The first full look at the Del Toro Frankenstein trailer has arrived, and it’s every bit as haunting, beautiful, and emotional as you would expect from Guillermo del Toro. Jacob Elordi’s face, scarred and stitched into something unsettling and strangely alluring, dominates the trailer, while Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein delivers a tortured genius.
After years of speculation, delays, and curiosity, audiences finally have a glimpse of the monster, and it could be the definitive blockbuster of the decade.
Guillermo del Toro has long argued that monsters are mirrors. With Del Toro Frankenstein, he may have found his most powerful reflection yet: a story where the creature’s demand for love is as terrifying as his thirst for vengeance.
A Monster with a Voice
The Del Toro Frankenstein trailer does something rare for Frankenstein adaptations: it follows the book, allowing the creature to speak for himself.
Elordi’s monster growls an iconic literary line, “If you are not to award me love, then I will indulge in rage.” That statement reframes the narrative. Rather than a mute brute staggering through torch-lit villages, del Toro provides a literature-accurate, articulate, emotional, and wounded character.
The visuals match the tone. Fire-lit confrontations and looming castles are del Toro’s signature, and every frame looks poised to hang in a gallery. Yet the intensity of the performances is raw, vulnerable, and alive.
This isn’t a monster movie built for cheap scares. It’s a horror classic that Mary Shelley would be proud of.
The Cast Behind the Del Toro Frankenstein Trailer
Part of the buzz comes from the cast list. Jacob Elordi, known from Saltburn and Euphoria, takes on the creature, while Oscar Isaac embodies Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a man playing god and suffering the consequences. Mia Goth appears as Frankenstein’s childhood love, a fitting choice considering her reign as recent horror darling. Christoph Waltz joins as a morally imbalanced arms dealer, which is a new character, absent from Mary Shelley’s original novel.
The supportive lineup is likewise impressive. Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Christian Convery, and Charles Dance round out the cast. It’s a roster with actors proven to balance gothic storytelling with nuance, ensuring the narrative doesn’t drift toward satire or parody.
When Monster Meets Meaning
It would be easy to dismiss the Del Toro Frankenstein trailer as another remake of a story everyone knows. However, Del Toro has been an amazing career transforming monsters into metaphors. Examples? The Shape of Water gave us an amphibian god of love. Pan’s Labyrinth turned a child’s fears into a dark fairy tale for adults. Ergo, his Frankenstein promises a mix of anticipated horror movie and humanity.
The trailer conveys themes of loneliness, rage, and a desperate need to belong. The creature’s emotional scars are deeper than his physical ones, demanding that Victor and the audience see him as more than a science experiment. This is the kind of storytelling that imbues monsters with souls, making us reflect on our own.
Beneath the Scars and Shadows
Of course, plenty of Del Toro’s Frankenstein remains hidden. The trailer is coy, revealing the appearance of the creature with teasing moments of violence and emotion without spoiling the entire plot.
Will Del Toro lean into the romance of Shelley’s novel? Will the tragedy of the creature’s isolation take center stage? Or will he reshape the myth into something horrible and unexpected?
What we do know is the release schedule. Del Toro Frankenstein opens in theaters on October 17, 2025, before moving to Netflix on November 7. That double rollout gives audiences the choice between enjoying a cinematic rollout or an intimate watch from the comforts of home.