You know you are in for a scary night out even before the curtain rises on the Royal Ballet’s Frankenstein. The frontcloth is a huge, creepy skull which appears increasingly menacing at the start of each act.

Fresh from his triumph in creating a new Swan Lake last year, Liam Scarlett’s first full-length ballet for the company is back at Covent Garden, with a programme advisory that it is not suitable for children under 12. There will be plenty of adults who find it unsuitable too, for this rather gruesome retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel depicts several murders and a hanging scene.

We follow the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young man obsessed with the idea of bringing his mother back to life, whose experiments lead to the “birth” of the repulsive Creature.  This Creature is far scarier than the popular image created by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film.  Here we have no stereotypical lumbering monster, but a scarred and mutilated being; an assortment of body parts sewn together to create one hideous whole. Indeed, one of the most effective scenes in the ballet is when the Creature is brought to life: cue lots of strobe lighting, pyrotechnics and sawing of limbs.

On the opening night, the role of the Creature was danced by Wei Wang, a guest artist from the San Francisco Ballet. He succeeded in making the Creature both frightening and vulnerable, while Federico Bonelli portrayed Victor Frankenstein as a man overcome with guilt at what he has created.

The score, by Lowell Liebermann, is at its most melodic in Scarlett’s soaring and swooping pas de deux for Victor and his fiancée, Elizabeth – beautifully danced by Laura Morera. And there is a lovely waltz in Act III which brings to mind Ravel’s feverish La Valse and even Prokofiev’s Waltz of the Stars from Cinderella.

John Macfarlane’s designs are chilling, particularly those for the anatomy lab where the Creature first appears, and full marks must go to the make-up team, but no, this is definitely not a ballet for the little ones.

Frankenstein is at the Royal Opera House until 23 March.