To get everyone in the spirit for fall and Halloween on its way, National Frankenstein Day will take place on August 30, 2025. This celebration of the life of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelly, her famous literary work “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus;” and the impact of that work on modern culture was created by Ron MacCloskey in 1997.
From Wakefield, New Jersey, MacCloskey made a name for himself as a performer, writer, and producer, including a television show he produces called “Classic Movies with Ron MacCloskey,” according to genzpublishing.org. He has long had a fascination with Frankenstein, and even gave out “The Franky” for many years to someone who made a significant contribution to the promotion of Frankenstein, according to halloweenartistbazzar.com.
Originally falling on the last Saturday in October, Frankenstein Day was eventually moved to the day of Mary Shelley’s birth. This year will be her 228th birthday. This year is a little more special as a new version of the Frankenstein story by Guillermo del Toro will be released by Netflix on August 30, 2025. Mary Shelley wrote the story as part of a dare to write the most terrifying ghost story by the famous poet Lord Byron in 1816. It was published for the first time in 1818. In honor of National Frankenstein Day, here are some facts about the book, its author, and its influence in modern culture.
- Mary Shelly was only 19 when she wrote “Frankenstein.”
- She was the daughter of two famous forward thinkers, Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote “The Vindication of the Rights of Women,” which helped spur the fight for women’s voting rights, and political philosopher William Godwin.
- Mary’s life was filled with loneliness and tragedy, beginning with her mother dying ten days after her birth from complications of childbirth. This death was followed by the death of her half-sister Fanny Imlay by suicide, the loss of four of her five children and a miscarriage all before she was 25, and finally the drowning of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley at the age of 29. It is said she kept his cremated heart in her writing desk the rest of her life.
- “Frankenstein” has been made into a movie 114 times, and the Creature has been featured in 413 known feature films (Wikipedia). Currently, a new version of the story is being made by Guillermo del Toro, which will be released by Netflix on August 30, 2025.
- While many think the monster is Frankenstein, the monster is actually called “Creature.” When Mary Shelly was alive, she said she identified most with this character. This comment is one of the reasons many in literary circles believe the deeper meaning of the book is the pain of being a motherless child and the fear of childbirth.
- “Young Frankenstein,” developed by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder in the 1970s, uses the Frankenstein story to parody classic horror tropes. While the studio fought shooting it in black and white, it was an immediate hit.
- The first actor to portray the Creature was Thomas Cooke in 1823, and the most recent are Jacob Elordi in the 2025 Netflix version of “Frankenstein,” and Christian Bale in “The Bride!,” being released in 2026.
- In Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie,” the creature is a dog that has been reanimated.
- Mary Shelley’s informal education included listening to some of the most forward thinkers of her time discuss the newest ideas in her father’s living room. Having a radical mindset, Godwin drew some of the best and brightest to his home to discuss all matter of things, from political justice to the latest scientific discoveries to the concept of free love. These discussions had a profound effect on “Frankenstein,” as well as Mary’s other works, her life, and her marriage to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
- Frankenstein has influenced many films with the Creature taking many forms. Some of the most unique are a bodybuilder in gold swim trunks in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” a monster obsessed with Cher in “The X Files,” and a ‘perfect woman’ created by two high school students using a computer in “Weird Science.”
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