Guillermo del Toro

of degradation and humanization and learning the language with the family of the hermit.

You know, all of that is in the novel, but it's been rarely articulated.

And I found that hinging the movie in the middle was structurally the best way to make the audience almost get a jolt and say, oh, I've never seen this before.

Even if it's been dramatized briefly in other versions, this is the one that tracks the creature in a distinct chapter.

It starts in the frozen north and is very discreet in color.

Then you have childhood and young age of Victor, which is idealized and very heightened visually by the fact that Victor is telling the story.

And then the fairy tale-like story.

In a little cabin.

And he's guided, the creature is guided by all sorts of animals into understanding the world.

Yes.

That was very important to me, that the three chapters were very distinct in style and very distinct in energy.

The camera work is very different.

The color palette is very different.

And I think that I would say, having seen most every version of Frankenstein on film, this is very unique.

The scale of the movie, both being epic and intimate, is very unique.

But the fairy tale breadth

And the parable, it feels like a parable of the prodigal father, I'd say, jokingly.

Yeah, that's a mistake that came from a play.

I think the parallels are very, very curious.

I triangulate the creature with Jesus and Pinocchio.