It was a little disappointing that director Guillermo del Toro and actors Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac had to make a deal with Netflix to make Frankenstein, rather than it being a traditional theatrical release. It did get some time in theaters, but now that it’s hit wide release on Netflix across hundreds of millions of homes, it’s doing extremely well among fans, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes audience scores.
As it stands, Frankenstein is extremely close to all-timer KPop Demon Hunters’ score. Frankenstein has a 95% audience score compared to Demon Hunters’ absurd 99% score. That makes Frankenstein the second-best-scored Netflix original movie in 2025, a least in terms of audience score. Critics are a touch less high on it, giving it a still-good 85%, while KPop Demon Hunters has a 96%. Frankenstein can claim the record for the best-scored live-action release of 2025, at least, where most of Netflix’s originals are not animated.
In terms of how these two stack up against other high-profile Netflix original movie releases in 2025, we can chart a list here:
- KPop Demon Hunters – 99%
- Frankenstein – 95%
- Lost in Starlight – 88%
- The Perfect Neighbor – 80%
- A House of Dynamite – 78%
- The Life List – 71%
- Plankton – 69%
- The Electric State – 67%
- Steve – 67%
- The Thursday Murder Club – 53%
- The Ballad of a Small Player – 48%
- Havoc – 35%
- The Old Guard 2 – 33%
I can keep hunting, but I cannot find anything else above a 90% this year. One caveat here is that Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man has not been released yet, and is out December 12. If anything has a chance to get up that high, it’s this, as the original Knives Out has a 92% audience score and Glass Onion also has a 92%. Still, a 95% for Frankenstein is stellar, and it has set the record for the best Rotten Tomatoes audience score in Guillermo del Toro’s storied career. So, even if this was only available in theaters for a limited time, this could be considered a masterpiece from the director. It’s also a springboard for Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi, who recently celebrated a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, where he was visibly emotional.
No, it’s no longer Halloween, but horror movies transcend the idea you can only watch them around that holiday, and that’s certainly true of Frankenstein. Del Toro went all out, being as authentic as possible with sets and practical costumes, as he usually does, and the result is phenomenal. The movie is planted at #1 on Netflix’s top 10 list and deserves to stay there for a long while.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
