LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- It should come as no surprise that Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water writer/director Guillermo del Toro empathizes with the creature in Frankenstein. His adaptation, in theaters now and on Netflix Nov. 7, is both faithful to the original Mary Shelley novel and distinctly his own.
The film opens in 1857, with the crew of a ship wedged in the ice discovering Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) on the surface. When they rescue him, the creature (Jacob Elordi) attacks the crew while looking for his maker.
The movie immediately establishes how strong the creature is, as he's able to push the boat until it tips. Victor tells the ship's captain his story thus far.
Two years prior, Victor demonstrated his ability to re-animate the dead with electricity at the Royal College of Medicine. This demonstration on only the upper half of a body is graphic, and the college considers it a parlor trick.
Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) is interested in personally funding Victor's research though. While the first experiments don't re-animate, the successful ones become jump scares.
