Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is aiming to be a major awards contender this season. The film, which stars Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, and Oscar Isaac, is the newest iteration of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel, brought to life by the perfect filmmaker to handle the material. Guillermo del Toro has made a name for himself by finding the humanity in monsters. Movies like The Shape of Water and The Devil’s Backbone take otherworldly characters and approach them with an heartfelt honesty that few filmmakers are as capable of. Frankenstein is no different.
Frankenstein is a family drama, not a horror film
One look at Mia Goth’s filmography reveals a career marked by challenging roles, many of which are embedded in dark and frightening stories that many viewers would qualify as horror, or at the very least horror-adjacent. But Mia Goth would disagree with you. Just last year, I wrote an article titled Scream Queens: Ranking the Top 7 Modern-day Women of Horror, in which I ranked Mia Goth as #1. However, after speaking with Mia about her upcoming role in Frankenstein, I learned that it is not a title she wants or agrees with.
Guillermo del Toro’s nuanced approach to telling Frankenstein’s story was to strip it to its emotional core and treat it as the heartbreaking story of a father and his son. Mia echoed this approach, insisting that Frankenstein isn’t a horror movie. In fact, she says, it’s not even horror-adjacent.
“I didn’t see it as a horror movie in any way.”
She approaches each of her projects by looking at them from their emotional core and finding the humanity within their stories. She acknowledges the intensity present in many of her roles, but explains, “That’s just like life.” The intense moments are undeniable, but they aren’t the defining traits of the stories. It’s not about the genre, it’s about the characters.
“To give a genre to any film is kind of reductive in a way. (…) Same with Frankenstein (the novel). I think to call it simply a science fiction novel is a really reductive term for it.”
Guillermo del Toro and Mia Goth are a perfect pairing. Each of them, a master of their craft, loves to explore the very concept of humanity and the defining nature of what it means to be a monster. It’s a concept that both have devoted the majority of their careers to in varying manners that perfectly culminates in Frankenstein.
So, while many of her roles seem to exist within the horror realm, don’t think of Mia Goth as a scream queen. Instead, think of her films the way she does: family dramas with intense moments and emotionally charged centers. It’s a description that fits del Toro’s Frankenstein perfectly. Though there have been many adaptations, including the 1931 classic starring Boris Karloff, none of them have so perfectly captured the heart-wrenching family dynamic of Mary Shelley’s novel, the way Guillermo del Toro’s vision does.
Frankenstein is now playing in theaters and will be streaming on Netflix on November 7.
