My Review of The Bride! (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal 

Frank: "The Bride of Frankenstein."

The Bride: "Just the Bride."

I was really hoping that the critical were going to be wrong about this movie. I really wanted them to be. This movie had talent both in front and behind the camera and an interesting variation on a classic monster story. How did it go so wrong?

I think maybe the bouncing back and forth between Mary Shelley (the author of Frankenstein) and a young woman named Ida, both of whom were played by Jessie Buckley certainly didn't help matters. For some reason, Mary was able to possess Ida but the movie made no effort to explain it as such.

When Ida was possessed by Mary, she went on feminist rants that were written in a very purple prose sort of way. Ida's rants eventually got her killed but death wouldn't be the ending of her story. Instead, it was a prelude to a literal rebirth for her.

This was where Frank aka Frankenstein (Christian Bale) and mad scientist Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening) factored into things. Frank needed a lover and Euphronious went along with in spite her initial misgivings about playing with the dead. If anything, she could have resisted a bit more before resurrecting Ida.

Now we had three women at once for Jessie Buckley to play. She was Mary Shelley who had another story to tell. She was Ida who was conflicted about her past. She was also The Bride determined to make her own choices, including rejecting Frank's proposal attempts as she grew closer to him. I mean they did have a Bonnie & Clyde dynamic in the second half of the movie.

As a duo, both The Bride and Frank caused a lot of chaos, which included terrorising an actor named Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal) when The Bride wasn't ripping out a corrupt cop's tongue. There was also a detective duo with Ida's ex, Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his protégé Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz).

The movie hurtled towards a hamfisted conclusion that combined elements of the original source material and the criminal couple that our leads tried so hard to emulate. The feminist messaging on the other hand kind of got lost in the shuffle as it turned out that death really wasn't an obstacle.

- The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) had the same idea of Mary Shelley and The Bride being played by the same actor. It worked better there.

- This was the second time that Maggie Gyllenhaal had directed both Jessie Buckley and Peter Sarsgaard and cast them as volatile exes. 

- Standout music: Jake Gyllenhaal's My Sin and Luther Allison's Maelstrom.

- Chronology: 1930s Chicago for the duration of the movie with flashbacks to Mary Shelley in the 1800s.

The Bride! had all the potential in the world to be one of the best movies of 2026. It had the right people behind and in front of the camera but it's a misfire all round. The performances are erratic, the script's clunky and the messaging just didn't land. A genuine shame.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

 

Written by William Hurlbut And John L. Balderston

Directed by James Whale 

The Monster (to Pretorius/the Bride): "We belong dead."

Yes, I'm reviewing the middle part of a trilogy first but I do promise to get to the other movies at some point. I just really wanted to watch this one first. For a film that's drawing close to it's 90th anniversary, there was plenty to enjoy here.

First of all, the Monster (Boris Karloff) himself might have survived the events of his first outing but he's still the village pariah and he's still being hunted and feeling lonely. Yes, there's sympathy to be had for the Monster during the movie.

Then there's also the man responsible for all the mess the Monster had made. It turned out that Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) also survived the events of the first movie, regretful of his actions while reunited with his fiancee, Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson). However his hopes of staying away from his creation weren't meant to be.

In this movie, the Monster had made an ally in Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger). Pretorius who had a professional rivalry with Frankenstein and forced the latter into aiding him and the Monster by holding Elizabeth prisoner. What was the big plan? Oh, a partner for the Monster of course.

Going by the title of the movie, a bride (Elsa Lanchester) was the order of the day and she appeared almost at the last minute. Of course she wasn't best pleased with the idea of the Monster as a potential mate and their match came to something of a fiery ending. 

- Elsa Lanchester pulled double duty here as she also played Mary Shelley at the start of the movie, recounting the Monster's story.

- Boris Karloff was against the Monster speaking in this movie but not the character getting over his fear of fire by enjoying smoking.

- Henry's referred to as Baron instead of being a doctor in the movie.

- Chronology: Not after the events of Frankenstein (1931).

Bride Of Frankenstein certainly was a triumph of a sequel. While the title character did show up much later than expected and was almost too quickly done away with, she did leave quite an impression. Then again, so did the Monster on his second outing. 

Rating: 9 out of 10