Directors often have praises for the novels their movies are based on, but not "Victor Frankenstein" director Paul McGuigan. His film is based on the classic novel "Frankenstein" written by Mary Shelley, but the director isn't a fan of Shelley's work.

This is why McGuigan and the rest of the team made their own creative influences on the film that starred "X-Men: Apocalypse" star James McAvoy as the passionate scientist Victor Frankenstein and "Harry Potter" alum Daniel Radcliffe as his faithful assistant Igor.

"We give a lot of backstory to it. And it's our backstory, it's what we've chosen to make up. There's not a reverence to the book," Mcguigan shared during an interview with Screen Rant. "I think sometimes people are over-reverent about the book. It's got a fantastic premise, I do not know if you have ever read it, but it's dull as dishwater, in my opinion."

What made McGuigan's interpretation of Shelley's work is the dysfunctional relationship shared by its lead stars. For the film, Frankenstein visits the carnival and encounters the hunchback Igor, who impresses him with his scientific knowledge that he saves him from his cruel carnival masters and takes him on as his assistant. Because he is so grateful for his new lease in life, Igor devotes his time and effort to helping Frankenstein realize his ultimate dream - which is to create life.

"We're much more coming to it from a character perspective, but there is lots of bang for your buck. At the same time it's very much a character piece," said McGuigan. "For me, that's what I loved about it, the interaction between these two characters that I've never heard say anything other than 'it's alive!' or 'pull the switch' and that's it. So the backstory helps you to understand and maybe even understand emotionally what is appealing to them about the science."

The main reason why Frankenstein was so obsessed with creating life was because he wanted to make up for his brother Henry's death. Igor pleaded with him several times not to pursue his project anymore because they were only creating monsters, but Frankenstein refused to listen. Even with the police hot on their trail, Frankenstein pushed through with it. In the end, when they finally found success, Frankenstein realized that science was not the way to atone for his father's death and he killed his own creation.