This film does not really fit into any kind of genre. Is it a fantasy or a romance or is it a comment on American Society.
The Guardian Critic sees it in terms of sexuality -https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb
However, the principal actress plus "the creature" share a bond of the disenfranchised. This is more about communication between people who share a position of abuse in society and how they manage to overcome barriers of communication, and communication difficulties between a sensitive person and something or someone we regard as an "alien creature".
Set in the cold war in the USA the CIA leader of the research laboratory displays all the crass materialism and cruelty that are the worst characteristics of USA culture during the cold war.
The Russian scientist whose primary motivation is the craft of science who helps the creature displays an interest and in so doing signs his death warrant from the KGB. The artist character shows a mature understanding re black people and also animal instinctual behaviour. He is the cultured person ignored by most.
One of the funniest moments for me in the film was when the van with the escaping "creature" strikes the newly acquired "teal" Cadillac, the symbol of wealth in America's 1950's and the CIA official's ensuing wrath.
We see the difference between him when he has abusive sex with his wife and the lyrical fantasy sexual scene in the bathroom between Elisa and the creature.
This film is a subtle criticism of American culture, brutality and cruelty toward those things we cannot understand or relate to and or perhaps fear. It is perhaps a lesson for us all still in modern society.
It is a great film with fine performances, please try to see past the sex and understand the underlying message of the director and my 'reading' of the film from a film studies perspective.
While Freud may be the father of modern psychology he has done a great disservice to society by increasing the interest of the sex drive as a motivating force by advertising agents and or ( film critics.)
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Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg
http://www.zoeainsworthgriggbooks.com/339348241 Zoe's biography
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