natural world.

Hannah Strong, Little White Lies