Gothic Horror 2.0: Dracula and Frankenstein Rage

Frankenstein and Dracula are back. And there's a real buzz surrounding these two great icons of Gothic horror, who will be starring in the cultural season, following the recent reinterpretation of Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Creatures and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu . The exploits of the monsters that sprang from the minds of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker in the 19th century will grace the pages of illustrated books, haunt the big and small screens, and grace the stage, in addition to touring several exhibitions.

The cinematic landscape is strong, with highly anticipated titles like Guillermo del Toro's highly personal take on Frankenstein . The Mexican director will release the film in theaters on October 24th and it will be available on Netflix on November 7th, but it has already premiered in Venice, where it has left a good impression on critics. The feature film follows Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), a self-centered scientist who brings to life a creature assembled from corpse parts, whose body is lent to Jacob Elordi.

In 1974, Mel Brooks released one of the greatest milestones in cinematic comedy with the delirious Young Frankenstein . The parody of 1930s horror classics became a gem that will now continue in the form of a series. Very Young Frankenstein – still unreleased – will feature Mel Brooks, 98 years old and still going strong, and his partner Kevin Salter as executive producers.

Another recent, though more forgettable, title is Lisa Frankenstein (2024). Released directly to streaming, it's worth mentioning that it features a script by Diablo Cody ( Juno, Tully ) and direction by Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late Robin Williams.

The two characters also invade bookstores with new comics, novels and essays.

In March, Christian Bale will take over the role of Boris Karloff in The Bride! This remake of The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935) is directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. It was expected to be released this September, but Warner Bros. has decided to delay this film, which stars Penélope Cruz, Annette Bening, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal, the director's partner and brother, respectively.

In the skin of the monster with whom man plays God will soon be Sebastian Stan under the direction of Radu Jude. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Frankenstein in Romania is said to be a modernization of the myth, mixing the true story of a secret CIA prison in Bucharest with the legend of Frankenstein. Curiously, the same Romanian director, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlinale for An Unfortunate Fuck or Crazy Porn , presented his revision of the Dracula myth in competition at the Locarno Festival. Shot in Transylvania, it is a modest story about the return of Vlad the Impaler with images generated by AI. Also from Romania is The Death of Dracula , a remake with ensemble direction of the silent film The Death of Dracula , produced in 1921, a year before Murnau's acclaimed Nosferatu , which has seen its graphic adaptation thanks to the book published this June by Diego Olmos with Planeta Cómic.

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But if there's one vampire cinephiles are eagerly awaiting this year, it's the one Frenchman Luc Besson will offer in Dracula: A Love Tale , starring Caleb Landry Jones. The American actor teams up with Besson again after the underrated Dogman in a love story, transforming the legendary vampire into a deeply human being.

Bookstores are also preparing for the chills. Shelley's character arrives on September 24th from Minotauro and illustrator Tomás Hijo, who released a new book about Dracula in June. "I have a close relationship with these creatures, since they were part of my teenage reading," confesses the Salamanca native, surprised to realize details that have been forgotten. "Did anyone know that Dracula has a mustache?"

Guillermo del Toro, Luc Besson, Radu Jude and Maggie Gyllenhaal direct new versions

This question could have been asked of Guillermo del Toro when they worked together on the adaptation of Frankenstein , but, at the time, Hijo didn't know that he would end up making his own versions of the classic. The artist acknowledges a growing predilection among the general public for these characters, "which explains why there are more adaptations that try to return to the origins." In his case, the challenge has been "to make the words of Stoker and Shelley coincide with my artistic sensibility. It sounds easy, but it's intimidating because you meet people who have a very fixed image of these characters that aren't based on the original manuscripts." Also Argentine, Esther Cross wrote The Woman Who Wrote Frankenstein (Minúscula, 2022), in which she follows in the footsteps of the British author and the work that made her famous, as well as the fears she had and that still haunt her today. And he admits that “beyond the ethical limits of science and our destiny, the novel asks what a monster is and in doing so asks us what a normal human being is and what it means to be civilized.”

Fellow Argentinian María Negroni also joins the devotion to Dracula, Frankenstein, and the like in her new book, Museo Negro (Wunderkammer), an anthology of Gothic literature featuring ghosts and vampires that seeks to analyze where our greatest fears lie. Other independent publishers are also participating in this craze, such as Calamar Ediciones, which this year has backed Ángel Gómez Rivero and his Dracula Lives , which contemplates what the world would be like without the famous vampire; or Radagast Media, which published La Rexenta contra Frankenstein by Adrián Carbayales, and which turns the protagonist of Leopoldo Alas's Clarín novel into the only secret agent capable of stopping the count. There are monsters for all tastes.