Terry Gross

Our digital media producer is Molly C.V.

Nesper.

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Roberta Shorrock directs the show.

Our co-host is Tanya Mosley.

I'm Terry Gross.

The great filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has written and directed a new reimagining of Frankenstein.

It takes inspiration from the 1931 film Frankenstein, one of the first, best, and most enduring horror monster films, but mostly from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, which many consider to be the first science fiction book.

She was only 18 when she wrote it.

In del Toro's movie, the final part of the story is told from the creature's point of view.

Some of the themes of his new film echo themes that he's been obsessed with for years.

Misunderstood creatures, men who behave like monsters, father-son relationships, religion, empathy, cruelty, misguided scientific experiments that take a terrible turn...

and what del Toro describes as the uneasy truce between science and religion, machine and man, and the realization that you are inescapably alone.

His other movies include Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, Nightmare Alley, a reimagining of Pinocchio, filmed in stop-motion animation, and two Hellboy films.

In Del Toro's Frankenstein, Oscar Isaac plays Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the surgeon who wants to create new life, a new man built out of body parts from the newly dead.

The creature he creates is played by Jacob Elordi, who's best known for co-starring in Euphoria, and also played Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola movie Priscilla.

Del Toro grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and lives in L.A.

Guillermo del Toro, welcome to Fresh Air.

Congratulations on your new film, which brings together so much of your other work.

And I know it's a dream come true for you to do your own version of Frankenstein.