Frankenstein (2025) has taken over social media and has made its way into the Latinx community. For many, Guillermo del Toro’s version did not disappoint; the film adaptation of the classic novel stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the creature. Del Toro is a Mexican filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer, known for his captivating films with tones of goth and horror that question societal norms.  The film explores many of Del Toro’s distinctive traits of alluring imagery, religious themes and empathizing with the “monster” when the true villains of the story are humans.  

The film focuses on Victor Frankenstein, a lost son with a distant father and an ambitious scientist who brings a mysterious creature to life. The start of the creature’s life is what slowly makes Frankenstein spiral with belonging, obsession and becoming what he feared the most. The film beautifully captures what many Latinx viewers feel in their own lives; Catholic Guilt, becoming the golden child and the child who does not feel like they belong. Many Latinx people have shared experiences of feeling like an outcast not just in society but in their own homes, wanting to figure out who they are but being forced into stereotypes. In a statement, Oscar Isaac mentions feeling like an outsider especially entering an industry that has continuously casted him as a limited idea of a Latino man.  

Representation is important; this film does not only resonate with Hispanic College of the Sequoias students but also those who have felt stuck with their own identity as the film follows the journey of finally belonging even in the face of rejection. Del Toro’s take on Frankenstein is a beautiful gothic-horror full of emotional themes, inheriting a traumatic cycle of abuse between generations but ultimately ending the cycle with forgiveness.