Culture Crash: Guillermo Del Toro Finally Meets “Frankenstein”

Guillermo del Toro is a legendary filmmaker, with movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and The Devil’s Backbone under his belt. For years, he spoke of his affection for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a story he fell in love with as a child and was actively working to direct as a film for over 20 years.

In 2025, he was finally able to realize his vision, creating a 2 hour and 30 minute epic adaptation for Netflix. The thing is.. It’s pretty bland. Full of mediocre-to-bad looking CGI and some very stilted dialogue, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is entering award season with the status and respect of a movie directed by an Oscar winner for a major awards contender.. But it is lacking a real sense of passionate support.

Part of the issue is that we’ve already seen del Toro adapt so much of what makes Frankenstein memorable in his previous work. For example, Pan’s Labyrinth is a dark, mythic fairy tale, while The Shape of Water already contends with how we treat outsiders and who the real monsters are.