The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh's new retelling understands that. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story.
The Shape of Water, Channel 4, 9.30pm Drawing on influences as varied as Mike Leigh’s film Happy-Go-Lucky and legendary 1950s monster flick The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Mexican horror maestro Guillermo del Torro spins this extraordinary feat of imagination and image-making which wowed the 2018 Oscars with 13 nominations and four wins including Best Picture and Best Director. It was in Happy-Go-Lucky that del Torro saw and was impressed by British actress Sally Hawkins and it was with her in mind that he wrote the character of his heroine – Elisa Esposito, a mute cleaner at a secret government laboratory to which a strange amphibian creature has been sequestered after its capture in a South American river. And here’s where The Creature From The Black Lagoon comes in, a childhood obsession of del Torro’s and a film he was planning to remake at one time.