How Many Frankenstein Movies Are There?
There is no single number — Frankenstein is one of the most-filmed characters in cinema history. The count runs from a 1910 Edison short, through 8 Universal classics (1931–1948) and 7 Hammer films (1957–1974), to parodies, reboots and Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 Netflix film. Tally only the major franchise entries and you get around 20; count every screen appearance and it runs into the hundreds.
Era totals are rounded estimates — “Frankenstein movie” has no agreed definition, which is exactly why no two sources give the same number.
The Universal classics (1931–1948)
The Frankenstein the world pictures was born in 1931, when director James Whale and makeup artist Jack Pierce gave Boris Karloff the flat head, heavy brow and neck bolts that became the icon — a look Universal trademarked, and one found nowhere in Mary Shelley’s novel. The studio built an eight-film series around it, from the original through to a comedy farewell.
Across the run the monster outlived its actors: Karloff played it three times, then handed off to Lon Chaney Jr. and Glenn Strange. By the mid-1940s the films had become “monster rallies”, throwing the creature in with Dracula and the Wolf Man — inventing the shared-universe crossover decades before Marvel. Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is the one most critics still rank highest, even above the original.
Hammer horror (1957–1974)
When Universal’s monster faded, Britain’s Hammer Film Productions revived him in lurid colour with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). Hammer made a crucial change: the films follow the Baron, not the creature. Peter Cushing played the cold, obsessive scientist across six of the seven films — making the maker the real monster, exactly as Shelley intended. Christopher Lee played the creature in the first film, and the pair became horror legends.
The seven-film series ran to 1974, ending with Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell — Cushing’s last turn as the Baron. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) is often singled out as the cycle’s best.
The Frankenstein filmography
The major screen Frankensteins, 1910 to 2025. Filter by era — the colours mark which franchise each belongs to.
Which Frankenstein film is best?
Out of a century of films, critics keep landing on the same handful. Run the countdown — the order may surprise you.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025)
The biggest Frankenstein in a generation arrived in 2025: Guillermo del Toro’s long-promised adaptation for Netflix, a project he had chased for more than a decade. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2025, had a limited cinema run in October, and landed on Netflix on November 7, 2025.
Reviewers singled out Jacob Elordi’s Creature as the heart of the film — intelligent, gentle and rejected, far closer to Shelley’s original than the grunting movie monster. Fittingly, a character tells Victor to his face: “you’re the monster.” The main criticism was length — many felt the roughly 150-minute film could lose half an hour — but most agreed it’s one of del Toro’s most personal works.
How the 2025 film compares to the book
Young Frankenstein and the comedies
By 1974 the monster was famous enough to send up — and the greatest parody is Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, with Gene Wilder as Victor’s grandson (“that’s Fronkonsteen”). Brooks shot it in black and white and tracked down the original 1931 laboratory equipment to use on set. It is regularly named one of the funniest films ever made.
The joke never stopped. Lisa Frankenstein (2024), written by Diablo Cody, flips the myth into a teen horror-comedy where a girl reanimates a Victorian corpse. From Herman Munster to Hotel Transylvania, the monster spends as much time being funny as being frightening.
The Frankenstein movie quiz
Eight questions spanning a century of films — Edison to Karloff to Cushing to Elordi.
Why does the monster never stay dead?
Every generation rebuilds Frankenstein because the anxiety updates itself. In 1931 the fear was electricity and the surgeon’s table. Hammer made it about cold post-war science. Branagh made it operatic; del Toro makes it about grief and bad fathers. The monster is a mirror — point it at whatever a decade is most afraid of having created.
Which is why the 2025 version lands so hard right now. We are once again building things we may not be able to control, and asking who’s responsible when they go wrong. Two hundred years on, Shelley’s real question — not “can we make it?” but “what do we owe what we make?” — has never been more current.
That’s the secret of the count. There aren’t hundreds of Frankenstein films because the monster is scary. There are hundreds because the question keeps coming back.
Frequently asked questions
How many Frankenstein movies are there in total?
There’s no official count — the monster has appeared on screen hundreds of times since 1910. The major franchise films number around 20: eight Universal classics, seven Hammer films, plus key modern entries like Branagh’s 1994 version and del Toro’s 2025 film.
What was the first Frankenstein movie?
A 13-minute silent short made by Thomas Edison’s studio in 1910, starring Charles Ogle as the monster — decades before Boris Karloff.
Is the 2025 Frankenstein on Netflix?
Yes. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein premiered at Venice in August 2025, had a limited cinema release in October, and streams on Netflix from November 7, 2025. Oscar Isaac plays Victor; Jacob Elordi plays the Creature.
What is the best Frankenstein movie?
Critics most often name Bride of Frankenstein (1935), frequently rated above the 1931 original. Among Hammer films, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) tops most lists.
Is Young Frankenstein a real Frankenstein film?
It’s a 1974 parody by Mel Brooks, starring Gene Wilder — affectionate enough that it was shot in black and white on the actual 1931 lab props. Beloved, but a comedy, not a straight adaptation.
What is Lisa Frankenstein about?
A 2024 teen horror-comedy written by Diablo Cody, in which a lonely teenager accidentally reanimates a handsome Victorian corpse — a modern, gender-flipped spin on the Frankenstein idea.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Frankenstein (Universal film series)” — eight films, 1931–1948, Karloff / Chaney / Strange.
- Wikipedia, “Frankenstein (Hammer film series)” — seven films, 1957–1974, six with Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein.
- Netflix Tudum & Wikipedia, “Frankenstein (2025 film)” — del Toro; Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi; Venice Aug 2025 / Netflix Nov 7 2025.
- Edison Studios, Frankenstein (1910) — the first film adaptation, dir. J. Searle Dawley, with Charles Ogle.
Related
From a 13-minute Edison reel to a $120-million Netflix epic, the monster has never once stayed buried — because every era needs to build him again to ask the same old question.