Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel is finally here—and it’s been a long time coming. In 2007, the director called the project something he’d “kill to make.” In 2017, he called Frankenstein “the pinnacle of everything.” And earlier this year, he said, “for me, it’s the Bible.” To tell Shelley’s tale, del Toro has cast Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his anguished creation. Del Toro is no stranger to nuanced portrayals of monsters (see The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth). “For me,” he once said, “only monsters hold the secrets I long for.” —Paulina Prosnitz