TORONTO — Guillermo del Toro first met “Frankenstein” at the age of seven, and in the creature’s tortured gaze, he saw himself.

A local television channel in Guadalajara, Mexico ran horror films on Sundays from morning to night, and when he stumbled across the 1931 monster movie, Boris Karloff’s performance struck him deeply.

“I identified with him completely,” del Toro recalls.

“I said, ‘That’s how it feels to be me on the inside — that creature that is out of place, nobody is completely happy with him.'”

He laughs softly, remembering the moment his lifelong obsession began.

“Then at 11, I read the book, and I thought, ‘What is this? The book is completely different from the movie.’ And I said, ‘I can do that movie!’ Youthful exuberance, you know? And then it just took about 40 years

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