Frankenstein is 'super transphobic and problematic', a non-binary director has claimed. Jane Schoenbrun, an American filmmaker, said the classic gothic novel written over 200 years ago is 'transphobic' because it is about 'a constructed body', referring to the portrayal of Frankenstein's Monster. In an interview about their latest project, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a satirical romantic drama slasher, Schoenbrun said adaptations of Frankenstein are an example of how older horror films feature 'trans monsters'. They told the Hollywood Reporter: 'This image of the trans monster kept coming up, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Frankenstein as a constructed body, and there was this lineage of trans people having really complicated feelings about those movies.'In one sense, those are the places where they saw representations that felt familiar or comforting in some way to their own experiences - but also, those movies are super f*****g transphobic and problematic.' Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley over 200 years ago in 1818. It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a monster from different human body parts in an experiment. Jane Schoenbrun, 39, an American filmmaker, said Frankenstein is 'transphobic' because it is about 'a constructed body' Boris Karloff as the Monster in the 1935 classic, the Bride of FrankensteinSchoenbrun's latest film follows a queer filmmaker who is hired to direct the latest instalment of a long-running slasher franchise known as Camp Miasma before becoming obsessed with an actress, played by Gillian Anderson, from one of the previous films.Jack Haven portrays the monster in the fictional franchise 'whose legend comes to consume Kris and spark her sexual reawakening'. The film is set to be released in August.Anderson told Variety the film 'reaches out across the divide' and speaks to 'anyone who feels and identifies with disassociation, the out of body experience, the not feeling part of or included within a framework of societal norms'. She had a 'panic attack' when she watched a sex scene in the film for the first time. Anderson said: 'That blood day was pretty serious… just remembering the amount of liquid and how to not drown while shooting the scene… it was a lot!' Frankenstein is one of the most widely adapted books of all time, with dozens of films, TV shows and theatre productions made throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.In 1935, Boris Karloff famously portrayed the Monster in the Bride of Frankenstein. Left to right: Hannah Einbinder, Jane Schoenbrun and Gillian Anderson at Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14 Jacob Elordi as the Creature in the 2025 adaptation of FrankensteinChristopher Lee also took up the role of the Creature in The Curse of Frankenstein, which was released more than 20 years later in 1957. In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the young scientist Victor while Robert De Niro portrayed the Monster. And last year Frankenstein (2025) was released on Netflix, directed by Guillermo del Toro. It starred Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as the Creature, the latter of whom was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.Mary Shelley was inspired to write the classic novel in part by Fantasmagoriana, an anthology of German ghost stories translated into French.Her childhood in Scotland and contemporary theories such as galvanism, electricity produced by chemical reaction, and Erasmus Darwin's experiments on spontaneous vitality also played a part. She had also experienced a nightmare about a student who was mortified after creating a monster made of reassembled body parts. Earlier this year Schoenbrun was joined in their criticism of the character Buffalo Bill - a cross-dressing serial killer who skins his female victims to make a 'woman suit' - by actor Ted Levine, who said the tropes it used about trans people were 'f*****g wrong'.Levine, who played the character in The Silence of the Lambs, told the Hollywood Reporter in February: 'There are certain aspects of the movie that don't hold up too well.'We all know more, and I'm a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.'He added: 'It's unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it's f*****g wrong.'