One Of Del Toro's Biggest Changes To Frankenstein Makes It A Perfect Contrast To Another Horror Reimagining

The following contains spoilers for FrankensteinOne of the biggest changes Frankenstein makes to the source material gives it a powerful thematic connection to 2024’s gothic reimagining of a horror classic. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film embraces many of the tropes that have defined the filmmaker’s career, including an unexpected love story that plays out in tragic fashion.

It’s something similar to what Robert Eggers did in 2024 with his reinvention of a horror classic, Nosferatu. Another big-budget horror remix with a Gothic flair and a brutal sense of violence, both films also share a sexual undercurrent that make them deeply tragic romances and condemnations of flawed men.

Frankenstein And Nosferatu Use Classic Horror To Explore Sexual Frustration And Thwarted Love

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu both explore iconic horror movie villains with the same eye towards exploring the romantic and sexual appeal to the darkness of their story. Notably, neither film ends happily for its main lovers, and in turn each condemns the society that wouldn’t allow these relationships.

Although both movies are set in the past, their views are extremely modern, especially when it comes to the ways women can be caged by expectation and have their genuine interests and desires refused. In Frankenstein, Elizabeth becomes enamored with the Creature when she first comes across it in the basement of Victor’s laboratory.

There’s a wordless bond that quickly forms between the pair that’s a far cry from the more mundane connection between her and Victor’s brother William. Elizabeth lashes out at Victor more furiously than ever before after she believes he’s killed the creature, mourning the “man” she only met for a day.

Their later reunion is disrupted when Victor accidentally shoots Elizabeth, leading her to die in the Creature’s arms, bemoaning the fleeting nature of life. This plays into the real tragedy of the film, where the Creature realizes he can never die and be reunited with the woman he fell in love with.

It’s a compelling romantic tragedy hidden amidst all the horror, similar to how Nosferatu is secretly a story about a woman whose obsession with a man she is not married to leads to the corruption and death of several people. In Nosferatu, Ellen is targeted by Orlok.

In Nosferatu, romance and love are treated almost as a form of property, with the men retaining a sense of “ownership” over their brides. Whether that be Hutter’s affection or Count Orlok’s possession, Ellen is caught in the grasp of another. She understands Orlok is terrifying but is drawn to him, an undeniable attraction she fears but does not deny.

This connection goes unsaid for much of the film, but motivates Orlok to make his move across the world in search of Ellen. Ellen is not repulsed by the inhuman creature, but still sees him for the monster he is. In sacrificing herself to stop him, Ellen is a hero while also fulfilling her own desire to be with him.

Both Frankenstein and Nosferatu are Gothic romances with no illusion about the fickle nature of love and the wild abandon of sexual attraction. The result is two films that are in part about sex and the ways that polite society will condemn a woman for feeling an attraction to the “wrong” person, in both cases to the point of death.

Frankenstein And Nosferatu Subvert The Hollywood Leading Man Archetype

One of the best ways both Frankenstein and Nosferatu subvert typical cinematic expectations is by undercutting the nominal male leads of their story. Oscar Issac and Nicholas Hoult both have the looks and charisma of a standard leading man, and probably would be playing them as such in more standard adaptations of the classic stories.

However, neither Frankenstein or Nosferatu sees them as heroes. They are flawed extensions of fragile male egos, lashing out in fear and anger when the world doesn’t conform to their desire. Frankenstein is the tragedy of Victor, his dogged desire to overcome death leading him to make moral compromises and become just as cruel as his father was before him.

Victor’s pursuit to control nature itself extends to his anger over Elizabeth’s lack of romantic interest in him, with his final decision to try and kill the Creature being spurred on by his creation’s whispering of Elizabeth’s name. It’s the point where Victor truly becomes the villain of his own story.

While Hoult’s Thomas Hutter isn’t as detestable as Victor becomes, he is defined early on by his cowardice and inability to stand up for himself, a stark contrast from the almost elemental force of nature that is Count Orlok. Ellen belittles and insults Hutter, one of the film’s harshest moments turning him into cruel man.

Elizabeth is enamored with the Creature and Ellen is drawn to Orlok, and any sense of shame placed upon them comes from others and not themselves. The emotional core of both Frakenstein and Nofseratu relies on this tragic undercurrent, dooming the innocent women at the center of their narratives for the crime of falling for the wrong person.

Both are tragedies, with a similar thematic view on the faults of “proper society.” While Frankenstein ultimately highlight’s its title character’s humanity and Nosferatu leans into the vampire’s monstrous qualities, both films are structured around the idea that these creatures are still capable of attraction, sexuality, and love. They are, at their core, human — even if they don’t appear it.

Frankenstein and Nosferatu share a lot of surface-level similarities, but their true thematic connection speaks to del Toro and Egger’s fascination with unlikely romance. In a world where the “hero” can be cruel or cowardly, maybe the monster isn’t bad after all. It makes Frankenstein and Nosferatu more than just horror stories, and gives them a deeper shared thematic core.