2025, Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim) -- Netflix
That said, I am decidedly not "meh" about this movie, as I was enraptured almost entirely the way through. This is del Toro reaching into that part of his psyche that decorates his house, and allows him to have created Crimson Peak, not just a nod to classic horror (not horror) fiction but an homage to the story where the monster is not the monster. If I was to say anything to lessen the experience, it is that is only a faithful adaptation of the novel, which I admit, I was never really able to get into.
We start with Victor Frankenstein's childhood. Well, technically it begins full in the action, in the Arctic, as Frankenstein (Victor, not monster, to be pedantic) is found by Danish sailors whose ship is trapped in the ice. Victor is pursued by a howling, screaming monster, and as the captain of the ship secrets Victor away in his cabin, the monster attacks --- the movie truly begins with Victor's tale as "creator" of the threat.
Daddy was mean to me -- the age old excuse of horrible people. In Victor's case, he was raised in a family of wealth, one born(e) on the back of two merged families. Victor's father (Charles Dance, The Last Action Hero) was a harsh demanding man, and Victor was always at his mother's voluminous skirts. Until she dies giving birth to his younger brother. Daddy wants Victor to follow in his footsteps, and become the most renowned surgeon in Europe. Of course, the man is expects nothing but the utmost from his son, and abuses him if anything less happens.
The visuals !! The dresses mother wears, diaphanous material flowing like blood down the steps of their house !! The stone sarcophagi connecting the Frankensteins more to ancient Egypt than Europe !! The houses !!
An adult Victor (Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight) has become enraptured with life and death, and how to overcome the latter. He has absorbed his father's coldness, a disconnection from reality depicted during his hearing where he shows his marvelous puppet show, bringing life back to the stitched together corpse of a man. He sees only his fantastic accomplishment, the college sees him playing God and the profane exhibit before them, and we, well we see the horror of it all -- that is the mind of someone there, animated and responsive, but with no hint of caring for the pain they must be in. For Victor, bodies are tools, they were not people. As for souls, Victor cares not. Neither does del Toro -- that's for us to debate.
One witness of his accomplishments is Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz, Alita: Battle Angel), a munitions magnate who is equally fascinated by life after death. And his niece Elizabeth (Mia Goth, X), who happens to also be the fiancée of Victor's little brother William (Felix Kammerer, All Quiet on the Western Front). Henrich offers to finance everything Victor is doing, as long as he can observe and capture his progress with photography, something Harlander indulges in. At first Victor refuses, seeing only someone who only wants to watch him work life one watches freaks in a circus. But once Victor meets Elizabeth, and something in him is stirred, he accepts, tasking his own brother with building The Laboratory, in an abandoned tower in ... I am not sure where -- they mentioned Scotland, but they are also within a quick wagon's ride of the battlefields of the Crimean War, where Victor gets fresh bodies, and once The Monster escapes, the nearby peasants are very central European. Anywayz, They take a tower that was designed... for water, and fashion a place where Victor and work and live and ever entertain.
Ugh, I am doing it again. I am procrastinating on writing about something I actually LIKED because it is always much easier to write about something I didn't care about, no commitment to writing just the right thing.
Victor takes his time, not only being distracted by the delicate butterfly that is Elizabeth, and being rebuffed continually by her, despite her appearance at being... fascinated with Victor, but also by his own lack of progress. But finally he cracks it, and in the onset of a coming storm, and the angry arrival of Harlander, who reveals his own agenda in the endeavour, Victor ties the intimately stitched together body into the cage and ... boom. While initially he fails it has failed, due to faulty parts, suddenly his Adam, his creature, his Monster (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn), is awake and uttering one word, "Victor" ... a hapless mimicry.
The harvesting of the bodies, the tearing up of sinews, tissues, pieces and the horrible/beautiful jigsaw puzzle, is so so del Toro, so lovingly constructed in practical effects, simultaneously gore filled and yet artful. And it also depicts the disposal, the charnel house basement, discarded remains rotting.
What follows shows even more of Victor's self -- he wanted the monster to be a perfect example of recreated mankind, but got a fearful man capable of only one word. It enrages Victor, an angry father striking his "child" as he was strike. Cyclical. That is, until Elizabeth shows up and not only finds the monster, but charms it. Seduces it? Victor is going mad with jealousy, seeing the affections he wanted heaped upon his creation instead of him. So what does any bitter petty man do when he cannot have his way? He blows up the fucking tower, seeking to burn down and destroy his creation. Victor was never very good with his emotions, and he should have stuck with that, instead of letting them get the best of him and end his life's work.
And that is Victor's story. Back in "current time" back on the Danish ship, the monster comes in, to tell his tale.
He escaped that fiery night, the conflagration, and escaped into the woods nearby, to discover a farmstead abandoned, probably due to the ongoing Crimean War. He finds comfort and refuge ... and a weird almost Disney Princess effect with the local wild life. I assumed it was meant to imply he did not smell like the humans they would naturally fear, but in death, he should smell... worse. No matter, the farmers do return to their home come Spring. The Monster hides away in a section of the farmstead they do not explore, and becomes a watchful, helpful "Spirit of the Forest" quickly learning language and human behaviour. We see, given his own timeline and patience, he is not only intelligent but empathetic. This is the establishment of sympathy for The Monster we are expected to have.
Until it sours. Human wolf hunters misunderstand his presence and shoot at him. He responds in kind, with terrible violence. He is shot multiple times and left for dead, only to discover... he cannot die. The Monster realizes his own fate is now eternal -- Victor has succeeded at what he wanted all along -- to defeat death. The Monster sees it more as a curse, that he will be alone forever. So he party-crashes William and Elizabeth's wedding demanding a companion of Victor, but only succeeds in the death of Elizabeth, and William. A dying Elizabeth shows true affection for The Monster, confessing that she never felt right in the world, and she is fine with dying.
The imagery of the blood flowing from a dying Elizabeth, turning her white dress into the bright red dress of Victor's mother.
It was these two tales that ended with Victor chasing The Monster into the wilds of the Arctic, seeking its destruction, his destruction, in revenge for the deaths he caused but also for the terrible consequences of Victor's successes. But, in hearing the tale, Victor has had a change of heart, and in his dying, the two reconcile.
If I was disappointed at all with the story, it was around the adherence to Shelly's story. As I mentioned, I was never all that enthralled with the real source material and I hoped for.... more? Oh there were divergences, of course how can there not be, but for dramatic effect, for even more del Toro grandeur, I was hoping to be swept away.
But still, I got what I loved. Maybe not as chilling as his earlier horror movies nor as rewatchable fun like Pacific Rim but an entirely comforting, satisfying del Toro feature in effects, vistas, practical effects and camp.
I have made four attempts to go see this in theatres and failed each time, mostly because Cineplex has finally conceded to showing Netflix movies during their limited theatrical runs, but they also aren't going to make seeing them easy or convenient. The showtimes were so erratic and the film would jump in and out of theatres from day to day, week to week. I'll give it one more go this week before just wastching it at home
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