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Jacob Elordi, Kylie Jenner… Why is pop culture obsessed with Frankenstein?
2025 and 2026 will welcome two films that draw their inspiration from the universe of the English novelist Mary Shelley. First Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix, starring Jacob Elordi, then Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, starring Penélope Cruz. These upcoming releases are a chance for us to analyze the everlasting fascination for the myth of Frankenstein, which appealed to various celebrities, like Rina Sawayama, Emma Stone, Kylie Jenner and drag queen Paloma.
By Violaine Schütz.
It’s one of the best scenes in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, released in September 2024. Monica Bellucci plays the wicked ex-wife of the clownish exorcist and sucks the souls of humans. Later, she reassembles herself like a dismembered doll, stapling her limbs stored in boxes in the afterlife back on one by one.
From Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to Kylie Jenner, the myth of Frankenstein has never been so trendy
Resuscitated like that, Monica Bellucci appears like the corpse bride from Corpse Bride (2005) but above all, like Frankenstein’s monster – a fashionable figure.
Halloween 2022 already saw influencers and businesswomen Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian opting for the same costume as the bride of Frankenstein. Was offering a meta-reflection on the multiple surgical procedures the sisters have undergone their initial intent when dressing up as an altered creature? While we will never know whether or not their outfit was ironic, it certainly matches with the zeitgeist. The novel behind this cult myth has been fascinating pop culture for decades…
Emma Stone in Poor Things: a creature that reminds us of another one
There are countless cinematic references to Mary Shelley’s epistolary novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818). Films like Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Young Frankenstein (1974), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) by Kenneth Branagh, or Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie (2012) among others, have constantly revived the myth. But recently, the story of how Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, crafted a “monster” from dead flesh using electricity, seems more alive than ever.
Last January, Greek director Yórgos Lánthimos (The Favorite, The Lobster) offered a feminine rewriting of the myth of Frankenstein with his baroque feature Poor Things. Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone played the role of the creature brought back to life and patched up with a baby’s brain, while Willem Dafoe embodied the figure of the brilliant, yet mad and troubled surgeon.
Jacob Elordi plays the monster in a new adaptation of Frankenstein
This year, the great Guillermo del Toro is back with a new feature titled Frankenstein and set for release on Netflix on November 7th, 2025. The cast is quite impressive and include Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi in the role of the monster, which required a powerful on-screen presence, and Mia Goth (X, Pearl, MaXXXine).
This well-crafted production, presented at the Venice Film Festival, unfolds as follows: “Eastern Europe, 19th century. Doctor Pretorious, who is tracking down Frankenstein, who is believed to have died in a fire forty years earlier. His goal is to continue the experiments of Doctor Frankenstein, the monster’s creator.”
A female version of Frankenstein by Maggie Gyllenhaal
In March 2026, another film is set to overshadow Guillermo del Toro’s feature. The Bride! by actress and film director Maggie Gyllenhaal, starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Penélope Cruz, Annette Bening and Peter Sarsgaard. Inspired by the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, the storyline focuses on a dead young woman: “Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the help of Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two bring a murdered young woman back to life.”
In addition to that, an upcoming project by Romanian director Radu Jude starring Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) will be coming out soon. In the meantime, Lisa Frankenstein (2024) is available on Netflix and offers a teenage version of the myth. Directed by Zelda Williams and starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse, the film is set in 1989 as “a nerdy teenage girl accidentally brings back to life the corpse of a handsome young man from another time.”
Rina Sawayama, Paloma… The influence of Frankenstein in music
The story of Frankenstein has also been a source of inspiration for musicians. From Over at the Frankenstein Place (1975), sung by Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien and Susan Sarandon on the soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), to tracks by the New York Dolls, Death from Above, and Alice Cooper, the creature who escaped the mad scientist is everywhere.
In 2022, singer Rina Sawayama entitled one of her tracks Frankenstein and proclaimed: “I don’t wanna be a monster anymore.” She explained: “I’ve taken out the horror aspect of the story of Frankenstein. Prosaically, this song revolves around the idea of someone putting me back together and repairing me when I’m broken. I’m in pieces, only to be put back together by someone who reassembles the parts. It’s a very human and realistic experience of rebuilding and creating a new me. That’s why I sing, ‘I don’t want to be a monster anymore.’ At the same time, it’s pretty toxic to depend on someone to feel good, so these lyrics are a bit sad actually…”
Another recent Frankenstein reference? A few days ago, artist Paloma released the video for her track P.A.L.O.M.A. Directed alongside Rebeka Warrior and RAUMM, it hints at Mylène Farmer and the Bride of Frankenstein. It is no coincidence that queer artists, such as bisexual singer Rina Sawayama and drag queen Paloma, find inspiration in the fictional creature imagined by Mary Shelley.
Is Mary Shelley’s monster a queer icon?
Several academics and media have analysed why Mary Shelley’s novel, which she wrote at the age of 18, speaks so strongly to LGBT+ communities? The New Yorker asked that same question in the article “How Queer is Frankenstein”. On the one hand, there are numerous allusions to the hidden homosexuality of the mad scientist who gives birth to a creature without going through a heteronormative relationship.
On the other hand, the story of the creature being ostracized by villagers because of its difference resonates with the prejudices that queer people face. Besides, the fact that his soul doesn’t seem to align with his body can also mirror the issues faced by transgender people.
Despite the uncanny modernity of this 1818 novel, one has to keep in mind that the original tale is the revenge story of someone who was considered a freak because he didn’t fit in. Victor Frankenstein abandoned his “child” because he thought he was hideous. Except that the child was gifted with intelligence and eventually turned against his creator and the society that rejected him. In that sense, his life is a parable about otherness, and a symbol of the minorities’ struggle to be accepted (and loved) as they are.
Frankenstein (2025) by Guillermo del Toro, coming out on Netflix on November 7th, 2025. The Bride! by Maggie Gyllenhaal, coming out in theatres on March 4th, 2025.
