Guillermo del Toro has never hidden his love for old-school practical filmmaking. And in Frankenstein (2025), he pushes that philosophy to its most extreme level: minimizing CGI as much as possible and replacing it with real sets, real models, and hand-crafted props.

Netflix invested approximately 120 million USD into the project — and a significant portion of that budget went into constructing massive sets, including an actual castle and a full-scale ship built specifically for large-scale scenes.

And with the breathtaking, intricate frames that audiences have now witnessed, it’s clear that every dollar Netflix spent was worth it.

A colossal laboratory brought to life entirely by hand

In an article from the Associated Press, Tamara Deverell — the production designer of the film — recounted the moment she first stepped into the nearly completed laboratory of Victor Frankenstein. It was a gigantic lab built atop an ancient Scottish stone tower, complete with a large circular window, elaborate apparatus, and a malformed body lying on the operating table.

That moment overwhelmed Deverell so much that she couldn’t help exclaiming:

“It… it’s alive!”

The iconic line from the original tale blended perfectly with the real-life experience: the set felt so alive that even its creators were stunned.

Del Toro: “I wanted a handmade movie on an epic scale”

According to Del Toro, filmmaking itself is an art of stitching disparate elements together — costumes, props, lighting, music — much like Frankenstein assembling a human body.

With Frankenstein (2025), he wanted to preserve that spirit:

“I wanted a handmade movie of an epic scale. The sets are massive. The wardrobe, the design, the props — all of it is handcrafted by humans.”

Without the safety net of green screens and without depending on CGI to build worlds, the team of artisans had to construct everything with real materials, real textures, and real dimensions.

This explains why Netflix was willing to spend such a large budget for Del Toro to build a castle from the ground up, construct a real ship, and create a series of overwhelmingly complex practical environments.

A visual feast of a new era — created with old-school spirit

Del Toro doesn’t just want to retell Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic horror story; he aims to bring audiences back to the golden age of practical effects — when movie magic was created by human hands, not computers.

From Gothic architecture, hand-crafted laboratory machinery, to the creature design imbued with Del Toro’s signature somber aesthetic — Frankenstein stands as proof that traditional craftsmanship still has a place in modern blockbusters.

And if the early reactions from critics, the media, and fans alike are any indication, it seems clear that Netflix’s 120-million-dollar project is on track to become one of the most striking films of 2025.