Five films to watch if you loved ‘Frankenstein’
So, you have just finished Frankenstein, and suddenly, everything feels a little quieter. You’re not thinking about the way this film scared you, but you might be thinking about what it means to create something so dangerous and then walk away from it.
Del Toro didn’t just retell Mary Shelley’s story, but he made sure it felt personal. The film sits with you long after it ends and stares back at you just like the Creature himself. In other words, it waits for you to figure out who you’d be in his story.
Maybe that’s the thing about monsters. They start out as someone’s idea, then end up becoming a mirror. Frankenstein isn’t really about science or ambition. It’s about loneliness, guilt, and that ache to be understood. And once you feel that, regular horror movies just don’t hit the same.
So if you are sitting wondering what to watch next, Netflix has a few stories that carry that same energy. These films are about creatures who were never meant to exist and the people who made them anyway. They’ll pull you back into that same strange tenderness Frankenstein left behind.
Are you ready?
Five films to watch if you loved Frankenstein
Okja (Bong Joon Ho, 2017)
At first, Okja looks like a soft film. It starts with a girl and her giant animal best friend who run through forests and eat fruit off trees. It seems like what could possibly hurt you here? Then a corporation shows up, claiming the creature as its property, and everything changes. The movie stops being about adventure and turns into something else.
Mija’s friendship with Okja is the connection Frankenstein’s Creature never got, which basically translates to the absence of a connection that has loyalty and is unconditional. And that’s exactly why it hurts more when humans ruin it. By the time Okja ends, you start to see the same question Frankenstein asked: what gives us the right to decide what counts as human or what deserves kindness? Okja doesn’t answer it directly and lets you realise the answer on your own.
The Silence (John R Leonetti, 2019)
We have seen years and years of classic “experiments gone wrong” horror movies where scientists find something ancient and immediately decide to poke it. That’s exactly how The Silence begins. A group of researchers accidentally release creatures that hunt using sound, and within minutes, the world goes straight to panic.
The fun part? It’s not really about the monsters. It’s about the noise people make, and not just literal noise, but the way we can’t stop fighting or trying to control things. The family at the centre of it all, led by Stanley Tucci, tries to stay completely silent to survive. But even in that quietness, you can feel that human urge to mess things up. If you loved Frankenstein for how it showed humanity’s obsession with control, The Silence is the same thing with a sound monster. By the time the film ends, you realise the silence isn’t peaceful but a punishment.
Troll (Roar Uthaug, 2022)
Alright, picture a giant creature that wakes up after centuries of nap time, stretching its legs, and the first thing humans do is obviously panic. That’s Troll in a nutshell. It starts with a bunch of scientists drilling into a mountain because when has that ever gone wrong? Next thing you know, a giant creature wakes up and decides to stretch its legs, and Norway completely loses it.
What you’d love about this film is that it tricks you into thinking it’s a monster story, but it’s really about people being loud and clueless in the face of something ancient and misunderstood. The troll isn’t out to destroy the world. It’s confused and heartbroken. By the time it’s over, you’re not cheering for the humans; you’re kind of mad at them. The movie makes you feel that tiny ache you got during Frankenstein, and that moment when you realise the creature was never the real problem. It’s always been us.
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
Godzilla Minus One will surprise you in many ways. You start the movie expecting a giant monster wrecking buildings, which, sure, it does, but it is way more emotional than that. The whole thing is set in post-war Japan, and you can feel that weight on everyone’s face. People are trying to rebuild their lives, and then this creature shows up, like the past coming back to bite them.
But if you are thinking Godzilla is just a mindless beast, then you are wrong. Every time he appears, it feels like payback. The movie doesn’t treat him like the villain. It’s more like… since people made it, it’s their problem. And that’s exactly how it reminds you of Frankenstein. It’s the same cycle where humans create something, lose control, and then panic when it doesn’t obey. By the end, you don’t really know whether you’re scared of Godzilla or ashamed of the people who made him possible.
Damsel (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2024)
So Damsel is that one film that will fool you in so many ways. The reason is, it starts all soft and royal with Millie Bobby Brown in gowns at a fancy wedding, everyone smiling, and you loving all the cutesy vibes. And then out of nowhere, her husband just throws her into a pit. We are not kidding. One second, she’s a princess, the next, she is falling straight toward a dragon that wants her for dinner. That’s when you realise this isn’t a fairytale; it’s a setup.
From that point, it’s Millie versus everything. She is climbing through caves, covered in dirt, completely done with everyone’s nonsense. And that’s where it connects to Frankenstein for us, as both are about being thrown away by the people who were supposed to protect you. Elodie starts scared, then flips the script. And the same with Millie, as she is not waiting for rescue… she’s rewriting the story herself.