Frankenstein (2025) - Horror Film Review

I thought it was neat that iconic film director Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth) was making a film adaptation of Mary Shelley's timeless Gothic novel - Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Saying that, after seeing it was two and a half hours long, I figured I would never find the time to get around to watching it. Well, having lost my job at the end of last year, I now have a lot more free time on my hands, and so gave it a watch. Obviously, this has been adapted to film countless times over the past 100 years, and the character of Frankenstein's Monster is known by most people due to how iconic it has became in the public consciousness. Would this latest version of Frankenstein outstay its welcome, or indeed, do enough to set it apart from all that have come before?

The story is well known, though key elements are handled a little differently here. That is to say, if you are familiar with the story, this follows all the same beats, but occasionally those beats are reached by different means as to how they were in the original novel. The film tells the story of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac - Moon Knight TV series, Annihilation); a brilliant but troubled scientist who had become obsessed with creating life. Of course, one fateful stormy night he is successful, and from that success comes the creature (Jacob Elordi - Saltburn, The Mortuary Collection). Its monstrous appearance, and apparent lack of intelligence causes Victor to be repelled by his creation, and in a fit of madness he burns down his laboratory, believing the creature destroyed. The creature managed to escape however, and after being treated as if he was a monster by nearly all he comes across, the creation decides to seek out his creator and ask a request of him.

Much like with video games, in my middle age I find I have less and less interest in pursuing remakes and remasters of media that I am familiar with. It was because of that I wondered what exactly a new adaptation of Frankenstein would bring to the table. From the font alone, this looked like it would be quite pretentious. I figured maybe it would go down the route of 'less is more' and rarely show the creature on screen. This is almost the opposite of that. Of course, much like the novel, the prologue takes place in the story's present, with a ship trapped in the Antarctic ice encountering Frankenstein. Here, things become much more dramatic and action packed, with the creature appearing at almost the same time. After a thrilling prologue sequence where he attacks the ship's crew, we then get the start of Victor's story as he recounts how events led to this moment for him. Interestingly, at the film's midway point, we then get the rest of the story recounted by the creature, which is when many of the changes come about, with it suggested the original story as told in the novel, was from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. All the characters are here, from Elizabeth (Mia Goth - Pearl, A Cure for Wellness), to Victor's younger brother, William (Felix Kammerer - All Quiet on the Western Front), but all have some slight change to them. For instance, Elizabeth's relationship with Victor is quite different, while William is portrayed as a grown man. This was a star-studded film, just looking at some of the side roles, we have Christoph Waltz (Alita: Battle Angel, Inglorious Basterds), Charles Dance (Frankenstein, Game of Thrones TV series), David Bradley (The World's End, the Harry Potter films), Ralph Ineson (The Witch) among many others.
For some of these characters, their inclusion was perfectly fine, but some I didn't get on so well with. Victor is well known to be the real monster of the movie, so it is understandable he wasn't the most likeable character. Here, his mistreatment of his creation seems to stem from mistreatment he had from his father (Dance) as a child, and some of his motivations seem a bit abstract, not helped by him disappearing from the movie for much of the second act. Least favourite character for me was Goth's Elizabeth. From the way her character acted to the clothes she wore, she just came across as a weird person, even if her scenes with the creature were decent.

As to the creature himself, rather than keep him on the sides of the screen, the creature is front and literal centre screen for many of his appearances. Stitched together from various body parts, the creature's look changes over the course of the movie. Initially, he really reminded me of Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, mainly due to the bright yellow loincloth he wears. I don't know why that bright colour was chosen, but it was a bit distracting. He later appears with long lank hair and wearing furs, making him seem much more intimidating. The creature is extremely powerful and full of rage, but he is also shown to very much be the victim of the story. The film doesn't shy away from his violence, but also presents him as someone who is very lost and desperately yearning for company. From the changes in events (Victor often blaming the creature for the death of pretty much any character who dies even when not remotely responsible), it is nigh impossible to dislike this miserable creature. He isn't scary either, despite the scenes of him hulking out and throwing people around like dolls. It leads to some violent scenes, my favourite of these being when he rips someone's jaw off of them! Different to other times, here, the creature is suggested to be indestructible, able to rejuvenate from any injuries sustained. He did feel a bit like the Incredible Hulk at times, but I liked this more unstoppable portrayal.

The make-up effects for the creature were fantastic, there was nothing throughout the whole film that looked sub-par. Especially neat were the locations used, real sets created rather than CG, Frankenstein's laboratory was a real highlight, channelling the contrast between beauty and ruin that Del Toro is known for.

Frankenstein is a heck of a long film, I admit to watching it in three chunks, rather than in a single sitting. Despite being extremely familiar with the story, I still thought this was great. I enjoyed the changes that stopped this feeling as familiar, the filmmaking itself was stellar from start to end. The third act somehow felt a little bit rushed, speeding through huge amounts of the story within around a 40 minute timeframe, but the wonderful cast, amazing effects and set design combined to make this a film I became engrossed with, even if I very much doubt I would ever return for a second viewing. Frankenstein is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Amygdala (2022) - Short Horror Film Review

Amygdala is a short fifteen minute award winning Danish language horror film that has been shown at various film festivals around the world, and which has now been released on YouTube. Written and directed by Kenneth Lykkehus Truelson (Sticks, The Hitchhiker), it tells a dark story that felt like a companion piece to a larger film.

The short is set against the backdrop of a Denmark that is experiencing a nationwide viral outbreak that leaves its victims homicidally violent. Simone (Emma Katrine Sjøberg) is at home looking after her ill younger sister, Frederikke (Pernille Svendsen), with their mother having not returned after having left the house to visit a neighbour. That night, Simone is startled to see a strange figure standing outside the house (Kim Sønderholm - Harvest, Sinister Visions), and even more so when he breaks in.

The film covers a lot of ground from the opening news report playing out on a radio, that creates the impression of a The Crazies type situation. With Simone's teenage sister ill, it became apparent where this would likely end up. While the intruder is clothed in darkness and never fully shown on camera, it was still cool to see Sønderholm back on screen, in the early days of this blog I couldn't seem to move without him turning up in various films I had been sent for review. The characters were all fine, but with a short run time I never got any kind of impression of what the characters were like. Special effects were at a minimum, but there was one suitably bloody effect used for when a character gets glass in their foot, and a decent amount of blood when it was called for. While the story wasn't too surprising, it was dark, and had a couple of unexpected moments to it.

Bleak and moody, Amygdala told its story in an effective way. I thought the use of light and shadow was well done, and its self contained story was paced nicely. The film can currently be seen on YouTube.

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Faces of Snuff (2016) - Horror Film Review

My goodness, after a literal never ending two hours and fifteen minutes watched over three days I have finally managed to get to the end of Faces of Snuff; an anthology film made up of a crazy amount of snuff films. Snuff films are real life videos that show people being killed on camera, this movie of course features no actual deaths but instead an unending amount of pretend ones which work to various degrees but are all just so pointless.

I try to go into films with no knowledge of what they are about so initially I didn't even realise this was an anthology. Contained within must be at least fifty short films, many not lasting more than a few minutes, a lot without sound and many designed to look like they were filmed on Super 8 or handheld camera. Most of these have utterly no plot to them and most of these feature women being tortured, killed and sexually abused. Now before I go on to the review proper I am going to have a shower to symbolically wash away some of the filth I have witnessed...

Cannibal Fog (2014) - Horror Comedy Film Review

Cannibal Fog is a Swedish horror that the makers have described as 'a meta drama comedy with art house influences in the urban cannibal genre'. Before I start the review proper I have to state for the record that stuff was occurring in my personal life that may have made me less receptive than usual in my pursuit and acceptance of all types of horror.

Michael (Linus Karlgren) is a young man who has wasted his life in the pursuit of porn and meaningless sex. A chance encounter with contaminated food at a local cafe sets him upon a search for the addictive new taste. Meanwhile middle aged man Albin (Malte Aronsson) who resides in the same city as Michael is a secret cannibal serial killer who serves his 'special' meat dishes up as meals for food connoisseurs. Eventually the paths of Michael and Albin meet and fate plays out.

I watched this film in two sittings and at nearly two hours long I had to do it this way as I just could not get engaged with it due to the bizarre humour and the art house stylings it plays with. Much of the film follows Michael; a greasy haired loser, whose family have all but given up on him. His obsession with sex mirrors Albin's obsession with food providing a grim parallel between the two. The problem with the Michael segments is that not much really happens, The one plot hook is that he keeps waking up with flesh from his leg removed; just who is cutting away his flesh as he sleeps? Albin on the other hand has far shorter screen time but his segments are actually not that bad. One scene in which the pretentiousness of food critics is played up was actually pretty funny truth be told.

The soundtrack is pretty awful with lots of shouty rock and middle of the road forgettable background Muzak that sounds like it would be at home in an elevator. The film is in its native language with English subtitles and while occasionally the dialogue shines for the most part it is nothing special. Acting is hard to tell but it seems to be at least competent and I was delighted to see the man of many roles; Kim Sonderholm in a bit part. I have said it before and I will say it again, that man just gets everywhere!

Cannibal Fog starts strong showing as it does a scene from the end of the film to leave you wondering how things get to that stage, and in general the last quarter of the film is pretty darn good. With the introduction of a secret cannibal society and a mad finale that was exciting and fun to watch it really picked up, but by then it was too little too late. I loved the relationship between Michael and Albin but it comes so late into the film that it just seems a wasted opportunity.

There are some great ideas here, the explanation of the films title Cannibal Fog was unexpected and leads to some great moments but when so much of the film follows a disgusting unlikeable character again it is far too late to make up for what comes before. Dealing as it does with flesh eaters there is plenty of human meat being prepared which turned my stomach a bit, not really into the cannibal genre it turns out! It is easy to see the contrast between pleasures of the flesh and pleasures of eating the flesh, as well as humans obsession with food types and the preparation of it.

If your after mild art house and a strange time then Cannibal Fog might be right up your alley, for me though I just could not get into it until far too late when it had all but wrapped up.

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