The Bride!
Rating: 3.5/5
The monsters cinematic universe is here to stay. We’ve been treated to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and even Guillermo del Toro’s spin on Frankenstein. Now sinking her teeth into the fold is Maggie Gyllenhaal behind the lens with The Bride!
The current slate of monster movies romances the old favourite monsters as something to desire. Not in the Twilight sense but in a Tim Burton meets Ryan Murphy infatuation way. In The Bride! we see how important this is to its core message around self-acceptance.
For Gyllenhaal, this movie was sparked by a tattoo she came across that roused curiosity and prompted her to watch the 1935 version The Bride of Frankenstein. What left her irate was that the original zombie bride barely had 10 minutes on screen, obsessing about everyone around her, including the stapled zombie, her makers and even Mary Shelley, who never penned her tale.
Strangely enough, this new take puts Mary in the driving seat. Appearing as a beleaguered ghost in the afterlife, Mary laments over her painful existence in the shadows. She possesses Ida, played by current it-girl Jessie Buckley, to unleash what could best be described as her innate rage for society in 1920s America.
Sure, the back and forth between the two entities could only have been pulled off by someone of Buckley’s calibre (even with slithers that make this character feel like a lost opportunity for OTT queen Lady Gaga), but it mars the little avenues it tries to trek.
During her possession, Ida ends up murdered by the goons of mafioso Lupino, played by Zlatko Burić, who played the role of a similar psychopath in Superman 2025; and a lonely Frankenstein (Christian Bale) wonders into the lab of Dr Euphronius (Annette Benning) to end his years of loneliness and acquire a companion. While bringing Ida back to life as The Bride, her possession by Mary results in bouts of madness and rage as she slowly unravels who she was in contrast to who Frankenstein needs her to believe she is.
At first, this reimagined origin seems chaotic, but what really tie this offbeat movie’s bold swings together are the connective tissues stitched together by each character’s expectations and reality.
Kicking off the events is Bale’s Frank, who is obsessed with becoming the perfect gentleman, like his favourite movie star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal). Glued to the screen watching Ronnie’s movies, Frank becomes obsessive, relating his own disfigurement to Ronnie’s lopsided legs. Ronnie’s charming on-screen characters inspire him to become the perfect gentleman, with bouts of sudden showtune dances to boot.
Alongside the men in the movie, he becomes a tool for subversion, as they are constantly shocked by the women around them. Frank assumes Dr Euphronios is a man and is surprised when meeting Benning’s approach to the character. We also see the detective played by Penelope Cruz having to navigate a misogynistic work environment that constantly erases her presence. These women often highlight the shortcomings of the men and their failures that are easier to hide when in the presence of other men.
This is also the case with the return of Mary Shelley. In the original, her whimsical scene in the intro acts as a catch-up for those who may have forgotten or did not see the first Frankenstein movie. In this take, Mary laments the image of herself and how her work has been viewed. She possesses Ida to awaken that similar frustration she feels in how women are expected to behave.
Through her unpacking her death and her new identity as The Bride, she causes a revolt in other women who tire of the expectations to meet the standards placed on them. This is even in the problematic origins of her relationship with Frank, who has to come to terms with who he must become rather than the ideal self seen in Ronnie’s characters.
2026 offers a bevvy of films built around costuming. The Bride! will certainly sit among those. But when it comes to the conversations it elicits and its place in today’s offerings, it becomes a necessary exploration of our relationship with the fantasies we build. Whether we lust after great career successes, whirlwind romances or to be seen for our great achievements, there is always room for disappointment.
The Bride! not only comforts that tragic reality but affirms that there are ways to make a stand and fight for what makes you happy rather than the fantasy of what will make people like you.
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