Guillermo del Toro‘s latest genre film, Frankenstein, premiered on Netflix last week. The celebrated filmmaker has stated that this movie, which stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his monster, has been a lifelong passion of his.
This adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel once again explores the story of a scientist who successfully revives a cadaver, and the tragic events that follow. Now that the exploits of Victor Frankenstein are once again the talk of the town, I’d like to take some time to divert your attention away from all the movies featuring the creature and to highlight one of my favorite adaptations of the iconic monster tale.
There is a large slew of movies that center on the mad scientist and his creation, but there’s just one TV show that fits that bill — and, if you ask me, it is still one of the best Gothic horror series to ever hit the small screen: Penny Dreadful. If you’ve never seen the series, I highly suggest you pop over to Paramount Plus and add it to your watchlist right now.
Rory Kinnear stars in Penny Dreadful.
Named after penny dreadfuls — the serial fiction pamphlets that were popular in 19th-century Britain, which cost a penny per issue — the horror series, created by John Logan, hit television over a decade ago. One could easily describe the show as if the X-Men or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were centered around characters taken straight from the horror literature of the era.
Penny Dreadful has a stellar cast: Timothy Dalton, Eva Green, Billie Piper, Harry Treadaway, Josh Hartnett and Reeve Carney are at the top of their games. What other title, aside from, say, 1987’s The Monster Squad, brings together the likes of Dracula, the Wolfman, Dorian Gray and Dr. Henry Jekyll to battle the forces of evil? I can’t think of any.
Victor Frankenstein is here, too. And so is the monster he gives life to. Actor Rory Kinnear fills the giant shoes of Frankenstein’s creation; his performance is brutal, compassionate and downright beautiful.
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When you think of Frankenstein, Boris Karloff’s performance is probably the one most people think of. Since he graced the big screen in the original Frankenstein movie, released by Universal Pictures in 1931, the legend of the lumbering creature has endured throughout pop culture for nearly a century. But if you look at Mary Shelley’s description of the Frankenstein Monster, you’ll see drastic differences in how he’s been portrayed all this time.
Like Elordi’s take on the monster in del Toro’s latest feature, Shelley wrote the creature as being highly intelligent with lustrous black hair, pearly white teeth, large eyes and straight black lips.
You won’t see him like this in many titles, but this is how he is depicted in Penny Dreadful. Victor Frankenstein’s creation, as audiences have seen before, is a monster who possesses the capacity for doing good but turns to the proverbial dark side, driven by the aching loneliness brought on by the sheer otherness of his existence. He’s confined to the shadows and ostracized by society. He is a fitting reflection of his maker — a tortured outcast, in his own right.
Rory Kinnear stars in Penny Dreadful.
The monster is referred to as Caliban in the show, but the revived corpse eventually takes on the name John Clare, after the English poet, signifying the civilized and refined identity the monster yearns to embody.
Kinnear’s rendition of the character carries a wealth of emotional power that both cuts to the bone and tugs at the heartstrings. There’s a reason he takes the name of a poet, as we see his own penchant for beauty, empathy and compassion, as he pursues the one thing that makes us all human: connection.
But as much as he strives for love, Caliban carries violence with him everywhere he goes. It’s a visceral push-pull that keeps this iteration of the Frankenstein monster unpredictable, dangerous and unrelentingly rootworthy.
Yes, when I first watched Penny Dreadful, I absolutely rooted for Caliban to become John Clare, mind, body and soul. His sojourn to find agency lasts three seasons, and the conclusion of his character’s story is one of the more satisfying elements of the series. It’s left such a lasting impression on me that, whenever Frankenstein comes up in conversation, I immediately jump in and ask, “Have you watched Penny Dreadful?”
Well, have you? Because if the answer’s no, consider this your call to action. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a magnificent achievement in horror cinema and a beautiful depiction of Mary Shelley’s monster. I’m a fan of Karloff’s work, but Kinnear’s portrayal is my favorite version of the monster. When it comes down to it, there’s no other title, in my mind, that goes the Gothic distance than Penny Dreadful.
