- - Inside the making of “Frankenstein”'s captivating dungeon scene, when Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth first meet

Gerrad HallNovember 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM

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Guillermo del Toro's name might be on the new movie Frankenstein, but he will be the first to say it takes a village to bring his fantasy tale to life.

In the video above, the director, star Mia Goth, and members of his creative team — composer Alexandre Desplat, cinematographer Dan Lausten, set designer Tamara Deverell, makeup artist Mike Hill, and costume designer Kate Hawley — take Entertainment Weekly behind the scenes of one of the most pivotal moments in his new movie.

After Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) banishes what he thinks is a failed experiment to the bowels of his castle, it is Elizabeth Lavenza (Goth) who first discovers the Creature (Jacob Elordi), following sounds she hears in the doctor's Gothic home to its dungeon-like basement, now a prison cell for the Creature, who is chained up and hidden from society.

Courtesy of Netflix

Mia Goth and Jacob Elordi in 'Frankenstein'

Frankenstein is ashamed of his creation, which can only seem to utter his name, but Elizabeth sees something else — a damaged, curious soul craving love and attention.

Below, Frankenstein's director, star, and creative team give us exclusive insight as they break down the scene.

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Set designer Tamara Deverell on incorporating circles throughout the film

"We have a circle motif that's used throughout Frankenstein," Deverell explains. "You see it in the lab, the big lab window. You see it in the captain's quarters. You see it at the very beginning, in the circular set we did for the medical lecture theater. These repeated circles are also in the cell, with these big intake and outtake pipes and the circles in the ceiling. Even the circular image of the bonnets [in Mia's costume], the bow came up to just create the window of her face. The circle theme is life going places and never getting out of the circle, and the creature breaks that circle."

Guillermo del Toro on the Creature removing Elizabeth's veil

"Jacob trying to lift the veil and then liberating her — Mia and I talked, and I said, 'This is the first time and only time you reveal yourself to anyone in the film,'" the director says. "We did do that pointedly. This is my favorite dress in the whole movie. The two strips of purple that slide there, it's very subtle, but you [Goth] are the only character that has purple other than the Creature in the entire film. I think we have a hint of purple in a dress that crosses the street when Victor is thinking about the Creature, but you're the only character — that makes you guys connect."

Courtesy of Netflix

Mia Goth and Jacob Elordi in 'Frankenstein'Mia Goth on filming with Jacob Elordi for the first time

"We didn't even rehearse this because you could never mimic that again, or if you did, then it becomes something else," the actress says. "Sometimes, Guillermo might ask me to do something again [and] I really would have no recollection that it happened."

Composer Alexandre Desplat on using violins... and silence — and why the moment could be a ballet

"There's several things that this violin is telling us," Desplat says. "It's the attraction that Elizabeth has for the Creature, but it's also the fragility of the Creature. It's like an invisible little arch that slowly but surely brings them together. Many violinists, they play with very romantic expression, and I didn't want that because there's enough on the screen. I wanted it to be pure, delicate, and able to be restrained … When the veil is lifted, she is illuminated by the soul of the Creature. That's how the music conveys that, expands it. This moment is a ballet. There's no dialogue. It's really a ballet; it could be on stage."

Makeup artist Mike Hill on the Creature's prosthetics

"I made him kind of a yellow skull, and that was to reflect Mary Shelley's description of the creature having yellow skin," Hill says. "I did a section of skin that's kind of a bluish-gray that bleeds onto his cheeks; that's actually a homage to the original Frankenstein with Boris Karloff. Although the movie was black and white, Jack Pierce, the makeup artist, painted him sky gray. The reason I put that bump on his nose [is because] it lengthens and matures his face up. Black lips — again, it's all to do with an allure of having dark lips, and Mary Shelley wrote about it. But also, he's wearing dentures. They're not ugly teeth, and they're not monstrous teeth — they're just bigger teeth, because sometimes with a character like this, human teeth can get lost."

He continues, "Guillermo didn't want heavy stitching. He didn't want garish wounds because Victor, certainly in Guillermo's script, Guillermo saw him as a rock star. He saw him as a David Bowie. Well, if David Bowie made a Frankenstein creature, he would make something aesthetically beautiful in its weirdness. I wanted him to almost resemble a stained window that got broken. I figured that Victor would have used these stained pieces of flesh, different colors, in order for him to put the man back together. He's almost graphing it out for himself. What I'd like to point out is the heart there. We got rid of the heart on the Creature right there. So, this literally has a window to the soul right here on where the heart is."

Courtesy of Netflix

Mia Goth and Jacob Elordi in 'Frankenstein'Costume designer Kate Hawley on Elizabeth's look being inspired by a beetle

"We were looking at all the precious books that Guillermo had for Elizabeth's world, with all those patterns and structures from blood cells, and he talked about her being like a beetle: 'I want a beetle,'" Hawley says. "So this is your beetle. We have an absinthe-colored veil. We have the knit bonnet with the purple halo of flowers behind her. And as we go down through the dress, we have a duchess silk satin in an acid green that was specially chosen as the color because of the lighting … [which] took on a whole kind of radioactive color — part of the wonderful language of the insect."

Cinematographer Dan Lausten on painting with light

"All the colors are so sensitive," says Lausten. "You could easily make her lights very warm because you want to do it romantic, but we think it's blending so nice into the skin tone. You see her red lips, but it's not really red. It's a kind of monochromatic, but it's not monochromatic at all … You want to paint with a light and write with a camera, because that light is coming from one small spot. That's the reason it's falling so much, and so beautiful. It's bouncing into the chest and bouncing up to his face. It's pretty nice. I think he's under all of that prosthetic, but I think it's a real testament to Mike Hill and also to Jacob's performance."

Del Toro, Goth, and Desplat on Elizabeth's one line of dialogue to the Creature: 'Who hurt you?'

DEL TORO: It came from an Oscar Wilde story, "The Selfish Giant," where the Giant sees Jesus, Baby Jesus, and sees that he has wounds, and he says, "Who hurt you?"

GOTH: Whenever you have just one line, I find that to be the most difficult to deliver in a natural, believable way.

DESPLAT: We had [let] the silence slowly take over. I really wanted the music to stop there so that we feel the vibration between them.

Watch the full It Takes a Village video above for more. Frankenstein is playing in select theaters and streaming now on Netflix.

on Entertainment Weekly

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