FRANKENSTEIN

MONSTER SQUAD

THIS TIME, IT’S PERSONAL… GUILLERMO DEL TORO HAS FINALLY REALISED HIS LIFELONG DREAM OF MAKING FR ANK ENSTEIN. SFX VISITS THE SET TO ASK THE MEXICAN AUTEUR AND HIS LEAD ACTORS OSCAR ISAAC, JACOB ELORDI, MIA GOTH AND CHRISTOPH WALTZ ABOUT BRINGING LIFE TO THE ULTIMATE CREATURE FEATURE

WORDS: JAMIE GRAHAM

CHARLES DANCE IS tucking into a third boiled egg. He’s seated at the head of a long dining table in a stately room, the high walls adorned with imposing oil paintings and an eight-foot mirror with a golden frame. Outside it’s a blazing morning, but inside the atmosphere is rather dismal, with heavy velvet curtains drawn across the trio of floor-to-ceiling windows. Bewigged servants encircle the table at a respectful distance. They’re silent and still, careful not to interrupt Dance’s small grunts of joy as he slurps at a spoonful of egg. Likewise, the young boy sat to Dance’s right is prudently respectful, eating his own boiled egg with no words and a minimum of movement.

Oscar Isaac makes the cut as Victor Frankenstein.

Charles Dance plays the role of Victor’s uptight father.

Dance, playing Leopold Frankenstein, tugs at his ear and then inserts a finger for a vigorous wriggle. Perturbed, he works a handkerchief from a pocket and dabs at his ear, his nose. It comes away speckled with blood. Reaching for his water glass, he gulps once, twice, then offers a stern instruction flecked with panic: “Get my medical bag.” A servant scurries from the room as Dance goes to stand, but instead slumps forward. The boy seated beside him calmly eats his egg. The only change in his demeanour is the slightest flicker of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

“Call 911! That was pretty goddamn good!” calls Guillermo del Toro from the corner of the room. The Mexican director is dressed all in black and peers at a handheld monitor through thick spectacles. Like everyone else huddled in the corner of the room, SFX included, his feet are covered in blue, slip-on shoe bags with elasticated ankles, giving the impression of a team of forensic experts arriving at a crime scene. “Dan?” asks del Toro, and Dan Laustsen, his DoP on Nightmare Alley, The Shape Of Water, Crimson Peak and Mimic, says, “Very nice.” To which del Toro responds that they should go again.

Victor reflects on his rather monstrous actions.

Tucking into a fourth boiled egg, Dance repeats his actions. Only this time, the boy – 15-year-old actor Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth, The Monkey), playing Leopold’s son, Victor – incrementally widens his gleaming eyes. “Cut and print!” bellows del Toro, his own eyes shining. “Hahaha! That was great, man!”

CREATURE COMFORT

The location is Wilton House in Salisbury, and the date is 26 September 2024, the penultimate day of a 100-day shoot that began on 12 February in Toronto. But bringing Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus to the screen began, for del Toro, long before that.

PICTURES: KEN WORONER/NETFLIX

Some might point to 2007, when he eulogised a script written by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist) and floated the idea of casting his regular monster-man of choice, Doug Jones (Mimic, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) as the creature. Others might go back to 1992, when the writer/director made his feature debut with the elegant Spanish-language vampire movieCronos, and first told journalists of his great love for Gothic cinema and literature, namechecking Shelley’s novel and James Whale’s 1931 film adaptation as favourites. But really you need to go all the way back to del Toro’s childhood in the early ’70s to discover his journey’s beginning.