Don’t expect to see bolts sticking out of Jacob Elordi‘s head. The new trailer for Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein, which hits select theaters Oct. 17 before streaming on Netflix Nov. 7, finally shows off Elordi’s pale, crazy-quilt look as Frankenstein’s monster — which veers away from vintage depictions of the creature, instead sticking closer to Mary Shelley’s original descriptions in her 1818 novel.
The trailer opens with Elordi’s guttural voiceover, which promises a film from the monster’s point of view: “My maker told his tale. And I will tell you mine.” From there, the footage follows the creature on a violent quest to confront Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein, showing him attacking a ship frozen in Arctic ice, stalking through gunfire, and chasing his creator through gothic ballrooms and dark dungeons. Along the way, the narrative emphasizes the creature’s tragic humanity. “If you are not to award me love, then I will indulge in rage,” he tells Victor.
Del Toro’s version sets the story against the backdrop of the Crimean War, with the creature assembled from battlefield casualties. Elordi spent up to 10 hours per session in the makeup chair and worked 18-hour days in full prosthetics. To develop the creature’s physicality, he studied butoh, a Japanese avant-garde dance form, and for the voice, he listened to Mongolian throat singing, according to Variety.
“Nobody would come near me,” Elordi told Variety. “I needed water, but nobody approached me because the makeup looked so angry.”
The cast also includes Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, Charles Dance, and David Bradley.
Frankenstein has been a passion project for del Toro since 2007, when he first announced plans to adapt what he’s called his “favorite novel in the world.” Andrew Garfield was originally cast as the creature but dropped out in January 2024 due to scheduling conflicts. Del Toro had already spent nine months designing Garfield’s look and had just nine weeks to redesign everything for the taller Elordi.
From Rolling Stone US
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