Guillermo del Toro is never one to sacrifice substance for style in his films, and the writer-director’s Frankenstein, released on Netflix this week, doesn’t disappoint on either count.

Visually, the film, which is also playing theatrically in some markets, is a visual feast, with a striking palette, ornately gothic set pieces, and good old-fashioned special effects (del Toro is firmly against the use of AI technology). But it also lays bare the heart and mind of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, and not just when he’s on the operating table.

The screenplay of del Toro’s Frankenstein hews somewhat closely to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, but it’s not strictly faithful to the text, not unlike Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film version. But del Toro’s version delivers much of the story from the creature’s point of view, and all of it with del Toro’s signature style.

Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, and in the beginning of the film he is found by the crew of an ice-bound freighter in the Arctic sea. Shortly after he is rescued, he and the crew of men sheltering him are attacked by a monster with superhuman strength and the ability to regenerate after being wounded.

The crew manage to temporarily thwart the creature, allowing Victor to heal and begin to tell the captain (Lars Mikkelsen) of how he came to create the very thing that is trying to kill him, and them. In flashbacks, we see Victor as a young boy, studying to be a doctor, how the death of his mother affected him, and his first experiments with reanimating dead flesh, performed while he was still a med student.

Christoph Waltz plays Victor’s wealthy benefactor Harlander, who has ulterior motives for setting Victor up with a lab and a supply of useable corpses and body parts. He’s also the uncle of Elizabeth Lavenza (Mia Goth), who is engaged to Victor’s brother William (Felix Kammerer).

Victor and Elizabeth find they are kindred spirits, both scientifically-minded, and though Elizabeth doesn’t return Victor’s affectionate feelings towards her, she does provide the clue he needs to finally make his dream of reanimating a corpse (albeit, one made of bits and bobs of several dead bodies) come true.

Once alive, Victor and his creation’s relationship changes from a father-son dynamic to one of friendship and from there to becoming sworn enemies, allowing each to play both man and monster. As the two clash, the damage they cause not only to themselves but to each other is epic in scope, and neither one can walk away blameless. (Though it’s easy enough to make the case that Victor is responsible for everything bad that happens once he brings the creature to life.) And everytime the Creature comes close to achieving a kind of humanity, some person or persons arrive to beat it out of him. If he is a monster, it’s because people have forced him to be so.

Though I watched the film on Netflix and saved the price of a movie ticket, I regret not being able to see it on the big screen. Several gorgeously-filmed and memorable scenes would have been even better if seen in the theater. Young Victor is seen putting a small ivory anatomical figure of a pregnant woman together as he studies medicine. A few scenes later we see his dead mother laid out in a white sarcophagus with the face piece missing. Victor must lay the face piece that forever obscures his mother’s face from his view.

The scenes of Victor’s childhood are mostly in stark black and white, broken up by the occasional splash of blood red: his mother’s scarlet dress and veil, a blood-soaked shirt, the red battery bulbs powering Victor’s reanimation devices. The scenes of Victor as an adult are mostly earth tones – browns, grays and ochres – until Elizabeth arrives in the film, resplendent in peacock blue and emerald green, outshining everyone else in the frame with her.

The creature looks like an anatomical model at first, then comes to resemble an alabaster or marble statue, like a religious icon come to life. And Victor’s dreams are haunted by an avenging angel – a statue that threatens him in his sleep.

Del Toro expertly blends story and stylish visuals for a can’t-miss movie that imbues Frankenstein’s creature with true humanity, and all the good and ill that comes with it.