Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) creates his Creature (Jacob Elordi) in 'Frankenstein' (2025).Image via Netflix
By
Hannah Hunt
Published 9 hours ago
Back in 2021, Hannah’s love of all things nerdy collided with her passion for writing — and she hasn’t stopped since. She covers pop culture news, writes reviews, and conducts interviews on just about every kind of media imaginable. If she’s not talking about something spooky, she’s talking about gaming, and her favorite moments in anything she’s read, watched, or played are always the scariest ones. For Hannah, nothing beats the thrill of discovering what’s lurking in the shadows or waiting around the corner for its chance to go bump in the night. Once described as “strictly for the sickos,” she considers it the highest of compliments.
Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapFrankenstein endures because every generation finds something new in it. Mary Shelley wrote a story about creation, responsibility, and the terror of being abandoned by the person who made you, and those ideas have never stopped (and will never stop) feeling modern. The novel’s fears shift easily into any era: anxieties about scientific overreach, mistrust of institutions, grief, loneliness, and the need to be understood. Filmmakers return to Frankenstein again and again, not because they want to replicate the same imagery, but because the story acts as a mirror. It reveals what a culture finds frightening or vulnerable at a given moment, whether that fear takes the shape of a stitched-together monster or a lonely outcast trying to navigate suburbia.
The greatest Frankenstein adaptations do not simply recreate the book’s plot or rely on iconic visuals. They interrogate the relationship between creator and creation, challenge the limits of empathy, and explore what happens when a person is labeled a monster before they have a chance to define themselves. Some versions embrace its Gothic roots, others reinvent the myth entirely, but all of them speak to the same fundamental question at the heart of Shelley’s novel. What does it mean to make a living being, and what do we owe the things we bring into the world? Here are the 10 best adaptations of Shelley’s timeless tale, ranked.
10 ‘Depraved’ (2019)
A still from 'Depraved.'Image via IFC Midnight
Larry Fessenden’s modern interpretation relocates Frankenstein to contemporary Brooklyn, grounding the story in trauma, medical experimentation, and psychological fracture. The Creature’s development is slow and methodical, and the film pays close attention to how identity forms under the influence of others. His creator, a former military medic, is driven by a cocktail of idealism, guilt, and ambition, mirroring modern anxieties about technological overreach and moral clarity.
Fessenden’s choice to focus on the Creature’s fragmented memories adds a raw immediacy to his struggle for selfhood. Depraved is intimate and unsettling, proving that Shelley’s questions about responsibility and the human cost of creation remain as urgent now as they were two centuries ago.
9 ‘Frankenweenie’ (2012)
Tim Burton’s stop-motion reimagining translates the Frankenstein myth through the emotional lens of childhood. Victor’s resurrection of his dog Sparky reframes the act of creation as a tender expression of grief rather than ambition. Yet the film never shies away from Shelley’s warnings. When other children mimic Victor’s experiment, the story expands into a playful but pointed commentary on responsibility, influence, and the unpredictable consequences of scientific curiosity.
The visual design blends charm with melancholy, drawing heavily from classic monster films without feeling derivative. Frankenweenie succeeds because it makes Shelley’s themes accessible without simplifying them. It is a study in how innocence, loss, and love can collide with forces greater than a child can understand.
8 ‘Penny Dreadful’ (2014–2016)
Penny Dreadful offers one of the most faithful emotional interpretations of Shelley’s novel by giving the Creature room to speak in his own voice. Rory Kinnear’s Caliban is eloquent, pained, and introspective, capturing the poetic articulation Shelley originally gave him. His journey is a haunting exploration of longing, rage, and the desire to be seen. Victor, played with fragile brilliance by Harry Treadaway, is a man whose intelligence far outpaces his emotional development, resulting in decisions that leave ruin in their wake.
The series uses its ensemble and slow-burn structure to explore trauma, addiction, obsession, and the cost of believing one can control life itself. Penny Dreadful became one of the most literate and psychologically rich interpretations of Frankenstein ever put to screen.
7 ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974)
Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is one of the rare comedies that functions as both parody and tribute. Shot in black and white and using original props from the 1931 film, it embraces the look and rhythm of classic Universal horror with meticulous care. Gene Wilder’s performance grounds the humor in genuine affection for the material, playing Frederick Frankenstein as a man torn between legacy and self-definition, while Peter Boyle’s Creature is surprisingly touching, revealing vulnerability beneath the comedic set pieces.
Rather than mocking the original story, Brooks highlights its humanity, demonstrating that Frankenstein’s emotional core can shine through even in moments of absurdity. The film endures not only because it is funny, but because it understands the myth deeply and respects its beating heart.
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Posts By Jeremy Urquhart Oct 13, 20256 ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957)
Christopher Lee as The Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)Image Via Warner Bros.
Hammer Films reinvented Frankenstein for the mid-twentieth century with a bold, colorful production that brought new intensity to the myth. Peter Cushing’s Victor Frankenstein is chilling in his calm certainty, a man whose brilliance obscures his moral collapse. This Victor is not driven by loss or grief but by ambition, making him one of the most unsettling adaptations of the character. Christopher Lee’s Creature, tall and imposing, shifts the focus toward physical threat, yet The Curse of Frankenstein never loses sight of the tragedy at its core.
Hammer’s lush production design, vibrant colors, and willingness to embrace brutality helped reinvigorate Gothic horror for an entire generation. It remains essential because it demonstrates how drastically Frankenstein can be reinterpreted without severing its thematic roots.
5 ‘Edward Scissorhands’ (1990)
Burton’s Edward Scissorhands reframes the Frankenstein myth as a romantic tragedy set against pastel suburbia. Edward is not stitched together from corpses, but he is still the unfinished creation of a lonely inventor, thrust into a community that does not know what to do with him. The film uses suburbia’s artificial cheerfulness as a stage for cruelty disguised as politeness. Johnny Depp’s performance, measured in small movements and hesitant glances, communicates a deep yearning to be accepted. Burton’s visual world heightens this contrast, giving Edward a Gothic fragility that makes the neighborhood’s hostility even sharper.
As the community turns on him, the film reflects Shelley’s core message: monsters are often created by the society that fails them.
Edward’s tragedy lies not in his hands but in the human desire to categorize difference as danger. It remains one of the most emotionally accessible Frankenstein reinterpretations because it invites viewers to empathize with the outsider long before the world rejects him.
4 ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’ (1994)
The creature, played by Robert De Niro, reading a book in 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'Image via TriStar Pictures
Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein remains one of the most passionate attempts to bring the novel to the screen. Rather than leaning into the cold Gothic minimalism of earlier adaptations, Branagh embraces operatic excess, presenting a world of grand emotions, swirling violence, and heightened theatricality. Robert De Niro’s Creature is the film’s anchor, providing a haunting interpretation that captures the novel’s mix of eloquence, fury, and profound loneliness. Branagh, directing himself as Victor, amplifies the character’s recklessness and self-delusion, turning him into a figure torn apart by grief and unchecked ambition.
The film’s intensity is both its strength and its source of debate. Its sweeping scale, bold performances, and ornate production design make it impossible to ignore, and its willingness to lean into the novel’s emotional extremes gives it a specificity few adaptations attempt. Imperfect but undeniably sincere, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein stands as one of the most significant modern interpretations of the text, a film that wears its heart, flaws, and devotion openly on its sleeve.
3 ‘Frankenstein’ (2025)
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein arrived with the weight of decades of anticipation and somehow exceeded the expectations surrounding it. The film reflects his lifelong fascination with misunderstood creatures, but it also marks one of his most emotionally direct works. Del Toro approaches Shelley’s narrative with reverence while refusing to be constrained by it, crafting a version of the story that feels both mythic and intimate. The Creature (Jacob Elordi) is rendered with striking physical presence and expressive nuance, a blend of practical effects and performance that emphasizes his vulnerability over spectacle. Victor (Oscar Isaac), meanwhile, is no longer a stock archetype but a man undone by ambition, longing, and the moral cost of his choices.
What sets this adaptation apart is del Toro’s focus on connection. The bond between creator and creation becomes a tragic, deeply human relationship shaped by fear, hope, and inevitability. The film’s visual language, steeped in Gothic detail and beauty, reinforces the emotional weight of every encounter. By the time the story reaches its final confrontation, del Toro has transformed a familiar myth into a reflection on empathy, responsibility, and the pain of trying to love something you do not understand. It stands as one of the most definitive cinematic visions of Frankenstein to date.
2 ‘Frankenstein’ (1931)
The original Universal classic has cast an enormous shadow over nearly every horror film that followed it. Whale distilled Shelley’s ideas into stark, unforgettable imagery, crafting a vision that became synonymous with the monster itself. Boris Karloff’s performance is the emotional anchor, using small gestures and careful physicality to express confusion, curiosity, and fear.
His portrayal blurs the line between victim and threat, capturing the exact contradiction that makes the Creature compelling.
The laboratory sequences, with their crackling machinery and blinding arcs of electricity, became permanent fixtures in the collective imagination. Whale’s pacing gives the entire film a feverish, dreamlike quality, making every scene feel both intimate and theatrical. Even modern adaptations that attempt to redefine or subvert the myth owe something to this film’s monumental aesthetic influence.
1 ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ (1935)
Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein remains the gold standard for cinematic reinterpretations of Shelley’s novel. Rather than simply expanding the first film, Whale builds a world where terror, humor, tragedy, and longing coexist in a way that feels startlingly modern. Karloff’s Creature gains new emotional layers, learning speech and confronting the painful realization that companionship will never come easily for him. Elsa Lanchester’s Bride, though on screen for only minutes, became one of the most iconic figures in horror history.
The film’s visual style blends expressionist shadows with operatic flourishes, resulting in one of the most influential genre films ever made. Whale’s willingness to embrace vulnerability and dark comedy adds a human complexity that continues to shape how filmmakers approach monsters today.
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Bride of Frankenstein
Like Follow Followed 17+ Horror Release Date April 22, 1935 Runtime 75minutes Director Bill Condon Writers David KoeppCast
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