Look, I know I’ve been badly burned before when it comes to remaking classic horror, and the cinematic road to bringing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the screen has often been paved with both hell and good intentions. More often than not, the monster’s not the only thing that’s been poorly stitched together.

But this time it feels different.

Which I know has likely cursed this entire endeavor, but here we go.

Guillermo del Toro is finally, finally, bringing his long-gestating version of Frankenstein to life via Netflix this coming November. Thanks to Vanity Fair’s preview last week, the first still images are here. They’re moody, brooding, and gloriously gothic, which warms my little black heart.

Del Toro, in his usual poetic flair, told Vanity Fair,

We are just doing a beautiful mass. The church is not built by us, but we are delivering a great, passionate, soul-searing sermon in that church.

He’s not trying to recreate Karloff’s monster or Wrightson’s lush illustrations, or even Shelley’s original vision. But he does bow to those horror royalty icons, saying,

Mary Shelley and Bernie Wrightson and Karloff are as important to me as my father and mother. They gave birth to who I am, period.

Cue thunderclap and violins.

At Netflix’s Tudum event, del Toro admitted this isn’t just another monster movie for him, it’s the monster movie.

This is, for me, the culmination of a journey that has occupied most of my life. I first read Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein as a kid and saw Boris Karloff in what became for me an almost religious state. Monsters have become my personal belief system.

So, what’s the story? You already know it, but it’s never looked like this. Victor Frankenstein, the brilliant, egotistical scientist, creates a living being from dead flesh, and from that blasphemous miracle comes pain, death, and the most heartbreaking meditation on what it means to be human.

Oscar Isaac (Dune) plays Victor, Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) steps into the monstrous role, and Mia Goth (the new patron saint of horror) plays Elizabeth. Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Ralph Ineson, Christian Convery, and Charles Dance round out the cast.

Also? It’s rated R for “bloody violence and grisly images,” which should surprise exactly no one.

Frankenstein hits Netflix in November 2025. Until then, light some candles, cue the pipe organ, and check out the official trailer.

The monster is coming home.