If you’re a horror fan with a taste for the gothic and you’ve already wrapped your first (or, like us, definitely-not-first) watch of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, you’re probably hungry for more takes on the story. Whether you’ve read the novel or only know it through the screen, it’s one of those tales that keeps calling us back. Here are our picks for the best Frankenstein movies.
What are the best Frankenstein movies as of 2025?
For this list, we’re assuming you’ve already seen the Netflix release. Since it would be our obvious number one, we’ve left it off to give some breathing room to the rest of the Frankenstein canon. We’re also giving honorable mentions to the Mary Shelley film, a historical period piece about the life of the novel’s author, and the hilarious parody classic Young Frankenstein. You know the one (cue the tuxedo-tap dancing number).
Frankenstein (1931)
The original Frankenstein movie was the one that kicked off the horror films for years to come. Released by Universal Pictures, the same studio behind the original Dracula, Frankenstein was adapted from the 1927 play Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre by Peggy Webling. Interestingly, it got away with more in terms of violence than Dracula. There was nary a bite mark in that one. Though this was the 1930s, and the subject matter may have been too sensual.
James Whale’s Frankenstein follows Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), an ambitious scientist determined to unlock the secret of life. With the help of his assistant Fritz, he assembles a body from stolen corpses. He brings it to life during a storm using a makeshift laboratory and a powerful electrical apparatus. There’s a mix-up with the brain selected for the experiment — Henry has two options: a healthy brain and a criminal’s brain. Unfortunately, the wrong one ends up inside the Creature. Once the Creature (Boris Karloff) is brought to life, the consequences turn deadly.
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Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Directed once again by James Whale, the film starts us off with Mary Shelley telling us there’s still more of the story to tell. Then, we pick up immediately after the events of Frankenstein. This time, Henry Frankenstein is coerced by the eccentric, verging on unhinged, Dr. Pretorius into continuing his experiments. Pretorius proposes the creation of a mate for the Monster (Boris Karloff), who has survived the fiery climax of the first film and is wandering the countryside looking for some sense of understanding. Like the most recent Frankenstein movie, the Monster’s encounters with humanity — some brutal, some unexpectedly tender — give us the emotional core of the film. There’s beauty and brutality here. When the Bride (Elsa Lanchester) is finally brought to life, her brief but unforgettable appearance cements the film’s place in horror history.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, this adaptation leans hard into the operatic drama stylings of Mary Shelley’s original novel. Where earlier films softened elements of the story, Branagh’s version embraces its sweeping romanticism. The film opens with Captain Walton’s doomed Arctic expedition, framing Victor Frankenstein’s tale closer to Shelley’s book than most previous adaptations.
Branagh also stars as Victor Frankenstein, whose obsessive quest to conquer death drives him into increasingly dangerous territory. Robert De Niro plays a beautifully human performance as the Creature. After being rejected by Victor, the Creature wanders the world in search of purpose. But humankind can be both compassionate and cruel.
From a production standpoint, the film was made at the height of the 1990s prestige-horror trend and was produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope after the success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). We’re talking lavish costumes and sets, an operatic score, and sometimes verging on melodramatic acting. Though the gothic-horror film was divisive upon release, it still holds its reputation for ambition and fidelity to the novel. This particular take may not be for everyone, but you can easily tell its sensibility inspired Guillermo del Toro’s version.
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Gods and Monsters (1998)
This one steps away from Mary Shelley’s novel and, to some extent, from Frankenstein altogether. It does, however, take us into the world of the filmmaker who helped shape its cinematic legacy. Directed by Bill Condon, Gods and Monsters is adapted from Christopher Bram’s novel Father of Frankenstein. The film gives us a fictionalized portrait of director James Whale in his later years. Living with his housekeeper, who disapproves of his homosexuality, Whale (Ian McKellen) is long retired from Hollywood. Though haunted by memories, Whale’s wit hasn’t dulled a bit.
Depressed and somewhat suicidal as he’s faced with his aging body and fading legacy, Whale becomes fascinated with his new gardener, Clayton Boone (Brendan Fraser). Their uneasy but complex friendship anchors the film, which uses this dynamic to reflect on mortality and the cost of creation — themes not far removed from Frankenstein itself. Gods and Monsters earned three Academy Award nominations: Best Actor for McKellen, Best Supporting Actress for Vanessa Redgrave, and Best Adapted Screenplay, which it won.
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Frankenweenie (2012)
A year before the release of Tim Burton‘s breakout feature Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Burton created a 30-minute live-action short film called Frankenweenie. The story was a sweet riff on Frankenstein, following a young boy who brings his beloved dog, Sparky, back to life. Though Disney initially shelved the short for being “too scary,” it would later become a cult favorite. It was also an early glimpse at Burton’s lifelong affection for the macabre-and-whimsical blend that would define his career.
Decades later, now a fully established filmmaker with a signature brand of stop-motion storytelling, Burton returned to the idea and expanded it into a feature-length film. Released in 2012, the animated Frankenweenie embraced the director’s trademark style. The result is a film that feels both sweet and spooky, modern and nostalgically classic. It’s an homage to Frankenstein and our love of monster movies. But most of all, it’s a celebration of the magic of childhood imagination, where the line between life and death is just another boundary to test.
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How we picked the best Frankenstein movies
There are quite a few Frankenstein movies to pick from, so we narrowed our choices down to the classics, the closest adaptation to the novel, and a few films that spin out from the source material.
