20 Horror Films Where Humans Are The Real Monsters

Since the advent of the moving image, Frankenstein has been adapted left, right, and centre for the big screen, but few iterations of Mary Shelley’s novel are as faithful, as lush, or as comprehensive as Guillermo del Toro’s gothic masterpiece.

Baron Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) tells his own tale, from cradle to the grave, of a life spent learning anatomy, suffering the grief and misery of untimely death, and doing his darndest to create, reanimate, and sustain life. This leads him to build his creature (Jacob Elordi), a towering man of sorts, pieced together from the viable parts of the recently dead. But along the way, Victor loses sight of his purpose and the sanctity of life, attempting to destroy his work and his creation several times, killing the woman he loves in the process, and inciting the death of his own brother.

Of course, anyone who has seen Frankenstein already knows who the real monster is, because the film says it so. damn. often. Nonetheless, in case you were on your phone for the duration, and for the avoidance of any doubt: it’s Victor. 

It’s well established that del Toro does a roaring trade in human monsters, but Victor is unique in that he’s pretty much the archetype for this setup, with his monstrous creation actually reflecting the good of humankind, while Victor sinks ever deeper into malevolence, hatred, spite, misery, and jealousy, before his own untimely death.