For writer and director Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein was a film he felt destined to make, a tale that had lingered in the emotional ether throughout his decades-spanning career. “I’ve lived with Mary Shelley’s creation all my life,” says del Toro. “For me, it’s the Bible. But I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.” 

At last, the filmmaker has realized his vision of the classic novel with the help of an entrancing cast — including Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, and Jacob Elordi as the fated Creature — and a fierce team of creative collaborators. “I wanted the movie to test the capabilities of every single craft in moviemaking,” says the Oscar-winning filmmaker. “There are huge sets, huge props, and a complex wardrobe. I wanted it to feel like an old movie that was made in the heyday of Hollywood.”

The cast and crew ensured that every costume, every sound, every cut, and every image brought to life the story of a brilliant scientist and his ambitious creation just as del Toro saw it. “Working with Guillermo was a really profound experience; he creates a cinema of the soul,” says Elordi. “I’ll remember this [experience] forever. It completely reignited my passion for movies. … I have a whole different energy toward making films now.”

The film, which won four Critics Choice Awards and was nominated for five Golden Globes, is just as much a dialogue between Victor Frankenstein and his Creature as it is between del Toro and Shelley. “Mary Shelley’s masterpiece is rife with questions that burn brightly in my soul: existential, tender, savage, doomed questions that only burn in a young mind and only adults and institutions believe they can answer,” del Toro explains. “For me, only monsters hold the secrets I long for.” 

Here, dive deep into the crafting of Frankenstein with the actors, the artisans, and the auteur who made it possible. 

Jacob Elordi and Guillermo del Toro reflect on the emotional journey of Frankenstein.

Production Design – Tamara Deverell

Production designer Tamara Deverell created breathtakingly detailed sets on a massive scale for Frankenstein, Academy Award–winning director Guillermo del Toro’s epic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel. To bring the scientist Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) lab to life, Deverell designed an abandoned water tower. Stretching several stories upward, the lab features marble floors, a custom-fabricated metal spiral staircase, and an enormous circular window that dominates one wall.

 The circular detail mirrors both the top of the tower and a round grate set into the floor. “You’ll see a lot of circle motifs, which, to Guillermo, represent the circle of life: the beginning, the end, the endless ouroboros, the snake eating its tail,” says the production designer, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her work on del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. “It’s a definite theme, and I do my best to incorporate it as many times as I can.”

Creating a 3D rendering of the space allowed Deverell to visualize every detail, and she continued to refine the design over a period of five months before construction got underway. Finished in stone and tile, the laboratory is defined by its green patina, as though the copper piping in the space had corroded with age. “We played with so many palettes of green-on-green tones,” Deverell says.

The lab became one of the most distinctive environments in a film teeming with striking sets and locations. For Deverell, the film is particularly noteworthy for its discrete spaces, each of which has its own color signature: the gray of urban Edinburgh; the marble and gold of Victor’s ancestral estate, indicating the family’s tremendous wealth; the green grasses, trees, mosses, and leaves of the natural world; and finally, the harsh and unforgiving white Arctic climate where the film begins and returns throughout.

Production designer Tamara Deverell in conversation with Oscar Isaac on the sweeping sets of the film.

Costume Design – Kate Hawley

As the physical spaces for Frankenstein were taking shape, costume designer Kate Hawley (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Crimson Peak) began conceptualizing the wardrobe that would help cement the characters’ identities. Since the film unfolds against the backdrop of the Crimean War, the Emmy nominee began researching the middle decades of the 19th century, knowing that the tale would span the whole of Frankenstein’s life. Channeling history through a creative lens, however, was the true key to developing the film’s costumes. “It’s a fantasy at the end of the day, so we’ve made allowances,” Hawley says. “Guillermo said to me, ‘I don’t want fusty old period for this.’”  

For Victor’s costumes, Hawley also looked to famous men of the arts, including Soviet-born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev: “[I loved the] wonderful grandeur around him and the irreverence of the way he wore his clothes,” she says. “Guillermo wanted Victor to be a dandy and have a little bit of a punk element.”

When it came to the gowns for Frankenstein’s sister-in-law-to-be, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), Hawley drew inspiration from the character’s interest in entomology, botany, and the natural world. The costumer studied the anatomy of beetles and various cellular structures to develop unique patterns that could be woven into the custom-made fabrics. In addition to more conventional options like damasks, silks, and taffetas, Hawley used lustrous fabrics that refract light in slightly otherworldly colors.

Elizabeth’s overall look was shaped further by two key accessories: a classical shawl authentic to the Crimean War period — which Hawley made from fabrics adorned with fractal patterns — and veiled bonnets. “Religious language is a big part of Elizabeth’s character, and that bonnet is like a halo,” Hawley says. “I used colored veils to move away from tradition. Mia has such an amazing, mercurial face. One of the first fittings we had, we put that bonnet on her, and we put the yellow veil over her, and she just became this other creature.”

Mia Goth and costume designer Kate Hawley on the “life-changing experience” of making Frankenstein.

Editing – Evan Schiff

Del Toro has a singular approach to editing: He prefers to have the previous day’s footage cut together before beginning the next day’s shoot. That means arriving to set hours before the other crew members and sitting with his editor as they piece together a full day’s scenes. Having previously worked with del Toro, editor Evan Schiff (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army) was familiar with his process, and the pair quickly fell into a productive rhythm on Frankenstein. “[Guillermo] was a constant presence in the cutting room early every day, cutting the scenes and assembling the movie and making sure that it was exactly what he wanted,” says Schiff.

The pair paid careful attention to the pacing of the epic tale, balancing sequences of riveting action and suspense with intimate character drama. To ensure that the narrative flowed seamlessly from chapter to chapter — beginning with the Arctic-set prologue and extending through the sections told from Victor’s and the Creature’s points of view — Schiff and the filmmaker considered the placement of the movie’s three title cards, the use of voiceover, and the right place in the narrative for landmark scenes, like the moment the Creature is created.

During post-production, Schiff and del Toro concentrated on perfecting the rhythm of the scenes, as well as the integration of sound cues and score. Schiff was unfailingly impressed by del Toro’s editorial instincts and the clarity of his vision. “He is very sensitive to figuring out what is being problematic in any given moment,” Schiff says. “As editors, we have lots of tricks. I like to say that we lie, cheat, and steal for a living. He is as good at lying, cheating, and stealing in editorial as anybody.”

Creature Design and Prosthetic Makeup – Mike Hill

To design and build his Creature, del Toro turned to veteran creature makeup designer and prosthetics master Mike Hill, continuing their lengthy and successful professional relationship. Hill’s designs helped transform actor Doug Jones into the regal Amphibian Man in 2017’s The Shape of Water, and conjure the carnival sideshow performers in 2021’s Nightmare Alley, among other del Toro projects.

Del Toro and Hill had frequently discussed their reverence both for the story of Frankenstein and the creature makeup worn by actor Boris Karloff in the classic 1931 adaptation by director James Whale. However, Hill deliberately resisted any obvious influences and hewed only to what the filmmaker had described in his script; the goal was to craft a beautiful monster unlike any that had been seen onscreen. “We agreed that we didn’t want all these garish wounds and stitching. Victor Frankenstein is not a butcher,” says Hill, who researched the surgical procedures of the era to better understand the tools that Frankenstein might have had at his disposal to fashion his Prometheus. “He’s trying to make the perfect man, so he wouldn’t make this thing look like a car accident. This was a sympathetic being.”

To prepare Elordi for his scenes as the newly incarnated Creature, Hill and his team of technicians, including prosthetics supervisor and hair stylist Megan Many, applied 42 separate prosthetic appliances to the actor. His head and shoulders alone required 12 separate, overlapping silicone rubber appliances. Additionally, Elordi’s eyebrows were glued down and a bald cap was placed over his hair. “I broke the makeup up along the actual cuts and stitches where Frankenstein put him together, so we had to go in like a jigsaw puzzle and fit [the appliances together] every time, which is very exacting,” Hill says.

Cinematography – Dan Laustsen

Frankenstein saw del Toro reunite with many of his frequent behind-the-scenes collaborators, including two-time Academy Award–nominee Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley). Laustsen employed the Arri Alexa 65 camera, ideal for large-format shooting, and he opted for more wide-angle lenses than on his previous del Toro productions. Diffusion filters were inserted inside the camera to create a specific sort of romantic image. “We can have deep blacks but still a kind of flare in the highlights,” Laustsen says. “It’s organic and beautiful.” 

Light and color are always vital elements in del Toro films, which often feature beautifully cool blues and warm arresting ambers, offset with heavy layers of shadow. Red is deployed strategically and carries important symbolic weight. Laustsen says he and del Toro opted for those “two sides of the color wheel” with Frankenstein, going from steel-blue cyan to deep, warm amber tones.

To illuminate the lavish sets created by Deverell, Laustsen returned to a more traditional approach that harkens back to his earliest collaboration with del Toro on 1997’s Mimic. He placed enormous lights outside the confines of the sets, allowing the actors to move around with ease and creating pathways for the sizable camera. Colored gels in front of the lights created the desired hue.

Notably, no lighting trickery was required for scenes involving the Creature, as Hill’s design was convincing enough that Laustsen could shoot Elordi’s monster as he would any other character. “The Creature feels like a normal person,” he says. “Mike did a similar thing on The Shape of Water with the [Amphibian Man]. It was a character. It didn’t require any special treatment.”

Christoph Waltz and producer J. Miles Dale on the making of Frankenstein.

Score – Alexandre Desplat

Frankenstein marks the fourth time that Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel) has teamed up with del Toro, an experience he describes as “a gift.” “He’s always open to trying things,” says Desplat. “Some directors are scared by music because it comes at the end, but Guillermo is always open to giving a little touch to the script.”

Del Toro’s openness encouraged Desplat to experiment, too. “I had to push myself to different pastures, further territories, [following] emotions that go from intimate and gentle to huge, passionate, lyrical, crazy, with twirling strings and organs, and an 80-piece choir,” he says. “This energy that Guillermo puts in his film, I tried to convey with the music.”

Desplat and his team worked with an orchestra and choir, church organs, and Norwegian solo violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and even added in very subtle electronic sounds here and there. “They give some gravitas sometimes to the orchestra,” he says. “Music can create so many colors, so many sensations, so many emotions. You can create depth of field just by having a larger orchestra in a scene, and then a smaller [one] in another scene.”

With dueling narratives and two distinct protagonists in Frankenstein and his Creature (Jacob Elordi), Desplat was often faced with the challenge of choosing between themes and motifs. But the composer says that scoring a film isn’t about marking every event or scene. “To have a good score,” Desplat says, “you have to find the soul of the film and create another dimension of sensation, of poetry, of spirituality, that follows the film and amplifies the emotions.”

Dialect coach Gerry Grennell and Felix Kammerer on the crafting performances in Frankenstein.

Casting – Robin D. Cook

Casting any film, and particularly a sprawling epic like Frankenstein, is part science, part alchemy — and all collaboration. Emmy-nominated casting director Robin D. Cook is well-versed in creating this type of potent mix alongside del Toro, with whom she has worked on films like Nightmare Alley, The Shape of Water, and Crimson Peak, and praises the director for his sensitivity and insight when it comes to assembling the perfect group of actors. “I come up with ideas,” Cook says, “Guillermo has the vision … He just has such an ability to marry the right actors together and to bring his vision to life.” 

For Frankenstein, many of those pieces were already in place; del Toro already knew he wanted Oscar Isaac to portray the brilliant, tortured doctor Victor Frankenstein. “Oscar is phenomenal,” says Cook, explaining why the director can help attract such incredible talent. “I’ve spoken to enough actors to know that they adore working with him because Guillermo gives them room. He’s an actor’s director.”

This also came in handy when it was time to cast Elordi as the Creature. It was important that Elordi — and all the actors — bring a timelessness to their roles. “When you’re casting periods, you know if somebody is too contemporary,” Cook says, “and you just know if it’s not that time period. Guillermo lets us know what he wants. He really wants interesting character faces, interesting actors, that don’t necessarily portray the contemporary feel of now. He was able to see that Jacob could bring the mystique, but also the sympathy that the Creature has.”

“If an actor auditions for me,” Cook says, “I will see the potential, but Guillermo can see the performance. He’s able to go a step further. He is always able to see the finished product, and it’s mind-blowing when you go to watch the actual film.”