‘Frankenstein’ Details to Know Before Your Next Rewatch
Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein had been a passion project of his long before Netflix came on board. The filmmaker had dreamed of reimagining Mary Shelley’s classic tale for years, blending his signature gothic style with the emotional depth and moral complexity that defined his work.
Starring Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as The Creature, and Mia Goth as Lady Elizabeth Harlander, the epic period piece is being hailed as a masterclass in filmmaking, with del Toro crafting each scene in painstaking detail to bring his haunting vision to life.
For casual viewers, it might have come across as a blur of elaborate sets and stunning costumes meant to prop up the story. But for those familiar with del Toro and his body of work, there was always a deeper layer, as every costume choice and set detail added a new dimension to the story.
Below are a few we found. Please enjoy.
Frankenstein, now streaming, Netflix
Mia Goth plays Elizabeth and Victor's mother, Claire
In the film, Mia Goth takes on a dual role — portraying both the ethereal Elizabeth and the idealized vision of Victor’s mother, embodying the two great loves of his life. Through this haunting duality, del Toro blurs the line between affection, obsession, and creation itself.
In an interview with Tudum, Goth explained that the idea emerged during a conversation with del Toro about the role, when she mentioned her own experiences with motherhood. “In that moment, I saw Guillermo’s eyes light up,” Goth recalled. “He told me he hadn’t completely figured out who Elizabeth would be. I wonder if, in that moment, he started to merge Elizabeth and Claire together for the first time.”
The use of the color red
In the film, cinematographer Dan Laustsen and production designer Tamara Deverell use colors to create emotional weight in the film, designating specific colors with specific character traits. With the color red, Deverell noted that red was used to symbolize “inheritance and guilt, the color of a family curse.” In the film, red represents grief and memory of the past, often intertwined to add emotional complexity to the scene.
“The mother and the home are red,” Guillermo del Toro explains. “So if Victor loses that, that’s the color that should haunt him the rest of the movie. He’s the only character that wears red; red gloves, red scarf. The red chases him through the movie.”
Victor's obsession with milk
Victor Frankenstein lost the mother that he adored at a young age when she gave birth to his brother William (Felix Kammerer). In key scenes, Victor is seen drinking glasses of milk in lieu of wine. In an interview with Gold Derby, Isaac explained the visual clue.
“The only woman he’s ever really seen is his mother, and Guillermo very Oedipal-y cast the same actress to play both of those parts,” Isaac states. “With Elizabeth, Victor sees somebody that he’s longed for his entire life and he thinks she’ll make him complete. It’s not disconnected from the fact that the only thing we ever see Victor drink is milk. He’s always wanted his mother back — and that’s why he wants to defeat death.”
Elizabeth dresses to mirror her passion
In the story, Elizabeth is captivated by insects, first seen purchasing books on the subject at a local market. But her fascination with the smallest of creatures extends far beyond her reading habits — her necklace and crucifix are adorned with scarabs embedded within the precious metals and jewels. Even her wardrobe reflects this obsession, with costumes in rich, jewel-toned hues that shimmer like the iridescent shell of a beetle.
According to costumer designer Kate Hawley, it is a recreation of a Tiffany design from the 1910s.
Identical moments reveal the bond between Elizabeth and the Creature
In the film, Elizabeth feels a deep, unspoken connection with the Creature (Jacob Elordi), and he, in turn, reflects her adoration; the two are bound by a shared sense of longing, loving each other from afar.
When Elizabeth is first introduced, she’s seen holding a human skull taken from a tableau. Later, as the Creature wanders free and experiences nature for the first time, he stumbles upon an ancient battlefield and instinctively mirrors her pose. The parallel imagery reveals that they are kindred spirits, linked through the haunting beauty of existence.
The presence of another 'monster'
Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s Medusa is a striking painting on a convex wooden shield depicting the severed head of the Gorgon at the moment of her death when she gazes upon her reflection. In Frankenstein, it is the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein’s wall carving in the laboratory. In an interview with Variety, del Toro stated that Medusa reflects “the mythological scale of the movie; the misunderstood monster that is Medusa. Medusa is used in waterways and water towers and cisterns in the Middle East…We took her and put her here to remind [people] of the scale of the film being epic.”
Elizabeth's wedding gown pays homage to The Bride of Frankenstein
Elizabeth’s organza gown, particularly the silk wrappings around her arms, is reminiscent of those worn by Elsa Lanchester in the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. The gown was designed by Kate Hawley, who told Harper’s Bizarre, “That whole thing served as a rib cage, a definite homage and evoking the image of the Bride of Frankenstein with the ribbons that were also reminiscent of the bandages of the Creature.”
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