Annette Bening, Christian Bale, horror, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeannie Berlin, Jessie Buckley, John Magaro, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Matthew Maher, movies, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, reviews, The Bride, Zlatko Buric
March 4, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Culture Representation: Taking place in Chicago, in 1936, the horror film “The Bride!” (based on characters in the 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: After a rebellious partier meets an untimely death, she is resurrected to become the love partner of Frankenstein’s monster, and they both go on a crime spree.
Culture Audience: “The Bride!” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners that make several references to its preceding movies.
“The Bride!” is an unconventional, stylish and boldly feminist re-imagining of “Bride of Frankenstein” that will either irk or intrigue viewers. Jessie Buckley gives a sensational performance that exemplifies the film’s messy magnificence. People who expect “The Bride!” to follow the same storyline as director Frank Whale’s 1935 movie “Bride of Frankenstein” will probably dislike “The Bride!’s” version of the story. Everyone else who might be open to a uniquely different take on this story can expect to be taken on a bumpy but ultimately memorable and creative ride.
Written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Bride!” is based on characters in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.” The movie takes place in Chicago, in 1936. “The Bride!” was actually filmed in New York state and in New Jersey. It’s also the first major motion picture of the “Frankenstein” world that is written and directed by a woman.
Gyllenhaal cleverly gives a reminder of who created the “Frankenstein” franchise by making Mary Shelley (played by Buckley) a narrator character in the movie. Mary appears intermittently in extreme close-ups, in black-and-white footage. Mary comes across as someone who is a bit of a “mad scientist” herself, as she talks out loud to herself about how she is going to create the bride of Frankenstein character.
Mary says, “What I wanted to write about, what I need to say, I couldn’t … Darling, something is cracking. Is it a horror story, a ghost story, or most frightening of all: a love story?” Viewers of “The Bride!” might be asking themselves the same question because even though “The Bride!” is a horror movie at heart, it refuses to stay confined to traditional horror characteristics and branches out into some action, comedy and a little bit of the musical genre.
The title character in “The Bride!” is free-spirited Ida (played by Buckley), who in the 1930s would’ve been be called a “flapper” or a “good-time gal.” Ida is first seen partying at a table with some friends or acquaintances in a nightclub. She is drunk and seems to be enjoying herself.
Unbeknownst to Ida, the spirit of Mary Shelley suddenly inhabits her, and Ida starts talking like Mary and having body-jerking movements like a possessed person. Ida gets up on a table and starts ranting and loudly blurting out insults. And she aggressively accosts a Chicago mob kingpin named Lupino (played by Zlatko Burić), who is sitting nearby.
Ida’s confrontation with Lupino alarms Ida’s nightclub companions Cyrus (played by John Magaro) and James (played by Matthew Maher), who are also part of the criminal underworld. Cyrus and James hustle Ida out of the bar area of the nightclub and into a hallway that has a steep stairwell. They force her to eat an oyster, in an attempt to stop her outbursts.
Ida becomes even more agitated. She resists the efforts of Cyrus and James to physically restrain her. In the scuffle that ensues, Cyrus pushes Ida, who falls down the stairs, breaks her neck, and dies.
Not long after Ida’s death, an experimental scientist named Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (played by Annette Bening) gets a visit in her institute lab from a mysterious man who calls himself Frank (played by Christian Bale), who is actually the humanoid monster created by Dr. Frankenstein in the “Frankenstein” story. Frank tells Dr. Euphronius that he was born in Bavaria, in 1818. She finds it hard to believe that Frank is that old, so she gives him a medical exam.
Dr. Euphronius determines that Frank is the notorious monster created by Dr. Frankenstein. Frank tells Dr. Euphronius that he wants a bride as a cure for his loneliness. “I’m looking for an intercourse,” Frank says, which is the movie’s way of showing that Frank knows what sexual intercourse is but still doesn’t really know how to describe it. Dr. Euphronius is unwilling to create a humanoid from scratch, but she has the technology to revive human corpses.
At first, Dr. Euphronius is unwilling to revive a dead woman to be Frank’s love mate. “A lot of things can go wrong,” she tells Frank. “I thought you were a mad scientist,” Frank replies. “Aren’t you curious?” And then, they both laugh wickedly.
Dr. Euphronius and Frank go to Ida’s grave and dig up the body. It’s implied that Ida was chosen because her death might have made the news, and she didn’t have any nearby relatives. Frank thinks Ida looks too beautiful for him, but Dr. Euphronius insists that she’s not going to find another corpse for him.
When Ida is revived, she vomits up black bile, some of which she never bothers to wipe off. This black stain is on the side of her face for the entire movie. Frank is immediately smitten and feels protective of Ida. After she is revived, Ida is confused and isn’t told her name for most of the story. The movie has small tidbits of information about who Ida was before she died, but her entire backstory is deliberately a mystery because, just like Frank, viewers can think what they want about Ida and her past.
Before Ida was dug up from her grave, Frank visited a movie theater and became fixated on movies starring Ronnie Reed (played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s real-life brother), a matinee idol who is very similar to Tyrone Power. Frank starts to act like Ronnie is his hero and tries to be as smooth and suave as Ronnie. Frank eventually gets to meet Ronnie in a scene that is one of the darkly comedic moments in the movie.
Frank and Ida go on a crime spree that starts when they stow away on a train, a police officer tries to catch them, and Ida pushes the police officer off the moving train. The crime spree part of the movie is intentionally made to look like a Frank and Ida are a monster version of Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow), the real-life outlaw couple that got gunned down by law enforcement in 1934. Police detective Jake Wiles (played by Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s real-life husband) and his secretary Myrna Mallow (played by Penélope Cruz), who wants to be a detective, are in hot pursuit of Ida and Frank.
For “The Bride!,” the production design, makeup, hairstyling, Sandy Powell’s costume design, Lawrence Sher’s cinematography and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s musical score are all top-notch. The movie also gives an out-of-left-field nod to the 1990s Riot Grrrl movement, as outlaw Ida develops a fan base of mostly women. “The Bride!” has a steampunk Gothic aesthetic that is inventive and works very well for the tone of this movie.
“The Bride!” has a few moments that drag with repetition. But mostly, the movie is a showcase for Buckley. The rest of the talented cast members also gamely commit to their roles. Buckley gives a tour-de-force performance not just because Ida is undoubtedly the main focus of the movie, but Buckley also has to portray author/creator Mary Shelley, as well as the version of Ida that is possessed by Mary. Ida’s evolution in the movie sometimes comes at the detriment of other characters’ development.
Bale’s depiction of Frank has a lot of sly comedy that’s supposed to keep viewers guessing if Frank is a macho monster or a lovelorn monster or maybe a combination of both. The subplot of Frank’s fascination with Ronnie Reed could have been more interesting commentary on how movie star masculinity affects how men feel about themselves, but this subplot fizzles out after Frank meets Ronnie.
Jake and Myrna have a stereotypical relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate employee, with pompous Jake and sexist men being condescending to the constantly underestimated and intelligent Myrna. Dr. Euphronius and her nervous assistant Greta (played by Jeannie Berlin) come and go in the story because they don’t intend to control Ida and Frank. Not enough is done with the menacing character of gang boss Lupino, who could’ve been a more impactful criminal counterpoint to Ida and Frank during the couple’s crime spree. Lupino’s fate is satirically shown during the movie’s end credits, but it’s too little, too late.
“The Bride!” takes a lot of creative risks that mostly pay off for viewers who don’t want to watch a formulaic horror movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directing and screenplay for “The Bride!” aren’t completely cohesive, but the movie remains steadfast in its maverick vision of the story and its characters. Love it or hate it, “The Bride!” has a lot to say about body autonomy, partner co-dependency and gender dynamics in a world that tends to give more power to men than women. The movie’s messages are not subtle at all because overt messages are harder to ignore and dismiss.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “The Bride!” in U.S. cinemas on March 6, 2026.