Guillermo del Toro on Creating a ‘Frankenstein’ Monster Unlike Any Before
Here, on the left-side page, we see the monster from behind, reaching upward, revealing lines that to some degree follow anatomical routes, where muscles connect with bones and joints to create movement. But for the monster, these lines needed to be “interesting from an aesthetic point of view rather than a medical point of view,” del Toro said. “Just as you do brush strokes on your painting.”
This Victor Frankenstein (played by Oscar Isaac) is not just an anatomist and a scientist, but also an artist. And from the beginning, he is seen working with anatomical waxes, a material with inherent patterns that has been used for centuries to sculpt models of human or animal bodies, organs and muscles.
In Shelley’s novel, Victor says that he has discovered a secret that allows him to build the monster through his own technique. But del Toro noted that Shelley had deftly bypassed exactly how the creature comes to life.
“That may sound like a cheat,” del Toro said, but it was an opportunity for imagination.
Previous movies and onscreen interpretations, he pointed out, often just show Victor robbing graves to acquire body parts, then suddenly the creature is complete.
“I wanted to detail every anatomical step I could in how he put the creature together,” del Toro said. “There is a personality to the way he put together this creature.”
It’s a sequence that veers from the expected visuals of thunderstorms, diagonal shadows and silhouettes. Instead, this Victor is akin to a performer and his monster’s construction is shot as a concert might be. “It’s like you’re watching Leonard Bernstein conduct an orchestra,” del Toro said. “This is not the most horrifying moment in the movie, it’s the most joyous.”
