FAHS Film Club Screens del Toro’s “Frankenstein”

A new movie directed by Guillermo del Toro named Frankenstein was released and met with mostly positive reviews.

The movie is quite long, running for a total of 150 minutes. The FAHS film club recently screened the movie and gave it positive reviews.

Frankenstein is an accurate adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein novel. It’s split into two halves, with one in Victor Frankenstein’s point of view and the other in the monster’s point of view. 

The first half explains Victor’s backstory, notably when his mother had a sudden medical emergency and his father, despite being one of the most acclaimed doctors in the country, couldn’t save her life. Victor sets his life goal on learning how to bypass death. This is his spark for eventually creating his monster.

The second half of the movie ventures through the monster’s journey of self identity. Throughout the movie the monster questions who he is and why he cannot die. He struggles with a lack of nurturing in his life, and a major part of the monster’s story is finding a feeling of being loved.

“That was the greatest longest movie ever,” sophomore Jacob Pflum said. 

Pflum rated the movie an 8.5 out of 10 and said his favorite section of the movie is, “Part 2, when Frankenstein’s monster is being independent inside of the family’s farm”

Del Toro’s masterpiece features excellent story telling, faithfulness to the original novel, and great visuals. Despite its two and a half hour length, the movie keeps the spectator very engaged the entire time with its intricate plot and dynamic characters. Frankenstein has excellent cinematography throughout the movie; some examples include beautiful shots of Victor’s lab and the ship Victor is hiding on at the beginning of the movie.

Anyone who enjoys a long story and is able to connect human emotions to abstract beings would appreciate this tale. The movie is able to perfectly relate a foreign, some would call disgusting, monster to our personal experiences, such as group acceptance and intimate bonds. Frankenstein deserves all of the praise it receives.