By Michaela Gordoni
Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN took Netflix’s No. 1 English-language film spot with 29.1 million views on Tuesday.
The R-rated flick went No. 1 in 72 countries and was in the top 10 among 93 countries.
“Seeing people embracing FRANKENSTEIN in the way I have for over 50 years now is really meaningful,” del Toro told Deadline. “I’ve seen an outpouring of love, with many sharing with me about their repeat viewing, both in the 600 sold out screenings and now globally on Netflix. This is a film I’ve carried with me my entire life, and to see it resonate so deeply with audiences around the world is a really full circle moment.”
This is the second movie the director has done for Netflix, the first being PINOCCHIO.
Movieguide®’s review of FRANKENSTEIN reads, “FRANKENSTEIN is a lavish, stylish, powerful and well-acted production. It has many dramatic, exciting and touching scenes, with lots of action. Even better, it has a strong Christian, moral worldview showing the healing power of compassion and forgiveness.”
“Everything leads to a beautiful redemptive ending that’s inspiring and memorable. However, FRANKENSTEIN has lots of strong and very strong violence,” the review continued. “The creature attacks people, people shoot the creature, two wolf packs attack animals and people, and Victor Frankenstein assembles bloody body parts. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.”
For del Toro, FRANKENSTEIN isn’t a story about science and experiments.
“The usual discourse of Frankenstein has to do with science gone awry,” del Toro told Variety in August. “But for me, it’s about the human spirit. It’s not a cautionary tale: It’s about forgiveness, understanding and the importance of listening to each other.”
Variety interviewed Julie Carlson, an English professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an expert on the British Romantic period and the Wollstonecraft-Godwin-Shelley family, for her thoughts on the movie.
“I do really like that he humanizes the Creature and does a lot more with face-to-face communication,” she said. “It’s almost like [French philosopher Emmanuel] Levinas in that way: when you behold the face of the other, you can’t murder them. But it skirts over some of the questions of responsibility that I think Mary Shelley already, even at 19, is wondering about.”
“People keep trying to shoot him [in the film], but it’s not like we are to fear him. And we are to fear him. It’s not because he’s ugly — but for Shelley, if you turn something loose in the world, that is fearful,” she said.
In the end, FRANKENSTEIN reminds viewers that true humanity lies in compassion, forgiveness and understanding.
Read Next: Is Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Actually A Solid Family Film?
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