MONSTER SQUAD

THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL... GUILLERMO DEL TORO HAS FINALLY REALISED HIS LIFELONG DREAM OF MAKING FRANKENSTEIN. SFX VISITS THE SET TO ASK THE MEXICAN AUTEUR AND HIS LEAD ACTORS OSCAR ISAAC, JACOB ELORDI, MIA GOTH AND CHRISTOPH WALTZ ABOUT BRINGING LIFE TO THE ULTIMATE CREATURE FEATURE

- WORDS: JAMIE GRAHAM

CHARLES DANCE IS tucking into a third boiled egg. He's seated at the head of a long dining table in a stately room, the high walls adorned with imposing oil paintings and an eight-foot mirror with a golden frame. Outside it's a blazing morning, but inside the atmosphere is rather dismal, with heavy velvet curtains drawn across the trio of floor-to-ceiling windows. Bewigged servants encircle the table at a respectful distance. They're silent and still, careful not to interrupt Dance's small grunts of joy as he slurps at a spoonful of egg. Likewise, the young boy sat to Dance's right is prudently respectful, eating his own boiled egg with no words and a minimum of movement.

Dance, playing Leopold Frankenstein, tugs at his ear and then inserts a finger for a vigorous wriggle. Perturbed, he works a handkerchief from a pocket and dabs at his ear, his nose. It comes away speckled with blood. Reaching for his water glass, he gulps once, twice, then offers a stern instruction flecked with panic: "Get my medical bag." A servant scurries from the room as Dance goes to stand, but instead slumps forward. The boy seated beside him calmly eats his egg. The only change in his demeanour is the slightest flicker of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

calls Guillermo del Toro from the corner of the room. The Mexican director is dressed all in black and peers at a handheld monitor through thick spectacles. Like everyone else huddled in the corner of the room, SFX included, his feet are covered in blue, slip-on shoe bags with elasticated ankles, giving the impression of a team of forensic experts arriving at a crime scene. "Dan?" asks del Toro, and Dan Laustsen, his DoP on Nightmare Alley, The Shape Of Water, Crimson Peak and Mimic, says, “Very nice.” To which del Toro responds that they should go again.