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Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Is "Not A Horror Movie"

Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro says hes's "not doing a horror movie — ever. I’m not trying to do that."

We're in for a treat later this year with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. We don't know that much about the film so far since Netflix doesn't promote its films that far in advance, but we are starting to see some things pop up here and there. Director and writer Guillermo del Toro is at the Cannes Film Festival and was asked (via Variety) about the film when he revealed something about the tone and even genre that we didn't know yet.

"Somebody asked me the other day, does it have really scary scenes?" del Toro. "For the first time, I considered that. It's an emotional story for me. It's as personal as anything. I'm asking a question about being a father, being a son… I'm not doing a horror movie — ever. I'm not trying to do that."

Del Toro is someone who sometimes creates horror even when he's in a completely different genre. The horror aspects come from an angle, a scene, or an implication that leaves you a little breathless. This film isn't supposed to be horror, though, and that is something being implemented into every aspect of the film. Del Toro was speaking with his longtime collaborator, composer Alexandre Desplat, and they are working together on Frankenstein as well. Desplat said, "Guillermo's cinema is very lyrical, and my music is rather lyrical too. So I think the music of 'Frankenstein' will be something very lyrical and emotional… I'm not trying to write horrific music."

The score is not done, and del Toro explained, "We're finding the emotion. And what I can say is, for me, it's an incredibly emotional movie." In the age of media literacy becoming a dying form, we have to wonder how many people are going to accept any adaptation of Frankenstein that isn't a horror movie. I know you can picture the influencer coming onto TikTok and explaining how this "isn't true to the source material." Going to be a fun awards season.

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Has Been A Long Time Coming

For a minute, it looked like we would get two Frankenstein adaptations at the end of this year. The Bride! from Warner Bros., and director Maggie Gyllenhaal and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein from Guillermo del Toro, obviously, and that one is over on Netflix. The Bride! got delayed to March 2026 in March 2025, so no double creature feature this fall. The two films couldn't be more different in terms of style, that is even more apparent now that we got to see some footage from The Bride! in April 2025, but del Toro is someone who takes well-known material and does something you wouldn't expect with it. See his Pinocchio adaptation a couple of years ago. We're still waiting on a solid release date for this one, but all sources are pointing toward November 2025.

Frankenstein has been a passion project for Del Toro for years, and in 2023, it finally got off the ground at Netflix. The cast began to fill out and included some impressive names such as Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, and Felix Kammerer. Isaac will be Victor Frankenstein, and Elordi, who took over the role from Andrew Garfield, will play the Monster. Del Toro is writing, directing, and producing alongside J. Miles Dale, with whom he worked as a producer on Cabinet of Curiosities. The logline of the film reads as, "Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley's classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation." It currently has a fall 2025 release date.

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