Frankenstein is 'super transphobic and problematic', non-binary director claims

By WILL HALLOWELL, NEWS REPORTER Published: 10:50, 15 May 2026 | Updated: 10:52, 15 May 2026 Frankenstein is 'super transphobic and problematic', a non-binary director has claimed.  Jane Schoenbrun, an American filmmaker, said the classic gothic novel written over 200 years ago is 'transphobic' because it is about 'a constructed body', referring to the portrayal of Frankenstein's Monster.  In an interview about their latest project, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a satirical romantic drama slasher, Schoenbrun said adaptations of Frankenstein are an example of how older horror films feature 'trans monsters'.  They told the Hollywood Reporter: 'This image of the trans monster kept coming up, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Frankenstein as a constructed body, and there was this lineage of trans people having really complicated feelings about those movies. 'In one sense, those are the places where they saw representations that felt familiar or comforting in some way to their own experiences - but also, those movies are super f***ing transphobic and problematic.'  Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley over 200 years ago in 1818.  It tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a monster from different human body parts in an experiment. In Schoenbrun's latest film, Jack Haven plays the franchise monster 'whose legend comes to consume Kris and spark her sexual reawakening'.  Jane Schoenbrun, 39, an American filmmaker, said Frankenstein is 'transphobic' because it is about 'a constructed body' Boris Karloff as the Monster in the 1935 classic, the Bride of Frankenstein Schoenbrun, 39, said of the choice to cast Haven: 'The idea of them embodying the power of both the killer and the hermaphroditic embodiment of the orgasm - if I want to see that sh*t, someone else is going to want to!'  They made the comments ahead of the film's premiere at Cannes Film Festival, where it received a nine-minute standing ovation. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, set to be released in August, stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder.  Anderson told Variety the film 'reaches out across the divide' and speaks to 'anyone who feels and identifies with disassociation, the out of body experience, the not feeling part of or included within a framework of societal norms'.  She had a 'panic attack' when she watched a sex scene in the film for the first time.  Anderson said: 'That blood day was pretty serious… just remembering the amount of liquid and how to not drown while shooting the scene… it was a lot!'  Dozens of film adaptions of Frankenstein were made throughout the twentieth century and continue to be produced today.  In 1935, Boris Karloff infamously portrayed the Monster in the Bride of Frankenstein.   Left to right: Hannah Einbinder, Jane Schoenbrun and Gillian Anderson at Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14 Jacob Elordi as the Creature in the 2025 adaptation of Frankenstein Christopher Lee also took up the role of the Creature in The Curse of Frankenstein, which was released more than 20 years later in 1957.  In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the young scientist Victor while Robert De Niro portrayed the Monster.  And last year Frankenstein (2025) was released on Netflix, directed by Guillermo del Toro.  It starred Oscar Isaac as Victor and Jacob Elordi as the Creature.  However it flopped at the box office making only $655,147 despite the film's £120million budget.  Mary Shelley was inspired to write the classic novel in part by Fantasmagoriana, an anthology of German ghost stories translated into French. Her childhood in Scotland and contemporary theories such as galvanism, electricity produced by chemical reaction, and Erasmus Darwin's experiments on spontaneous vitality also played a part.  She had also experienced a nightmare about a student who was mortified after creating a monster made of reassembled body parts.  However Frankenstein is not the first story to face claims of transphobia. Earlier this year Silence of the Lambs star Ted Levine said the film's tropes about trans people were 'f***ing wrong'.  Levine, who played Buffalo Bill, a cross-dressing serial killer who skins his female victims to make a 'woman suit' told the Hollywood Reporter in February: 'There are certain aspects of the movie that don't hold up too well. 'We all know more, and I'm a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.' He added: 'It's unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it's fucking wrong.'   No comments have so far been submitted. 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