Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited adaptation of Frankenstein is more than a retelling – it’s a reawakening. Known for bringing emotional depth to monsters and crafting worlds where beauty and horror not only coexist but are intertwined, del Toro reshaped Mary Shelley’s gothic text into a tragic, heartfelt epic. His Frankenstein is about life and death, but it’s also a tale about love, war, generational trauma, and what it truly means to be human.
Although he remains faithful to several of Shelley’s elements, he doesn’t stick too closely to the novel, altering the setting, characters, and even the themes. He redefines the Creature not as a warning, but as a reflection of humanity. The result feels undeniably his – lush, poetic, and deeply empathetic. From new figures to reimagined fates, del Toro transforms Shelley’s classic story into a work of art that’s timeless itself.
Here are the 9 biggest changes Guillermo del Toro made to Frankenstein – and how they make his iteration unlike any other.
9
Time and War Setting Shift
When Shelley wrote the novel, she set it in the recent past during the late 18th century. Del Toro moved his tale up by roughly 60 years, setting it during the Crimean War, which lasted from 1853 to 1856. With this shift comes thousands of fallen soldiers, giving Victor a regular supply of bodies to work with, unlike in the novel, where he resorts to body snatching. Back then, the practice was common, as there was a shortage of cadavers for medical colleges, which created a whole enterprise for graveyard robbers.
The change serves more than just the plot, touching on war themes del Toro has delved into in The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. By placing the story against a wartime backdrop, the filmmaker comments on the cyclical nature of violence, the dark side of ambition, and the evils of empire. Humanity’s own destruction mirrors Victor’s reckless pursuit of creation. Victor’s scientific work becomes a reflection of a world already obsessed with controlling life and death.
8
The Introduction of Henrich Harlander
In Shelley’s novel, Victor works on bringing the Creature to life on his own, away from prying eyes and fueled only by his hubris and obsession with playing God. Del Toro’s Frankenstein introduces a benefactor in Henrich Harlander, the only major character invented entirely for the movie. Victor catches his attention as he gives a passionate discourse about his theories at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, gaining a backer for his laboratory and work.
Later, it’s revealed that Harlander is dying of syphilis and wishes to have his brain posthumously transplanted into the Creature, his quest for immortality mirroring modern-day billionaires who want to live forever. The wealthy arms dealer and manufacturer is also meant to serve as a stand-in for today’s war profiteers, with del Toro critiquing the capitalist enterprise of war and weaponry.
7
Big Changes to the Frankenstein Family and Victor’s Backstory
Shelley makes Victor the son of Alphonse Frankenstein, a public official who gave up his position to raise his family. He’s depicted as a kind and gentle family man who’s there for his son, and he doesn’t pass away when Victor is still young. Victor’s mother is named Caroline and doesn’t die from childbirth like in the movie, but of scarlet fever. Her death deeply affects Victor in both versions, driving him to conquer death. The family in the book also includes a middle child not seen on-screen, Ernest. And in the book, William is only a child.
Del Toro not only changes the Frankenstein patriarch in name to Leopold, but transforms him entirely in character and disposition. The man in the film is a surgeon. As a father, he’s cruel, demanding, and abusive to Victor. He doesn’t just teach him lessons in science and anatomy, but completely warps his worldview into believing that only ambition and power matter. It’s Leopold’s mistreatment that leads Victor to being a horrible father to the Creature.
6
An Altered Role for Elizabeth
Another major character who changes drastically in del Toro’s Frankenstein is Elizabeth, played to perfection by Mia Goth. In the movie, she’s Henrich’s niece and William’s fiancée, finding herself in a brief love triangle with the Frankenstein brothers. However, in Shelley’s version, Elizabeth is an orphan adopted by the Frankenstein family – either a cousin or a rescued peasant girl, depending on which version of the novel you read. Not only is she Victor’s adopted sister, but she’s raised to be his wife. Her last name isn’t Harlander, but Lavenza.
The Elizabeth on the page has little agency and depth. Del Toro takes a significant deviation, making the character expressive, thoughtful, and profound. There are echoes of Mary Shelley herself in Elizabeth – a curious, intellectual woman ahead of her time and unafraid to speak her mind. She comes to despise and hate Victor, but in the book she’s enamored with him. Her love for the creature is unique to del Toro’s Frankenstein.
5
The Absence of Henry Clerval and Justine Moritz
Two other characters in the novel are missing in the movie alongside Ernest Frankenstein. One is Henry Clerval, who grew up with Victor and remained friends with him into adulthood. He proves to be a loyal and devoted friend throughout the story. The optimistic, kindhearted character serves as a foil to Victor, representing connection and a love for nature and literature, in contrast to Victor’s hubris, scientific ambition, and isolation. Ultimately, Henry is murdered by the Creature, causing Victor immense grief.
Another death that greatly affects Victor is that of Justine Moritz, a minor character who plays a crucial role in the destruction of Victor’s spirit. Like Elizabeth, Justine was taken out of poverty and welcomed by the Frankensteins, working as a nanny and housekeeper. She’s wrongly accused and executed for the murder of William, a crime committed by the Creature. Although Victor knows the truth, he stays quiet to protect himself. Her character represents injustice, the vulnerability of the good and innocent, and serves as a catalyst for Victor’s guilt and despair.
4
Some Changes Were Made to the Old Man
Many iterations of Frankenstein feature the Creature interacting with the old blind man. In del Toro’s film, he’s unnamed, but in Shelley’s novel, his name is De Lacey. He’s the patriarch of a French peasant family who the Creature observes and comes to love. He doesn’t teach the Creature to speak and read like in del Toro’s sweet reimagining. Instead, the Creature learns by spying on the family as they give Safie, De Lacey’s son’s Turkish fiancée, language lessons.
Eventually, the Creature approaches De Lacey, hoping to win the blind man over and, by extension, his family. De Lacey does extend him kindness and acceptance, and the two bond. When the family returns home early, it goes horribly wrong, with everyone horrified by the Creature’s appearance. Unlike the movie’s heartbreaking take, there are no wolves, and the old man survives. Del Toro likely featured the somber moment to highlight the Creature’s humanity.
3
Victor Doesn’t Work on a Companion for the Creature
After the Creature murders William in Shelley’s text, he demands that Victor make him a female companion, threatening to continue to hunt down and kill those he cares about. The Creature does this because he cannot face living a lonely existence. He believes that a “bride” is the only thing that can bring his life joy and meaning. Victor reluctantly agrees and begins work on a mate for the Creature.
Before completion, however, Victor destroys the Bride out of some sort of sense of moral duty, concerned about her nature and what would happen if they were to procreate. Furious, the Creature breaks into Elizabeth’s bridal suite on her and Victor’s wedding day and strangles her to death. In del Toro’s story, the Creature does ask for a companion, but Victor refuses and never even makes an attempt to bring her to life. Instead, the movie allows Elizabeth to shortly fulfill the role of the Bride before her tragic death.
2
Del Toro’s Creature Becomes a Symbol of Compassion
Although the Creature is definitely sympathetic in Shelley’s text, his actions are monstrous. After experiencing so much cruelty, he vows hatred for humankind. It’s that ire and disgust, combined with an aching loneliness, that drive him to kill. Reading Milton’s Paradise Lost, he sees himself in Satan, who was also abandoned by his father and filled with rage. Del Toro, on the other hand, sees the Creature as some sort of Christ-like figure.
This is translated through symbolic imagery — the cruciform operating table, the mysterious red vial resembling the Sacred Heart, Elizabeth’s fingers over his wounds echoing Matthias Stom’s 1620 painting The Incredulity of St. Thomas. He also emphasizes it through narrative and the Creature’s gentle disposition. In the movie, he only kills by accident or out of self-defense. His whole life, much like Jesus Christ’s, is marked by suffering. The blind man uses his dying breaths to reassure his friend that he’s no monster. Elizabeth saw his pure heart and humanity from the beginning. Ultimately, he forgives the person who hurt him the most.
1
The Film’s Ending Takes a Different Approach
Del Toro departs significantly from Shelley’s bleak Arctic ending. Victor dies before the Creature boards the ship, still feeling hate for him and determined to destroy him. As one of his last acts on earth, he asks Captain Robert Walton to carry on his vengeance. Father and son never have a confrontation. When the Creature arrives, he’s devastated by Victor’s death. Filled with remorse, he expresses grief for his creator, weeping over his body. The novel ends on an ambiguous note, with the Creature contemplating self-immolation.
In the movie, Victor and the Creature come face to face aboard the ship and have an overdue reconciliation. Victor expresses guilt and regret over his actions and finally shows the Creature kindness and affection, calling him “son” in his dying moments and telling him that if he can’t die, he has no choice but to live. The final shot is one of the Creature embracing the sun, the light his father once told him represented life.
- Release Date
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October 17, 2025
- Runtime
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149 Minutes
