The most disturbing visual in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein isn’t Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) chopping up corpses for his creation, or the hauntingly beautiful monster played by Jacob Elordi. Instead, it’s Victor’s penchant for drinking milk, which he guzzles down by the glass multiple times throughout this two-and-a-half-hour movie.
Having a character chug a pint of whole milk is an easy visual shortcut to establishing that they’re evil, or at least a little off. We’ve seen it in countless movies, ranging from A Clockwork Orange to Inglourious Basterds. Javier Bardem’s methodical serial killer Anton Chigurh drinks milk in No Country for Old Men, as does Allison Williams in Get Out, in a scene shortly after Jordan Peele reveals her evil plan. And in The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker gulping down green milk is a clear sign that something has gone horribly wrong.
But the best point of comparison for Frankenstein might be Homelander in The Boys, whose obsession with milk conveys both his evil nature and his lack of maturity. Similarly, Victor Frankenstein’s passion for the creamy white beverage reinforces del Toro’s take on the character as emotionally stunted.
To get to the bottom of this frothy mystery, Polygon asked the creative team behind the film to weigh in on what Victor Frankenstein’s love of lactose really means. (Del Toro and Isaac were not available for interviews.)
For Frankenstein cinematographer Dan Laustsen (who also served as del Toro’s DP on Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, and Nightmare Alley), the explanation is simple.
“He’s still a child, and he’s still innocent because he’s drinking milk,” Laustsen says of the film’s protagonist. “A normal guy would drink red wine or whatever.”
Kate Hawley, who handled costume design for Frankenstein (and del Toro’s Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim), takes the metaphor one step further.
“He’s a manchild,” Hawley says. “He’s an angry child that’s sort of grown up. The milk is a wonderful, delicious, little ongoing personal ritual. It links him directly back to his mother. I love that selfish, childlike aspect of Victor.”
She adds that if you look closely, you’ll notice bottles of milk piling up in the alley outside of Victor Frankenstein’s apartment early in the movie, in the scene where he meets Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz). “It’s a constant thing.”
For production designer Tamara Deverell (Nightmare Alley, Frankenstein), it all comes back to Victor’s mother.
“He was mother-obsessed,” she says. “He was always a kid who never grew up, until he became a father of the Creature. So drinking milk is kind of a symbol of adolescence, of being connected to your childhood.”
Devill also notes that the milk may represent more than just Victor’s immaturity. Another way to read it is as an example of his obsessive determination to conquer death through science.
“He doesn’t drink,” Deverell says. “He’s focused. He’s a scientist; a doctor.”
Whatever the meaning behind it, one thing is undeniably true: I’ll never look at a glass of milk the same way again after Frankenstein.
Frankenstein is streaming now on Netflix.
