Guillermo del Toro Turns Frankenstein Into a Family Drama—Not a Horror Movie

Guillermo del Toro reimagines Frankenstein: horror by label, family drama at its core.

Guillermo del Toro finally got to make his Frankenstein. It is a Netflix production, it is one of those passion projects he has been chasing forever, and it is not being pitched like a straight horror movie. In fact, he keeps calling it a family drama. The ratings board, meanwhile, slapped it with an R for bloody violence and grisly images. So, yes, vibes will vary.

What this Frankenstein is actually about

This one follows Victor Frankenstein as he lets ego and obsession drive him into creating life, with zero thought about what happens to the being he builds. That creature is engineered to never die, and the fallout wrecks both creator and creation. Classic Shelley bones, del Toro flesh.

The quick hits

• Release plan: limited theatrical rollout on October 17, then streaming on Netflix November 7.
• Rating: R for bloody violence and grisly images.
• Cast: Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, with Ralph Ineson popping in for a key cameo.
• The Monster: Andrew Garfield was originally in the lineup but had to drop out; Jacob Elordi stepped in and took over as the Monster.
• Early reaction: JoBlo critic Chris Bumbray has seen it and gave it a 7/10.
• Positioning: multiple folks involved insist it is not a horror film; del Toro has been referring to it as a family drama.

Del Toro and the not-a-horror horror movie

Del Toro told Deadline that, yes, genre-wise you can call it horror, but that is not where his head is at with this one. He is leaning into fathers and sons, guilt passed down the line, the messy, generational stuff. Mia Goth is on the same page, saying the film is more about forgiveness and understanding than jump scares. Also worth noting: del Toro has been thinking about this story since he was 10, which probably explains the intensely personal angle.

"Nominally and generically, it is a horror movie, but after 30 years of making fantasy films, you know they can be something on top of that. And I think this is a family drama in many ways. It is about the very Catholic notion of fathers and sons, and the pain that we transmit from one to the next generation."

The long road here, with some real inside baseball

Del Toro has been trying to mount a new Frankenstein for more than a decade. It was once set up at Universal with Doug Jones set to play the Monster. They got far enough into prep that Jones saw a physical bust of the creature, designed in the spirit of Bernie Wrightson’s illustrated take on Shelley’s novel. If you know Wrightson, you know that is a deep-cut, glorious reference. Then the Universal version fell apart.

Netflix eventually became home base, which tracks given they backed del Toro’s Pinocchio and the anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Now, finally, the lightning bolt has struck in the place most likely to let him run wild.

So, is it horror or not?

Short answer: depends who you ask. The MPA says R for gore. Del Toro and his cast say it is a family drama wrapped in a monster tale. Honestly, both can be true. Either way, the dates are set, the Monster is Jacob Elordi, and del Toro finally gets to stitch together the version that has been living in his head since childhood.