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How Hollywood Fell for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’: “I’ve Never in 30 Years Had This Reaction”

Despite a sluggish start on the festival circuit, the Netflix film has emerged as one of the year’s stronger Oscar contenders, backed by audience enthusiasm — and unparalleled industry support.

As the clock crossed midnight on Labor Day, the tide at this year’s Telluride Film Festival started to turn against Frankenstein. After Guillermo del Toro’s lavish adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel had launched in Venice days earlier to strong if not effusive reviews, star Oscar Isaac hopped on a plane to introduce the film’s secret, ultimately unfortunate North American debut at a late night screening in the Colorado Rockies. I’ve been to screenings in Telluride like this before, where you can hear the restlessness in the room, feel the sense that it’s not playing as the filmmakers surely hope. My colleague Scott Feinberg wrote that the U.S. premiere “engendered a more muted response,” questioning its viability as an awards contender. Most coming out of that screening felt the same way. 

Guillermo del Toro Says Generative AI "Vandalizes the Fact That Art Without Pain Is Illustration"

"I think the real barrier is if a society ends up making songs written by AI thrive, then that society without a doubt deserves songs written by AI"

One of the elements that makes Guillermo del Toro’s work — including one of 2025’s best films, Frankenstein — so impactful is his adherence to largely man-made practical effects. So, it makes sense that del Toro isn’t keen on using generative AI in art, saying that it “vandalizes the fact that art without pain is illustration.”

Speaking with Consequence for our 2025 Filmmaker of the Year feature, del Toro noted that he’s not flatly against AI, pointing to things like law, engineering, and chemistry as fields where AI could potentially “render something great.” But that’s due to those fields “finite number” of algorithmic data points, such as laws and case studies, or “nodes in an anatomical part.”

Frankenstein (2025)

Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel is clearly a labour of love and – as with most cinematic adaptations of the story – he puts very much his own spin on the story.

Thankfully he avoids filming everything against a green screen or LED walls, favouring real locations where possible plus a few wildly imaginative sets.

The practical locations can broken down into three groups, the 'Arctic' (filmed in Canada, around Ontario), the city of Edinburgh and the grand houses of Scotland and England.

The film begins in the 'Farthermost North' with the seriously injured Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) taken aboard the ship Horisont, a polar exploration ship trapped in ice. Pursued by a seemingly indestructible creature of immense strength (Jacob Elordi), he relates his story to Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen).

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