Guillermo del Toro Says He's 'Not Doing a Horror Movie' With Frankenstein: 'It's an Emotional Story For Me'

If you were expecting scares from Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein film, it’s clip to temper your expectations. In fact, according to the antheral himself, this is acold from a fearfulness movie — it’s an “emotional story.”

“Somebody asked maine the different day, does it person truly scary scenes?” del Toro explained during a Cannes Film Festival speech with composer Alexandre Desplat. “For the archetypal time, I considered that. It’s an affectional communicative for me. It’s arsenic idiosyncratic arsenic anything. I’m asking a question astir being a father, being a son… I’m not doing a fearfulness movie — ever. I’m not trying to bash that.”

Desplat besides noted that the film’s people volition complement the tonal scenery del Toro acceptable retired to achieve. “Guillermo’s cinema is precise lyrical, and my euphony is alternatively lyrical too,” helium said. “So I deliberation the euphony of Frankenstein volition beryllium thing precise lyrical and emotional… I’m not trying to constitute horrific music.”

Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein movie is not a fearfulness movie. Photo by Ken Woroner.

According to Variety, the brace person yet to decorativeness the film’s score, but things bash look to beryllium moving successful a symbiotic direction. “We’re uncovering the emotion,” del Toro revealed of their progress. “And what I tin accidental is, for me, it’s an incredibly affectional movie.”

At this point, del Toro is known for crafting a profound consciousness of empathy toward othered characters, truthful ultimately, it makes consciousness that helium would privation to instrumentality that attack with 1 of the astir misunderstood fearfulness icons of each time. “In The Shape of Water, the carnal is frightening during the archetypal 15 minutes and past becomes a precise moving character,” Desplat explained during the conversation. In response, del Toro spoke of a classical movie infinitesimal that made him privation to archer these kinds of stories.

“The archetypal clip I thought I was going to avenge the carnal was erstwhile Marilyn Monroe is coming retired [of the movies] successful The Seven Year Itch with Tom Ewell, and she says the carnal conscionable needed idiosyncratic to similar him,” del Toro revealed. “I fell successful emotion with Marilyn, and I fell successful emotion with the carnal successful that country astatine a precise aboriginal age. And I thought, you know, each we person is radical that look astatine radical the incorrect way. That’s what we person successful this world.”

Frankenstein, which is acceptable to beryllium released connected Netflix successful November of this year, is an adaptation of the classical 1818 Mary Shelley caller and stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Ralph Ineson. Though we should expect the movie successful November, it inactive does not person an authoritative day connected the books conscionable yet. TBD connected that one, but we’re excited to spot what del Toro has up his sleeve aft 20 years of development.

Photo by Ken Woroner.

Lex Briscuso is simply a movie and tv professional and a freelance amusement writer for IGN. You tin travel her connected Twitter astatine @nikonamerica.