Like its Creature, Guillermo del Toro’s new take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is still new to the world but has been on a quest for the love that it didn’t universally find when it premiered at the autumn festivals. But after a couple of weeks in cinemas, it’s now lurching powerfully onto Netflix with a groundswell of affection behind it – and the beginnings of real Oscar buzz. We’ve loved it from day one and can’t wait to bathe again in its ornate, handcrafted world-building, gothic aura and gory slabs of body horror.
The movie’s use of real-world locations and extraordinary sets are a major treat, too. Oscar-nominated production designer Tamara Deverell talks us through how – and where – del Toro’s sweeping horror passion project came together.
What is Netflix’s Frankenstein about?
The Nightmare Alley director’s Frankenstein is not, of course, the first to spark onto the screen. Wikipedia places the number of feature films featuring some version of the stitched-together monster at 423, ranging from Boris Karloff's iconic 1931 interpretation to the 1990 horror-comedy Frankenhooker.
The story, of course, follows conceited scientist Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) efforts to create new life – and the dire consequences of his success.
Del Toro’s version is a more faithful version than most – in spirit, if not always plot and location. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novella is a travelogue that spans Europe, from Italy and Switzerland to the Orkney isles in Scotland narrative bookends set in the polar regions. For Netflix’s new Frankenstein, Scotland, England and Canada filled in.
‘We were playing Edinburgh for Edinburgh,’ says Deverell. ‘Everything else was kind of “it could be anywhere” and we got very non-specific. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein reads like a travelogue: the Frankenstein villa is in Switzerland and then he travels through [Europe]. I kept trying to map it out with Guillermo and eventually I was just like: “You know what, this is fantasy.” I kind of let it go after a while. It’s the tale you’re telling.’
Where was Frankenstein filmed?
Location scouting initially took the production team to the Czech Republic and Hungary, before Scotland was settled upon as the hero location. ‘Mostly’, says Deverell, ‘because Mary Shelley spent so much time there and it's so evocative of her Frankenstein’. Toronto’s sound stages used for Frankenstein’s massive sets and England’s country piles helped piece together its 19th century country piles.
The Edinburgh scenes were filmed on the Royal Mile
Del Toro and his cast and crew spent two weeks in Edinburgh’s bustling Royal Mile in September 2024. ‘It was the height of the tourist season and, honestly, it was packed,’ remembers Deverell. Canongate’s Bakehouse Close, a spot close to every Outlander fan’s heart, was used as the blood-soaked alley leading into Harlander’s house, while the cobbled square outside St Giles was redressed as the 1800s marketplace Victor strides through en route to church. ‘There no way to use a lorry, so it’d be the set decorator, some of the crew and me carrying benches and books and stuff from one end of The Royal Mile to the other,’ says Deverell.
The most striking moment comes when Victor attends a public execution in search of body parts. The gallows were constructed on Lady Stair's Close across the Royal Mile. ‘We had to do some visual effects to take out the wires, and we did mask one wall behind the gallows, which had graffiti and modern windows,’ says the production designer. ‘Other than that, it was 360 degrees of pure history.’
The Creature washes up on Seacliff beach, North Berwick
The white sands, rockpools and rocky escarpments of this Scottish beach were used for the scenes when the Creature escapes a clifftop inferno. ‘When we took Guillermo to the beach at Seacliff, he found his movie there,’ says Deverell. ‘He was like: ”Oh, this is it. I can see the tower [here].” We used VFX to put the miniature tower in behind the creature.’ It’s a private beach but you can visit for a small car park fee.
The Frankenstein house exteriors were filmed at Gosford House, East Lothian
Fittingly, the Frankensteins’ giant country mansion is actually four separate houses seamlessly grafted together: Gosford and Dunecht houses in Scotland, and Burghley and Wilton houses in England. ‘Gosford was our main exterior and you can see its double staircase in the wedding scene’, says Deverell. ‘It has beautiful grounds – we did the butterfly park scene there and blanketed the entire front lawn with snow – and we used the original coach house for the exterior of our silversmith.’
The Frankenstein library was shot at Dunecht House in Aberdeen
A young Victor is chided by his strict father in a scene set in the Frankenstein family’s ornate library. The sequence was filmed in Dunecht, a private home in Aberdeenshire, and required a major re-dress. ‘[When we got there] they were using it to skateboard – it was just kids’ toys and red walls with no shelves,’ says Deverell. ‘We had build all the shelves.’
Harlander’s home is Hospitalfield House outside Dundee
Frankenstein is the first movie to film at this historic house-turned-arts centre, which plays Harlander’s home on screen. ‘The biggest challenge is explaining what we do,’ says Deverell. ‘It's like having a party of 150 people in your house for five days with giant cranes outside the windows. It's also an artists’ residency, and it was really nice to give our money to something that supports the arts. Guillermo spent time with some of the young artists there.’
📍How to visit Hospitalfield House
The confessional scene was filmed in Glasgow Cathedral
In one scene a flirtatious Victor pursues Elizabeth (Mia Goth) into a church confessional booth. Glasgow Cathedral provides the interior setting, although shots of inside the confessional itself proved more fiddly. ‘We couldn’t shoot the whole scene in the church that day,’ says Deverell, ‘so we transported it to Gosford House and set it up in the ballroom’.
The Frankenstein family cemetery was filmed at Wilton House, Wiltshire
As an acolyte of Stanley Kubrick, Guillermo del Toro had a ball filming the Frankenstein dining room and cemetery in this historic west country pile. ‘Barry Lyndon was shot there and he was in awe,’ says Deverell.
Burghley House stood in for Harlander’s dining room and Victor’s mother’s bedroom
This grand 16th-century English country house in Lincolnshire is rich in moviemaking lore, having been used in Pride & Prejudice (2005) and The Da Vinci Code, as well as Netflix’s The Crown. Deverell took particular inspiration from the murals by 17th century French painter Louis Laguerre in Burghley’s Bow Room.
📍How to visit Burghley House
The ice-bound ship was built and filmed on set in Toronto, Canada
‘We built the ship in the parking lot outside the [Netflix] studio,’ says Deverell of the film’s bookending scenes set in the Farthest North. ‘The ship was 130 feet long by 30 feet wide and we built hundreds of feet of ice around it with fake snow and icebergs. The real view from the ship deck was of downtown Toronto. That's the magic of visual effects!’
The dog sled chase was filmed on Lake Nipissing, Canada
A few other Canadian locations feature, too. The mill house was built outside of Toronto, and the sequence with the dog sled was shot on Lake Nipissing to the north of the city. ‘It was a kind of melty while we were shooting, so we had to keep testing the ice,’ says Deverell.
Who are the cast of Guillermo del Toro’s new movie?
Star Wars’ Oscar Isaac plays questing, conceited scientist Victor Frankenstein (Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery plays him as a boy), while Saltburn and Elvis’s Jacob Elordi is his creation, Mary Shelley’s Creature. Mia Goth is Lady Elizabeth Harlander, fiancée of Victor’s brother William (All Quiet on the Western Front’s Felix Kammerer), and Christoph Waltz plays her uncle, arms dealer and scientific benefactor Henrich Harlander.
Charles Dance is Victor’s cruel father Baron Leopold Frankenstein and Goth has a second role as his mother, Baroness Claire. Game of Thrones’ David Bradley is the kindly Blind Man who takes the Creature into his cabin. The bookending scenes aboard the icebound ship feature Lars ‘brother of Mads’ Mikkelsen as the fair-minded Captain Anderson.
When and where can I watch Frankenstein in 2025?
Frankenstein is in select cinemas now and streams on Netflix worldwide from Nov 7.
Is there a trailer?
There is – watch it below.
Find out where Frankenstein lands on our list of the best films of 2025.
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