Even before anybody knew what Jacob Elordi really looked like as The Creature in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, there's been a general theme about his casting and how it impacts how we view the character. Namely, that his presence means we're getting a "hot monster" (via Toronto Life) due to Elordi's existing heartthrob status.
Once people did actually start to see the movie, the discussion only grew louder with Elordi's performance seemingly measured solely against the fact that even under impressive makeup, he still looks hot. "Frankenstein's monster has never been hotter," wrote Polygon, while the BBC used it as a critique of the movie, as a "hunky" Creature is wrong and is "just too handsome" to be accurate.
But whether you view The Creature as hot or whether you see it as accurate to Mary Shelley's original vision (we'll get into that in a bit), it's ignoring what we should actually be talking about. Elordi is terrific in the role, delivering what is arguably his finest performance – and one of the best performances of the year to date.
His first notable role might have been in Netflix's hit teen rom-com The Kissing Booth, but it was Euphoria that marked Elordi out as one to watch. In the six years since it debuted, other Euphoria stars such as Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney might have gained higher profiles than Elordi, but he's quietly built an impressive body of work across a wide variety of roles.
From the provocative thriller Saltburn to playing actual Elvis Presley in last year's celebrated Priscilla, Elordi has always delivered engaging and varied performances. There's perhaps one thing that links the majority of his roles though: he's typically overshadowed – rightly or wrongly – by a co-star who has drawn the bigger media attention.
Critically-acclaimed Australian drama The Narrow Road to the Deep North – available to watch now on BBC iPlayer – corrected that on the TV side, and Frankenstein deserves to do the same for Elordi at the movies. It's no shade on Oscar Isaac, who delivers a captivating, operatic performance as Victor Frankenstein, but it's Elordi's Creature who lingers in the memory.
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That you end up sympathising with The Creature over Victor should come as no surprise to Frankenstein or del Toro fans. However, in Elordi's hands, he takes a character we've seen so often before and makes it feel new again. The actor's transformation – achieved through 42 different prosthetic pieces – is initially striking and unrecognisable, before Elordi's layered performance brings The Creature fully to life.
Initially, The Creature can only say his creator's name, but Elordi's subtle changes in delivery mean you're never in doubt what he's actually thinking or how he's developing. This grows into more physical aspects as The Creature seeks shelter in the woods, becoming more comfortable within his patchwork skin and filling the space with more confidence, only to burst into a rageful stance when he seeks revenge on Victor in the final act.
Elordi is as convincing during the darker moments of The Creature's journey as he is for the more heartfelt moments, such as the newly added connection with Elizabeth. It helps, of course, that Elordi is six foot five, adding an intimidating edge to The Creature when it's called for and also being semi-faithful to the book, where he's described as eight foot tall.
And yes, that height has likely played into the conversation about Elordi's "hot monster", but del Toro wants people to view him that way. "It has to look like something newly minted. Not like a repair job in an ICU," he told CBS News, adding that it was Elordi's eyes that persuaded him: "He had an innocence and an openness and a purity in his eyes that was completely disarming."
But however good Elordi's performance is, does the look completely fit with Shelley's original vision? It might not be completely faithful, but there are aspects that fit with Victor Frankenstein's original idea for his creation. He notes that he "selected his features as beautiful" with "lustrous black and flowing" hair, "teeth of a pearly whiteness".
The problem for the book's Victor is that once his creation came to life, "breathless horror and disgust filled my heart". His intention might have been for a beautiful creation, but he was still a creation made of dead parts and once Victor saw them in motion, "it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived".
This isn't quite how it pans out in del Toro's take, where Victor's distaste of The Creature initially stems from his inability to develop quicker, before it turns into jealousy over Elizabeth's fascination with him and eventually the threat he could pose. It could also be argued that The Creature becomes more handsome as he grows that "lustrous" hair and becomes, as Polygon puts it, "a sensitive, bruised sad boy".
Ultimately though, whether you feel del Toro's version is accurate or not to the idea of The Creature, it shouldn't overlook just how good Jacob Elordi is in Frankenstein. Hopefully now that the movie is on Netflix, we can start moving the conversation on from the "hot monster" to the "hot awards contender".
Frankenstein is available to watch now on Netflix.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
