From Edison to Del Toro: Frankenstein in 7 films

On Thursday it arrived in national theaters Frankensteinthe highly anticipated film of Guillermo del Toroa project that, according to what he said, he began to imagine when he was just 10 years old. Today, at 61, he delivers a work that condenses half a century of passion for cinema, artistic maturity and personal obsessions.

On the occasion of the premiere, the critic José Antonio Valdés Peña recalls a century of film versions of Mary Shelley’s monster.

The story of Frankenstein in 7 films

• 1910: It all began with a short film produced by the Edison studio: 11 minutes where the scientist creates his creature in a cauldron, as if it were a spell. Hardly a curiosity, but the first Frankenstein on screen.
• 1931: Later, Universal Pictures consolidated the myth with James Whale’s Frankenstein and Boris Karloff’s interpretation, transforming the monster into an eternal icon.
• 1935: Four years later, Bride of Frankenstein It deepened his humanity and the sinister character of Dr. Frankenstein, with the unforgettable Elsa Lanchester as the bride.
• 958: The myth revived with The Curse of Frankensteinby Terence Fisher, under the Hammer Films label. For the first time, the monster, played by Christopher Lee, appeared in color, in a more violent and explicit story. The real horror, however, lay in the ambitious doctor played by Peter Cushing.
• 1974: In the ’70s, Mel Brooks offered a brilliant turn with comedy young frankensteina parody as witty as it is respectful of the classic, filmed in beautiful black and white with Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle.
• 1994: Already in the 90s, Kenneth Branagh filmed Mary Shelley’s Frankensteinwith Robert De Niro as a tragic and complex creature. A reading faithful to the original text, as romantic as it is Shakespearean.
• 2025: And now, Guillermo del Toro delivers his most intimate and mature version. His Frankenstein alternates the perspectives of the creator and the creature, exploring themes such as fatherhood, rejection and loneliness. Who is the true monster: the one who creates and abandons, or the one who suffers from having been abandoned?

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With dazzling cinematography and a deeply romantic tone, Del Toro transforms horror into moral reflection. It’s not just about scaring, but about understanding each other. As he says: “I have already made the films I dreamed of making: Pinocchio y Frankenstein”.

The film is not in commercial chains, but in the Cineteca Nacional and in cultural circuits such as Cine Tonalá, Cinemanía and CineDot, and starting November 7, it will arrive on Netflix. Since 1818, Mary Shelley’s monster has been alive. And today, thanks to Del Toro, it beats more human than ever.

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