Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein isn’t just another retelling – it feels like a rebirth of the story. Known for giving monsters emotional depth and creating worlds where beauty and horror blend together, del Toro turns Mary Shelley’s gothic novel into a tragic and heartfelt epic.
His version is still about life and death, but it also explores love, war, generational trauma, and the true meaning of being human.
While he keeps a few parts from Shelley’s book, he doesn’t follow it closely. He changes the setting, characters, and even some themes.
He reimagines the Creature not as a warning, but as a mirror of humanity. The result is completely in his style – beautiful, poetic, and full of empathy. With new characters and different endings, del Toro turns Shelley’s classic into something timeless.
Here are the 9 biggest changes Guillermo del Toro made to Frankenstein – and how they make his version stand out from every other adaptation.
9. Time and War Setting Shift
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Shelley set the story in the late 1700s. Del Toro moves it about 60 years forward to the Crimean War (1853–1856). With so many soldiers dying, Victor now has constant access to bodies, unlike in the book where he relies on grave robbers because medical schools didn’t have enough cadavers.
This change adds more than plot. It brings in themes of war that del Toro explored in The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. Setting the story during a war allows him to comment on repeating violence, dangerous ambition, and the cruelty of empire.
The destruction caused by humans mirrors Victor’s obsession with creating life. His scientific work becomes a reflection of a world already trying to control life and death.
8. The Introduction of Henrich Harlander
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In Shelley’s book, Victor works alone, driven only by his own ego. Del Toro adds a new character, Henrich Harlander — the movie’s only fully original major character. Victor impresses him with a passionate speech at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and Harlander funds his research and laboratory.
Later, we learn that Harlander is dying of syphilis and wants his brain placed into the Creature after death. His desire for immortality reflects modern billionaires searching for ways to live forever. As a wealthy arms dealer, he also represents today’s war profiteers, with del Toro criticizing the business of war and weapons.
7. Big Changes to the Frankenstein Family and Victor’s Backstory
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In the novel, Victor’s father is Alphonse Frankenstein, a gentle former public official who supports his family and lives long into Victor’s life. Victor’s mother is named Caroline and dies of scarlet fever, not childbirth. The family also includes another child, Ernest, and William is only a young boy.
Del Toro changes the father’s name to Leopold and completely reshapes his character. Leopold is a surgeon and a cruel, demanding, and abusive parent. Instead of guiding Victor, he twists his view of the world, teaching him that ambition and power are all that matter. This harsh upbringing leads Victor to become a terrible father to the Creature.
6. An Altered Role for Elizabeth
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Elizabeth, played by Mia Goth, is also very different from the book. In the film, she is Harlander’s niece and William’s fiancée, briefly forming a love triangle with the Frankenstein brothers.
In Shelley’s story, Elizabeth is an orphan adopted by the Frankensteins — either a cousin or a peasant girl, depending on the version. She grows up as Victor’s adopted sister and future wife. She is not named Harlander but Lavenza.
Book Elizabeth has little independence, but del Toro gives her depth, intelligence, and personality. This version feels inspired by Mary Shelley herself — curious, bold, and outspoken. She grows to despise Victor, unlike the book where she loves him. Her affection for the Creature is also unique to del Toro’s version.
5. The Absence of Henry Clerval and Justine Moritz
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Two important characters from the book are missing: Henry Clerval and Justine Moritz.
Henry is Victor’s childhood friend who stays loyal throughout the story. He represents human connection and nature, contrasting Victor’s isolation and ambition. In the novel, the Creature murders Henry, deeply hurting Victor.
Justine Moritz, another key character, is a girl the Frankenstein family adopted from poverty. She is falsely accused and executed for William’s murder, which was actually committed by the Creature. Victor stays silent, showing his cowardice. Her death symbolizes injustice and deepens Victor’s guilt.
4. Some Changes Were Made to the Old Man
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Most Frankenstein versions include the blind old man the Creature befriends. In del Toro’s film, he has no name, but in Shelley’s book, he is De Lacey, the head of a French family the Creature secretly watches.
In the novel, De Lacey doesn’t teach the Creature to read and speak. The Creature learns from observing the family as they teach Safie, a Turkish woman engaged to De Lacey’s son.
Eventually, the Creature approaches De Lacey, who accepts him kindly. But when the family returns unexpectedly, they react in terror. In the book, the old man survives, and there are no wolves.
Del Toro adds the emotional moment to show the Creature’s humanity and loneliness.
3. Victor Doesn’t Work on a Companion for the Creature
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In the book, after the Creature kills William, he demands a female companion. He doesn’t want to live alone and believes a “bride” will give him happiness. Victor agrees at first and begins creating her.
But before finishing, he destroys her out of fear — fear of her personality, fear of them reproducing, and fear of creating more monsters. The Creature becomes enraged and kills Elizabeth on Victor’s wedding night.
In the movie, the Creature also asks for a companion, but Victor refuses from the start and never tries to make one. Instead, Elizabeth briefly becomes a symbolic “Bride” before her tragic death.
2. Del Toro’s Creature Becomes a Symbol of Compassion
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While the Creature in Shelley’s book is sympathetic, he still commits murders out of loneliness, rage, and hatred for humanity. After reading Paradise Lost, he identifies with Satan — abandoned, angry, and full of despair.
Del Toro takes a different approach. His Creature is more like a Christ figure.
This is shown through symbols — the cross-shaped table, the red vial resembling the Sacred Heart, and Elizabeth touching his wounds like in Stom’s painting The Incredulity of St. Thomas.
Narratively, the Creature in the film kills only by accident or in self-defense. His life is filled with suffering, and those who truly see him — the blind man and Elizabeth — recognize his pure heart. In the end, he even forgives Victor.
1. The Film’s Ending Takes a Different Approach
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The book ends in the Arctic. Victor dies before ever facing the Creature again, still full of hate. He asks Captain Walton to continue his revenge. When the Creature arrives, he mourns Victor and expresses guilt before planning to burn himself.
Del Toro changes this completely. In the movie, Victor and the Creature finally meet on the ship and share a long overdue moment of truth. Victor admits his guilt and shows real affection for the Creature, calling him “son” as he dies. He tells him that if he cannot die, he must live. The final shot shows the Creature embracing the sunlight — the symbol of life Victor once described to him.