No idea if Mike Hill, Del Toro, or Kate Hawley had this in mind, but his design in the awakening scenes (and the "unwrapping" of the Creature) remind me a lot of Lazarus in The Last Temptation of Christ.

How there's something both profoundly disturbing yet deeply beautiful about Lazarus. How, like Victor, Christ also looks terrified and awed that it worked. How Lazarus is dazed yet focused solely on Christ--how the Creature does the same with Victor.

The mummy-like wrappings, the gaunt, elegant fingers marbled with rot and decay reaching for the resurrectionist, the creator. How this film leans hard into the body horror inherent in--and even essential to--Catholicism. I am obsessed.

Also thought immediately of The Raising of Lazarus by Eduard von Gebhardt. Dazed and born anew but with the pallor of death still painted firmly on his skin:

Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.

Guillermo del Toro’s spellbinding take on one of the most enduring of all modern myths, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, imbues the classic tale with new depths of humanity while pushing it toward dazzling heights of gothic grandeur. Shifting between the perspectives of the brilliant but callous Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the creature (Jacob Elordi) he fashions from flesh and then cruelly mistreats, del Toro movingly reframes the legend as a story of fathers and sons struggling to break free from cycles of trauma. A decades-in-the-making triumph of darkly ravishing visual invention and operatic storytelling, Frankenstein is a deeply personal statement from a director who has long been drawn to the realm where men and monsters merge.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

4K digital master of the theatrical version of the film, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack

4K digital master of Frankenstein: The Reborn Cut, a new 158-minute extended director’s cut of the film, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack

Two 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the films and special features

New audio commentary on The Reborn Cut, featuring director Guillermo del Toro

The Anatomy Lesson: Director’s Cut, a new documentary on the making of the film

The Parlour, a collection of conversations on craft featuring del Toro; actors Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Oscar Isaac; cinematographer Dan Laustsen; production designer Tamara Deverell; costume designer Kate Hawley; and creature designer Mike Hill

Q&As moderated by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and musician Patti Smith

Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat conducted by film-music scholar Jon Burlingame

PLUS: An essay by scholar and author Christopher Frayling