Filmmaker and Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro finally got to direct his lifelong dream project, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s legendary horror classic, Frankenstein. The Netflix film is simply dripping in macabre splendor. And that includes the gothic dialogue from Shelley’s original 1818 novel, reinterpreted for modern day by del Toro. The Shape of Water director got some A-list thespians to read these lines, notably Oscar Isaac as Dr. Frankenstein. As part of the promotional push for Frankenstein, which just arrived on Netflix, Isaac read passages aloud from Shelley’s book. And you can watch it down below:
Many have put their stamp on the role of Dr. Frankenstein before. Among them are Kenneth Branagh in the 1990s, and, of course, Colin Clive in 1931. Yet Oscar Isaac definitely put his own unique spin on the character. He makes Victor Frankenstein quite sympathetic, despite being a raging egomaniac with a propensity for cruelty. It’s also just hard to hate Oscar Isaac in a movie, no matter who he’s playing. As he reads Shelley’s words, the split screen shows him acting out the passages he’s reading from the book. Hearing these words, we’re reminded that a brilliant teenage girl created the sci-fi genre. And she popularized Gothic horror at the same time. Queen behavior.
Now that Frankenstein is out, del Toro recently mentioned his desire to tackle another Gothic masterpiece. And no, it’s not Dracula. He actually wants to do a version of The Phantom of the Opera. Maybe we see Oscar Isaac in the titular role of the deadly Phantom someday? We certainly think he would kill it in the part, no pun intended. In the meantime, you can watch Oscar Isaac’s iconic mad scientist bring Jacob Elordi’s undead (but kinda sexy?) monster alive in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which is currently streaming on Netflix.