Editorials
10 Easter Eggs in Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’
As a person who has been obsessed with all things Frankenstein for as long as I can remember, Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation was my most anticipated movie of the year. I am very pleased to say that it did not disappoint. Not only does it stay true to the spirit, if not entirely the letter, of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s original novel, but it also pays homage to the rich legacy of Frankenstein film adaptations. As an avid viewer of every Frankenstein film I can find, I was delighted by the various gems of the past that del Toro lovingly placed into his film. Most of these come from the Universal and Hammer eras, which is appropriate considering del Toro’s clear affection for these films and his neo-gothic visual instincts, which make Frankenstein a practically perfect marriage of subject and filmmaker.
Here are ten Easter Eggs I spotted while watching the film.
Krempe, Harlander, Pretorius, and Bernstein
During Victor’s demonstration before the Royal College of Medicine Disciplinary Tribunal, he names one of his rivals: Dr. Krempe. Now, Krempe appears briefly in the novel, but the character was expanded greatly for The Curse of Frankenstein and made Victor’s assistant, Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart). More substantial are the similarities between Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) and Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) from Bride of Frankenstein (1935). In fact, some outlets reported that Waltz would be playing Dr. Septimus Pretorius when his casting was first announced in 2023. Though the name changed in the years between this announcement and the film’s release, aspects of the character persisted to the final film. Most significantly, both characters engage Frankenstein in a kind of Faustian bargain that eventually leads to blackmail. Another parallel concerning Harlander is that his demise closely resembles that of Professor Bernstein (Paul Hardtmuth) in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), whose brain is damaged in a fall.
The Watchtower Laboratory
In the novel, Victor builds his creation in his apartment in Ingolstadt near the University. This was also true of the first screen adaptation of Frankenstein (1910), which mostly takes place in small spaces. That all changed in 1931 with James Whale’s vision of Frankenstein, which placed the doctor’s laboratory in an abandoned watchtower. This aesthetic was adapted by del Toro and his team with their own distinctive style, but was clearly inspired by the classic film. It is even set precariously on the edge of a cliff in a delicious nod to the classic Universal Monster movies. That the Creature (Jacob Elordi) is given life with a lightning strike rather than the mysterious and ambiguous method of the novel also strikes me as a tip of the hat to James Whale and the wizard behind the sparking, electric machines of his two Frankenstein films, Kenneth Strickfadden.
Windmills
As Victor (Oscar Isaac) gathers bodies from a battlefield for his creation, a number of burned-out windmills can be seen in the background that bear a striking resemblance to the one found in the climax of the 1931 film.
The Big Guy
Frankenstein is mostly a serious film, but there is a specific line, when Victor says, “the scale will make the work easier,” that made me laugh out loud. The Creature is almost always depicted as large, but this line struck me as a veiled and cheeky reference to Young Frankenstein (1974). In one of the many memorable exchanges from the film, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) reads from his grandfather’s diary and concludes that making the Creature of gigantic stature would “simplify everything.” Inga (Teri Garr) comments that the proportions of the Creature would all have to be increased in size. She pauses for a moment and says, “He would have an enormous schwanzstucker.” To which Fredrick answers, “That goes without saying.” Inga responds with an impressed “woof.” Igor (Marty Feldman) caps it all off with the line, “He’s going to be very popular.” Of course, I cannot confirm that del Toro intended this as a reference, but I’ll consider it to be nonetheless.
The Creature’s Costume
After he is first given life, the Creature wears clothing comprised mostly of bandages. This is not unusual and has appeared in some form in films including The Curse of Frankenstein and even The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). But the specific look of the costume in this section of the film is practically identical to the one seen on David Prowse in the underappreciated Hammer film The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). The film is a bit of an outlier in the Hammer cycle as it features Ralph Bates rather than Peter Cushing as the Baron, is directed by Jimmy Sangster rather than Terence Fisher, and is more of a dark comedy than the other films in the franchise. That said, the look of the Monster in that film is striking, with Prowse’s impressive physique placed on full display. When the Creature adds a cloak to the ensemble, it looks remarkably like Christopher Lee’s long green coat in The Curse of Frankenstein.
Floating Daisies and Maple Leaves
FRANKENSTEIN. (L to R) Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Jacob Elordi as The Creature in Frankenstein. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2025.
My favorite scene in the 1931 version of Frankenstein is the encounter between the Creature (Boris Karloff) and the little girl Maria (Marilyn Harris) beside a lake. Maria approaches the Creature without fear and invites him to sit beside her and throw daisies into the lake to watch them float. In del Toro’s version, the Creature is chained in a dungeon-like space in which water is collected into gutters and carried out of the watchtower. He discovers that maple leaves float on the water and sail out of view. In a kind of reversal of the scene in the 1931 film, the Creature gives one of the leaves he has found to Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who, like Maria, approaches him with empathy and without fear. Later, the Creature carries Elizabeth in his arms and places her on a large rock, not unlike Karloff in Bride, placing the shepherdess he has rescued from drowning on a similar stone outcropping.
The Creature Escapes the Tower
As the Creature is chained in his dungeon, Victor empties can after can of kerosene around the tower and sets it ablaze. The shackled Creature is able to break his bonds and escape through the tower’s gutter system. This is not entirely unlike the way the Creature escapes the windmill fire in Bride of Frankenstein. At the beginning of that film, the crowd surrounding the windmill disperses as the fire dies down, though Hans, the father of the murdered little girl Maria, stays behind, saying he wants to be sure the Monster is dead. He falls through the unstable ruins into the waters below, where the Monster makes his first, and iconic, entrance in the film. So, in both versions, the Creature escapes fire in a tower through water below.
The Creature Shot in the Eye
One of the great sequences that appears in innumerable adaptations of Frankenstein in various ways is the encounter between the Creature and the blind man who sometimes lives with his family and sometimes lives alone. In del Toro’s version, we get the best of both worlds with the joy of the Creature observing the family and the intimacy of interacting directly with the blind man. As is usually the case, the sequence ends tragically with the Creature encountering hunters or some other malevolent group. In this version, the Creature is shot just above the eye and puts his hand up to his face in a shot that is almost exactly like one from The Curse of Frankenstein. In that film, the Creature is shot directly in the eye, and blood flows between his fingers from the socket.
Elizabeth’s Wedding Look
FRANKENSTEIN. Mia Goth as Elizabeth in Frankenstein. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2025.
The wedding dress worn by Mia Goth bears more than a passing resemblance to the look of Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein, specifically the ribbons that wrap her arms like bandages. Another nice touch is Goth’s red hair. Despite many depictions over the years of the Bride with black hair highlighted by a white lightning streak, the discovery of the original wig worn by Lanchester in the film confirms that her hair was, in fact, red, as was the actress’s. Taken together, Elizabeth’s bridal look is a lovely homage to a horror icon.
The Head, the Hands, and the Heart
FRANKENSTEIN. (L to R) Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2025.
This is a bit more esoteric as it is a thematic rather than a visual element. Early in the film, Victor is asked by his father (Charles Dance) about the comparative weight of the heart between men and women during an anatomy lesson. The elder Frankenstein, a man of great wealth and privilege, makes it clear that he believes only in intellect and physiology, and Victor should believe the same. The Creature, by contrast, represents the physical, the poor working class, oppressed by their rich masters. Or to use a different metaphor, the hands. Elizabeth stands between them as the representation of the heart, an empathetic and emotional being able to interact and care for both Victor and the Creature. This dynamic is not really found in this form in the Shelley novel, but it is found very directly in Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece Metropolis (1927).
Though it is only adjacent to the subgenre itself, Metropolis is an important step in the Frankenstein film mythology and features one of the great mad scientists and the most memorable creation sequences of all time. In the film, the son of a wealthy industrialist finds himself becoming the mediator between his father and the poor working classes who toil in the depths beneath the sprawling city. The theme is stated explicitly with a title card stating: “The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart.” This idea is kept more in the subtext of del Toro’s Frankenstein, but still shines through in various performances and interactions throughout the film. It is an incredibly moving and timely message.
I look forward to more viewings of this film that will undoubtedly yield even more discoveries. Perhaps you noticed things that I missed. With the richness of the tapestry that Guillermo del Toro and company have created with Frankenstein, I’m sure there are many more hidden treasures to find.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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