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Frankenstein

Name: Frankenstein - Christian Parent's Review
Item: Frankenstein
Rating: 1
Author: StoryScanner

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General Review

Parent's Guide to Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein (2025)" is a gothic science fiction drama based on Mary Shelley's classic novel, distributed by Netflix. The film, directed by the acclaimed del Toro, known for his unique aesthetic and exploration of sympathetic monsters, stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Creature. It aims to delve into themes of existence, identity, ambition, and the ethics of science, contrasting early Victorian aesthetics with morbid subject matter. The movie reportedly offers a strong Christian, moral worldview, emphasizing compassion and forgiveness. The film has received an R rating from the MPAA for bloody violence and grisly images, with a runtime of approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes. Parental reviews indicate significant graphic content, including detailed depictions of violence, dismemberment, and partial nudity. While it contains mature themes and intense visuals, some sources suggest it promotes positive messages of empathy and redemption, despite its darker elements. "Frankenstein (2025)" is primarily aimed at older teenagers and adults due to its intense content. It explores the core pathos of Shelley's original text, focusing on the relationship between creator and creation, and delving into spiritual themes, including good versus evil and grace. The film has garnered generally favorable reviews, with praise for its lavish production and Elordi's performance as the Creature.

Things to Consider

Medium9

LGBTQ & Gender IdentityViolenceRomance and Sexual ContentProfanityWitchcraft & OccultSubstance UseScary & Intense ContentDisrespect & RebellionAnti-Christian Themes

Medium9

LGBTQ & Gender Identity

While the film does not feature explicitly LGBTQ+ characters or storylines, critical analyses and fan discussions suggest that the Creature's struggle for belonging and identity can be interpreted as an allegory for queer and non-binary experiences. This interpretation stems from the monster's unaccepted otherness and desire to be seen and loved for his true self, which resonates with many LGBTQ+ narratives.

Scholars and reviewers have highlighted the queer subtext of Mary Shelley's original novel, which is further explored in del Toro's adaptation. The Creature's unaccepted otherness and his deep-rooted rage when denied love and kindness are seen as inadvertently capturing the experience of a non-binary or queer person desiring to feel and love in the world. For example, Elizabeth describes the Creature as having "a heart purer than that of the common man," despite his monstrous appearance, emphasizing his innate goodness in the face of societal rejection.

Violence

The film contains extensive and graphic violence, earning its R rating. Descriptions include mutilation, dismemberment, and detailed depictions of injuries and deaths. The violence is integral to the horror and tragic themes, rather than being purely action-driven.

Examples of high-severity violence include individuals being hanged, shot, beaten, burned, blown up, and generally mutilated. Corpses are dismembered, dissected, reassembled, and electrocuted. Victor Frankenstein is shown assembling bloody body parts from battlefields in his laboratory, with blood strewn across the floor. The Creature also engages in deadly assaults, such as tearing off someone's jawbone and ripping hide off a wolf.

Romance and Sexual Content

Sexual content is present but not explicit or graphic in a sexual context. The film includes partial nudity, featuring exposed buttocks (male and female) in non-sexual contexts, and a nude female model in a sheer wrap that partially exposes breasts and genital hair, as well as images of upper and rear male nudity.

Profanity

Profanity is minimal, with only one instance of light profanity noted. While strong language is present, it is used sparingly to convey character emotions like loss, rage, and desperation.

Witchcraft & Occult

The film inherently deals with themes that can be interpreted as occult due to Victor Frankenstein's ambition to create life, effectively 'playing God.' This is less about traditional witchcraft and more about the hubris of scientific creation that trespasses into divine territory, with symbolic references to a 'dark angel' and demonic temptation.

The movie's tagline, "Only a monster would play God," highlights the central theme of Victor Frankenstein's ambition. The narrative includes spiritual themes of good versus evil and demonic temptation, with Victor Frankenstein symbolically making a Faustian deal with the devil. One scene shows Victor seeing a vision of a 'Dark Angel,' a blood-red, flame-wreathed perversion of a saint, which could be interpreted as a demonic influence on his work.

Substance Use

Substance use is present but generally mild, primarily involving characters consuming alcohol with meals and occasionally smoking tobacco. There is no depiction of illegal drug use, addiction, or glamorization of substance abuse within the narrative.

Scary & Intense Content

The film features highly intense and disturbing content, including graphic body horror, jump scares, and emotionally unsettling themes of abuse and grief. The gruesome creation process of the Creature and numerous violent deaths contribute to a consistently high level of intensity and fright.

The content includes very realistic violence and gore, such as organs, dangling flesh, and jaws being ripped off. One scene shows Victor introducing his reanimated early model cadaver, a human head and torso with an exposed brain and dangling spine, which gasps in pain and acts as a jump scare. The movie also features intense scenes of animal cruelty, including wolves being torn apart and skinned alive while screaming.

Disrespect & Rebellion

The film explores themes of rebellion through Victor Frankenstein's defiance of natural order and his fraught relationship with his father. While not explicitly depicting widespread disrespect or snarky behavior, Victor's actions in creating the Creature represent a profound act of rebellion against established norms and religious principles.

Victor Frankenstein's character is driven by a desire to defeat death and become a 'greater doctor than his father,' indicating a rebellious streak against paternal authority and conventional science. The creation of the Creature itself is a central act of rebellion against the natural order and religious teachings about the sanctity of life. The Creature also develops anger and rage in response to Victor's abuse and rejection, stating, "If you forbid me love, then I am to indulge in rage," showcasing a rebellious defiance against his creator's abandonment.

Anti-Christian Themes

While the movie contains strong Christian and moral worldview elements emphasizing compassion and forgiveness, it also features themes that could be perceived as anti-Christian, such as Victor Frankenstein's attempt to usurp God's role by creating life and a symbolic Faustian deal with the devil. The director, an agnostic, explores spiritual themes through his unique lens, which may diverge from traditional Christian interpretations.

The film's tagline, "Only a monster would play God," directly addresses Victor Frankenstein's act of creation, which can be viewed as an anti-Christian stance against divine authority. Movieguide notes that Victor Frankenstein makes a "Faustian deal with the devil," symbolically selling his soul to a dark angel, which is a clear anti-Christian element. Although the film promotes compassion and forgiveness, del Toro, an agnostic, views the Creature as an avatar and personal messiah, and the film's core message regarding the Creature's soul and purity is described as "utterly opposed to both logic and Christian doctrine."

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Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein (2025)" presents a complex and thought-provoking narrative that, despite its R-rating and graphic content, offers several themes aligning with a Christian moral worldview, primarily emphasizing compassion, forgiveness, and the consequences of human ambition. The film explores core biblical values by highlighting the destructive nature of unchecked pride and the moral responsibility of a creator for their creation. Victor Frankenstein's ambition to usurp God's role in creating life leads to tragic suffering, underscoring the dangers of playing God and ignoring ethical boundaries. While the Creature is initially depicted as pure and almost Christ-like, it is the cruelty and rejection it experiences that corrupt it, suggesting that evil is often a consequence of human sin and neglect rather than inherent depravity. The narrative strongly points towards moral accountability, with Victor ultimately facing the devastating repercussions of his abandonment and lack of empathy. The film offers a transcendent worldview by grappling with spiritual themes of good versus evil and the search for meaning beyond the material, even as it depicts human failings. Redemption themes are particularly prominent in del Toro's adaptation, which, unlike Mary Shelley's original novel, reportedly offers a more optimistic conclusion rooted in understanding and forgiveness. Del Toro himself describes the film as a "parable about forgiveness" and a story about "the desire for forgiveness of a father who was originally a son". This focus on breaking cycles of trauma and the potential for redemption, even for those who have caused great harm, resonates deeply with Christian concepts of grace and mercy. The film’s portrayal of family values is critical, examining the devastating impact of parental neglect and the generational cycles of abuse, as seen in Victor's relationship with his father and, subsequently, with his Creature. It implicitly advocates for nurturing relationships and compassionate parenting as foundational for human well-being, contrasting Victor's failures with the Creature's longing for connection and love. Regarding faith representation, the movie utilizes significant Catholic and Christian symbolism, with the Creature being presented as a "new Adam" or an "almost Christ-like figure" bearing stigmata-like wounds. Victor's blasphemous quest is also framed with Catholic symbols, showing his perversion of spiritual concepts. While del Toro, a self-described lapsed Catholic, aims to explore profound spiritual questions, some analyses suggest he employs Christian imagery stripped of its theological substance, focusing on human psychology rather than divine reality for resolution. However, other perspectives argue that the film, through its exploration of trauma, love, and the pursuit of wholeness, ultimately inspires a desire for transformation and acknowledges the presence of grace, even if the director's personal beliefs might differ from a traditional Christian understanding of an afterlife. The film's overall message appears to advocate for empathy, forgiveness, and the pursuit of humanity, which are values strongly affirmed within Christian teachings.

Additional Context

Best For Ages

This film is recommended for mature adults (18+) due to its R rating from the MPAA for bloody violence and grisly images, explicit gore, disturbing thematic content, and partial nudity. While some older teens (16+) who are mature and comfortable with gothic horror and tragic themes might find it engaging, the graphic nature of the violence and some nudity make it unsuitable for younger viewers.

Good to Know

Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein (2025)" is a visually rich and emotionally complex adaptation that, while rated R for graphic content, also aims to convey a powerful message about compassion and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Parents should be prepared for significant gore and intense scenes, as well as discussions of complex ethical and spiritual themes.

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