I'm developing something of a habit. Each year, around this time of the year, Netflix makes a big awards season move, by putting the films it thinks have the best chance of garnering accolades into limited runs in cinemas worldwide, since doing so is the only way those films can be eligible for the biggest awards (we're talking Oscars and Baftas, realistically).
In the UK, January has always been a hugely busy time for award-contending movies, but this means that there's now arguably a second period, right around October and November, when all of Netflix's best work crowds into cinemas – and I've already sampled it once, hugely enjoying the mega-tense A House Full of Dynamite.
Well, this weekend I went to Picturehouse Central again, here in London – and this time I was in the biggest screen it offers, to watch Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited Frankenstein, one of his most ambitious projects yet, and the latest Netflix movie to hit a swift window of release in the UK ahead of its streaming bow on 7 November.
This is a movie that I think might surprise some people – for better and worse, depending on their outlook. I'd say the most crucial thing to know going in is that it emphatically isn't a horror movie, just as Mary Shelley's source novel isn't a horror story either. Rather, this is a gothic melodrama, a story of big emotions and major philosophies, and del Toro adapts it as such.
That makes for a film with a grandiose tone and some swelling themes, and it wears that on its sleeve, but that might mean those expecting nonstop action and tension are disappointed. Not that it doesn't offer occasional explosions of violence (again, in classic GDT style). What really makes it special, though, is the craft of the filmmaking on show, from costumes to sets, with the latter in particular showcasing some stunning work.
It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein and his obsession with bringing dead flesh back to life fairly straightforwardly. Beginning with the discovery of a seemingly mortally wounded Frankenstein on the ice in the deep north of the world, it unfolds in long flashbacks as he tells his story, with the "monster" he created then following things up with his own touching coda.
The sequence in which Frankenstein's creature is reanimated is surely an intimidating one to commit to film, knowing how many versions have been created over the years. In Del Toro's case, though, it offers the chance to show off. It's a bravura scene, one that will live long in the memory, and it's not afraid to lean into classic, almost cheesy motifs like the lightning storm and lashing wind.
It's terrific stuff, and I'm a sucker for the straightforwardness of how the story is told, for all that it's also a really quite long film. That made it a perfect choice for the cinema, to be fair, although I'm confident that armed with one of the best soundbars and OLED TVs, you could have a stellar time at home on Netflix, too.
If you've enjoyed a Guillermo del Toro film before, I'd urge you to get Frankenstein on your wishlist, and if you can make it to a cinema before it leaves, you'll have a great time, I'm sure. It's a big-screen film, I'd say, but it's easy to claim that given I've already managed the cinema trip.
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