Best Pictures #121: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (2025)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #121: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Frankenstein (2025)

"What manner of creature is that? What manner of devil made him?"

I am a fan of director Guillermo del Toro, however, it always seems to be a coin flip whether I'll like his next movie or not. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of my favorite books and holds the rare distinction of being a book I have read more than once. So, I was more trepidatious than excited to see del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein. There have been so many Frankenstein movies from the silent short in 1910 to the landmark Universal monster movie in 1931 to many, many more and now to del Toro. With so many versions of Mary Shelley's story, so many variations, so many re-imaginings, do we really need one more? The answer is yes, if it is this one.

It’s no surprise that this was a passion project for del Toro, who has been obsessed with the novel and 1931 film, directed by James Whale, since childhood. His wonderfully macabre visual style, approach to certain themes, and ability to create sympathetic portrayals of monsters make Frankenstein the perfect story for him to tell. Even more than Pan's Labyrinth or The Shape of Water, this feels like the ultimate Guillermo del Toro movie. It is the movie he was meant to make. 

The plot is, dare I say, familiar. I read some reviews that claimed this adaptation was more faithful to the novel, which is a sign that someone has not read the novel. This is something that gets said whenever a movie includes the framing device of the arctic expedition that discovers Frankenstein and the Creature. del Toro's adaptation does begin with an arctic expedition trapped in the ice that comes upon a weary and ailing Victor Frankenstein who tells his woeful tale to the captain. Of course, del Toro makes sure that the Creature also gets to tell his tale. 

In this version, young Victor Frankenstein learned the basics of medicine from his cold and demanding father (played by Charles Dance, of course). At university Victor’s (Oscar Isaac) boundary pushing experiments and ideas catch the attention of the eccentric Harlander (Christoph Waltz), who agrees to bankroll Frankenstein’s experiment to create a new and improved man. Frankenstein becomes infatuated with Harlander’s niece, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who is engaged to his younger brother, William. The movie takes its time before the Creature is introduced; fortunately none of that time is wasted and Jacob Elordi as the Creature does not disappoint. 

Like Sofia Coppola in Priscilla, del Toro uses Elordi’s 6’5” stature to overwhelming effect. The special makeup effects are quite impressive (Make Up and Hairstyling are just one of a total 9 Oscar nominations), and all the more impressive because they do not hide or distract from Elordi’s performance. He effectively conveys the longing and anger of the Creature so well articulated in Mary Shelley’s novel. Elordi has earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, the film’s only acting nomination. Neither a trophy nor a damsel, Mia Goth as Elizabeth is the promise of comfort and safety and love for Victor, William, and the Creature. Her compassion is the first kindness that the Creature knows. Oscar Isaac is at his best when playing mad scientists (see also Ex Machina for further proof and another excellent performance not nominated by the Academy). Isaac is delightfully over the top, clearly having fun with the role, and the movie benefits from it. Frankenstein is audacious, rakishly charming, arrogant and also selfish, abusive, and cowardly. One of the first things he does with the Creature is to put it in chains in the laboratory basement. His arc from protagonist to essentially a villain is done with care and Isaac handles Victor’s complexity very well. 

Both the Production Design and Costumes received Oscar nominations, and rightfully so. The story is set in the 1850’s, though things are not quite period accurate. They are, however, accurate to del Toro’s sensibilities. An elaborate statue of an archangel comes to fiery life during a nightmare (inspired by a real waking nightmare del Toro had as a child). The former armory turned laboratory is a bizarre and impractical but visually stunning tower on the edge of a cliff. There is a large chute down the middle from the top of the tower to the basement–reminiscent of the hole in the roof of the estate in Crimson Peak, itself inspired by Poe’s The Fall of House of Usher–that I can’t imagine would serve any real purpose. The costumes, especially Mia Goth’s gowns, follow this same outlandish but eyecatching style.

There is enough of the novel in this adaptation to satisfy a fan like me. There is also enough that is new and different that a viewer, horror fan or not, won't feel like they're watching the same old story. Though one of the great pillars of horror literature and cinema, the Frankenstein story is more macabre and spooky (gothic, you might say) than scary. The best film adaptations tune into Shelley's sympathy for the Creature and that Victor is actually a mad scientist, and even a villain. Mary Shelly created a thematically complex story and that is not lost in del Toro’s version. This movie gets gory and violent at times and it is perfect for a dreary day, a stormy night, or any time you’re in a spooky mood.

Frankenstein is available to stream on Netflix.

Nominees: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Scott Stuber, producers

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro; based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz

Production Companies: Double Dare You, Demilo Films, Bluegrass 7

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: October 17th, 2025

Total Nominations: 9, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Supporting Actor-Jacob Elordi; Adapted Screenplay-Guillermo del Toro; Cinematography-Dan Laustsen; Production Design-Tamara Deverell (production designer), Shane Vieau (set decorator); Costume Design-Kate Hawley; Makeup and Hairstyling-Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey; Original Score-Alexandre Desplat; Sound-Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian T. Cooke, Brad Zoern

Best Pictures #79: 2021 (94th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Nightmare Alley (2021)

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #79: 2021 (94th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Nightmare Alley (2021)

“Mister, I was born for it.”

I always look forward to the new Guillermo del Toro movie no matter the genre or premise. So much care and consideration and enthusiasm goes into every aspect of a movie that if it misses in one way, it still connects in another. There is always something interesting. This is true of del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. Even though I didn’t entirely enjoy it, I know I will see it again because so much about it lingers in my mind. 

Bradley Cooper plays Stanton Carlisle, a quiet drifter who lands a job at a carnival during the late 1930’s. He listens and observes and comes across as a blank. He learns about the carnival, the flashy side of showmanship and its dirty secrets. Zeena (Toni Collette), the resident psychic/mind reader, takes him under her wing. Along with her severely alcoholic husband (David Strathairn), a now retired mentalist, Stanton helps with her show, all the while picking up how they "read the minds" of the audience. Then he starts talking, finds a stage and romantic partner in Molly (Rooney Mara), finds success, and stops listening and observing. He should have quit while he was ahead, but that’s not who he is and that’s not the kind of movie this is. (If you stop the movie at a certain point about a third of the way through, it’s a happy ending for most of the characters.)

The production design, costumes, and cinematography have all received Oscar nominations which is no real surprise since they are all quite remarkable. The production design and costumes are everything you expect from a Guillermo Del Toro movie set in the 1930’s that takes place in part at a carnival. The whole film is filled with intriguing, memorable imagery whether it is in the rundown carnival (the least whimsical carnival you’ve ever seen outside of a proper horror movie) or the large open spaces of the wealthy. The cavernous office of psychiatrist Dr. Lilith (Cate Blanchett), with whom Stanton partners for a dangerously ambitious con, evokes feelings of discomfort and danger. 

This is a dark film thematically. The original 1947 version, directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Tyrone Power, and del Toro’s version both qualify as Film Noirs: exploring a dark, seedy world and its characters that proper, mainstream society turns away from. The 1947 version remains an effective, gripping, and intense movie despite the restrictions of the Production Code. It mixes in more humanity than the new version, making it more of a tragedy and giving it in some ways a more powerful ending. 

More than one source I found described the 1946 novel, written by William Lindsay Gresham, as bleak. This new adaptation, written by del Toro and Kim Morgan, does not shy away from bleakness. Both versions include the lowest of the carnival performers, the geek, who bites the heads off chickens or snakes. Of course del Toro’s version is more upfront and graphic about showing what the geek does and how someone becomes a geek. “Man or beast?” the barker asks the crowd. It is a man, of course, usually a desperate alcoholic who is manipulated into taking the job and then controlled by feeding his addiction. There aren’t many sympathetic characters here. Controlling the geek or looking the other way is routine for the carnival. Learning the tricks of mentalism, how to do a cold reading on a stranger and trick them into revealing details about themselves, is an exciting thing at first. Then comes exploitation and hubris. The world of wealthy socialites is not much different, just with nicer clothes. Guillermo del Toro has given us many movies about monsters that act like humans, now he’s given us a movie about humans that act like monsters. 

Nominees: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Bradley Cooper, producers

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara

Release Date: December 17th, 2021

Production Companies:TSG Entertainment, Double Dare You Productions

Distributor: Searchlight Pictures

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Cinematography- Dan Laustsen; Production Design-Tamara Deverell (production design), Shane Vieau (set decoration); Costume Design-Luis Sequeira

13 Nights of Shocktober: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

 by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 8: Youth Horror Night

Don’t you ever laugh as a hearse goes by/For you may be the next to die

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

A movie based on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series has a lot to live up to. These stories, a collection of folktales, urban legends, songs, and poems written by Alvin Schwartz and the frightening, nightmarish drawings by Stephen Gammell are indeed scary, so much so that they fully traumatized and fascinated an entire generation of children, myself included. If you read only a few of the stories or saw any of the drawings, you never forgot them. The books, published between 1981 and 1991, caused all sorts of controversies and protests from parents and sold millions and millions of copies. A wonderful and impressive oversight by my Catholic elementary school meant that I bought my copies at the school book fair. My mother thought some of the stories were amusing but they thoroughly disturbed me as a first grader, so she gave them to a friend whose child was very excited by them. I’ve seen the movie twice now, but I’ve never revisited the books. 

The Scary Stories books would have made for a great anthology film but the team behind the camera, including producer Guillermo Del Toro, who receives a screen story credit with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, screenwriters Dan and Kevin Hageman, and director Andre Ovredal give us a compelling narrative worked around the short stories. Set in the Autumn of 1968, during that extra spooky time between Halloween and Election Day, the plot follows high schooler Stella and her friends Auggie and Chuck. On Halloween Night while fleeing a malicious and dangerous bully, they meet Ramon, a teenage drifter, and end up hiding out in the town’s old haunted house. Stella finds a book full of stories handwritten by Sarah Bellows, the dreadful witch that poisoned children at the turn of the century. Then new stories appear in the book, written in fresh, wet blood that tap into the fears of teens and foretell their doom.

Scenes involving the monsters are legitimately frightening. Perhaps the most well-known is Harold the scarecrow, who the bully encounters in a cornfield on Halloween night. The most frightening and disturbing scene for me had one of the characters trapped in a red room with a pale faced woman coming towards him from every end of every hallway. The blend of computer generated and practical effects is very well done. The creatures of Harold and the Pale Faced Woman are as frightening and haunting as the original drawings. The climax combines action, scares, and monsters with a full realization of the themes and subtext in a compelling and masterful way.   

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark believes that if stories are told enough, they become real, even if they are about yourself. This is what Stella, played wonderfully by Zoe Margaret Coletti, with Velma from Scooby-Doo glasses and smarts to match, comes to realize about her town’s legendary witch and even about herself. Her mother left mysteriously when she was little and the town has circulated rumors ever since. Ramon (Michael Garza) is pegged by the all-American looking bully as a “wet-back” and by the well-intentioned but misguided town sheriff (Gil Bellows) as a suspicious person to blame the recent misfortunes on. Ramon is on the run from something, but there is more to the truth than first assumptions.

The young actors are especially good and believable at playing teenagers. Most of the movie is Stella, Ramon, Auggie, and Chuck investigating the history of Sarah Bellows and her book of stories to save themselves before it is too late. Being 1968, this means that they look at microfiche newspaper archives and old records buried away in forgotten rooms. These scenes reminded me of the better episodes of The X-Files and the scenes of them snooping around an old house reminded me of the original Scooby-Doo series. There are lighter moments and levity that not only relieve tension but build the characters and their relationships with each other. The screenplay and performers do a great job creating characters we want to see escape the monsters, which is something rare for horror films.  

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is also that most elusive and improbable kind of horror movie: a scary PG-13 movie. The confrontations with the monsters and other horrors are as creepy and scary as anything in an R-rated horror movie. You don’t need blood and gore when you have impending, inescapable dread. The visual style and aesthetic sets the film firmly in the real world, so when the characters are confronted with the supernatural it is all the more disconcerting and frightening. This movie is something quite rare these days, a horror movie for kids. Not just a horror themed movie for kids, but a movie with real frights and scares, with compelling themes and enough substance to become something that every great horror movie is: haunting. In that way, the movie is very true to the books.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Extraordinary Tales

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober.  So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Horror Anthology Night

Poe: “I want to be sure my words will survive me, that they will never be lost in time.”

Death: “That, my friend, Nevermore.”

Extraordinary Tales 

Adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous and beloved works, his short stories and poems, to a feature length film is tricky and difficult. The short stories get padded out and, in some cases, only vaguely resemble their source material. Some of these are good but barely resemble the original story: The Black Cat (1934) has a black cat in one shot and a completely made up plot. Some are utter dreck: The Raven features a raven briefly and a plot about wizards and magic. And a few actually capture the events and the essence of the story, adding plot and characters that feel like an extension of the story, not extraneous additions: The Masque of the Red Death (1964), directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price, which I’ve written about for a previous Shocktober and highly recommend. To adapt Poe’s stories without added plot or characters could only be done with short films, or an anthology.

The stories of Poe and the anthology film format are such a perfect combination I’m surprised there aren’t more Poe based anthology films, or at least more noteworthy ones. The animated anthology Extraordinary Tales, written and directed by Raul Garcia, is indeed noteworthy, not just for its approach to Poe’s stories, but also its superb execution and unexpected, haunting pathos.

Each vignette has a distinct animation style with great imagery and notable narrator. The Fall of the House of Usher, narrated by Christopher Lee, is the first and longest of the short films, and it is an excellent start to this moody and atmospheric collection. It captures wonderfully the melancholy and dread that looms over the house of Rodrick Usher as he fears his sister has been buried alive. The Tell-Tale Heart is animated in stark black and white. This short segment is narrated by Bela Lugosi, whose voice comes through the distant hiss and crackle of an old phonograph. The third segment, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, animated to resemble a comic book, is probably the least known story in the film. This story, narrated by Julian Sands, tells of a mesmerist who hypnotizes an ill friend at the moment of death in an attempt to stop death and learn about the great beyond. 

The Pit and the Pendulum, about a prisoner facing torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition, is told by Guillermo Del Toro and done in a realistic computer animation. The final segment is the silent The Masque of the Red Death. This story shows us the gruesome effects of a plague and the decadence of people celebrating in the castle of Prince Prospero, believing themselves safe from the plague. There is only one line of dialogue in this film, when the Prince (voiced by Roger Corman) questions the identity of the strange guest that dares to wear a mask resembling the effects of the plague.

The stories are all tied together with a peculiar and clever device: a raven visits a cemetery and has a conversation with a stone statue of a woman. The Raven is the soul of Poe, and the female voice of the motionless statue is Death. Their conversation is a gateway to Poe’s stories. The Raven is melancholy and proud and anxious and defiant of death and time. “My work is eternal,” it says, “I want that eternity.” The soft sweet voice of death is gentle, beguiling, and alluring, but also content and peaceful and inviting. The scenes of the Raven and Death are haunting and give us glimpses into Poe’s life and thoughts.

Extraordinary Tales is a wonderful and fitting tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, a love letter to his work and influence. It is a great way to enjoy some of his most famous stories or introduce someone to them. It’s also great to watch with someone that isn’t really into horror and makes for a perfect moody Shocktober night.