The Bride! (2026)
Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride is born. But what ensues is beyond what either of them imagined.
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…and later we get a long car-chase sequence that leans heavily on the 1967 "Bonnie and Clyde."
…the references to other movies often fall flat (among others, there are allusions to Cabaret, Bonnie and Clyde, Joker, Swing Time, and, of course, Young Frankenstein)…
…las fugas de la pareja protagonista que recuerdan mucho a las de Bonnie and Clyde…
The visuals, the references-- you know, I came out of there just, like, wanting to turn Bonnie and Clyde back on, you know, like wanting to see all my fun things again.
From Bonnie and Clyde and Barbara Stanwyck’s Baby Face to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ musicals…
…visuals that nod directly to Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde…
…brought back to life by tubes attached and “Poor Things”-style cathodes hooked up…
It's a chaotic take that's more Poor Things than Universal Monsters, albeit a traditional Frankenstein interpretation.
When films like Poor Things tackle similar ideas of independence and choice, it begs the question from those looking for how The Bride! tries to make its own mark, and sadly, it doesn't completely.
It’s obvious that Gyllenhaal envied Emma Stone’s sex-toy portrayal in Poor Things, the Yorgos Lanthimos gyno-obscenity.
When Lady Gaga’s Joker: Folie à Deux and Emma Stone’s Poor Things already exist as superior Bride of Frankenstein motifs of recent years…
…if one wanted a good modern Bride of Frankenstein riff, Poor Things remains available for you to watch.
There's an elaborate black-and-white dance scene, actually set to "Puttin' on the Ritz," that is boldly copped from Mel Brooks' 1974 "Young Frankenstein,"…
…the references to other movies often fall flat (among others, there are allusions to Cabaret, Bonnie and Clyde, Joker, Swing Time, and, of course, Young Frankenstein)…
How else can one reconcile scenes like the one where Frank and Ida perform an elaborate dance number to “Putting on the Ritz,” famously featured in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein?
…a ritzy sequence that briefly recalls the very best bit in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein…
…extended homages to the top-hat-and-tails sophistication of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein…
…leading to fantasy dance sequences that are a split between Astaire/Rogers pictures and Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.
It's the Moulin Rouge! of monster movies. Or maybe it's the Natural Born Killers of monster movies. Or maybe it's both.
…the doomed nihilistic romanticism of NATURAL BORN KILLERS…
Drawing freely from a vast store of vintage and unofficial Frankenstein narratives—as well as from old Hollywood gangster pictures, Busby Berkeley musicals, and honeymoon-killer classics like Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers…
…the anarchic, media-saturated nihilism of Natural Born Killers.
Ida’s call to arms for oppressed women, set against the background of her and Frank’s crime spree, plays out like a less caustic version of Natural Born Killers.
Mickey and Mallory from "Natural Born Killers" would be a more money-making analogy, but this journey through post-Depression America doesn't have the same sardonic zing.
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The spiritual and aesthetic connection to the Joker duology, especially to its second film (yes, there are musical numbers here), is also something that is bound to haunt the discussion around Gyllenhaal’s film…
…the references to other movies often fall flat (among others, there are allusions to Cabaret, Bonnie and Clyde, Joker, Swing Time, and, of course, Young Frankenstein)…
Lawrence Sher’s cinematography bathes the film in a mixture of smoky chiaroscuro and theatrical spotlights that evoke the vintage tension of his work on Todd Phillips’ Joker…
Visually, it’s messy yet striking as well, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher doing things not dissimilar from what he did on Joker.
La cercanía estética de ¡La novia! a la “versión prestigiosa” de personajes e historias que vienen del cómic, como las películas de Joker…
While the film does stumble in the writing department, production designer Karen Murphy and costume designer Sandy Powell transform the film into a vivid, glittering 1930s playground. The film frequently invites Joker comparisons, an association made unavoidable by the presence of cinematographer Lawrence Sher and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir.
You could add the punk nature of Sid and Nancy…
Love story: Can you get audiences to root for the monster couple (like Romeo and Juliet) or be awed by their depravity (like Sid and Nancy).
Sid & Nancy…
Buckley, who kept reminding me of Chloe Webb in Sid and Nancy, has a marvelous insouciant deadpan as the nattering Bride, covering a fiercely angry heart.
…a go-for-broke reimagining of The Bride of Frankenstein by way of Sid and Nancy…
I was here to see a monster movie take on the structure of a Bonnie & Clyde meets Sid & Nancy…
…with Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN and now this film…
One of many times in which The Bride! is unfortunate in its timing so soon after Guillermo del Toro’s ravishing Frankenstein is the lab reanimation process, absent here of any mounting tension. The same applies to Bale’s monster, who swoons and chuckles over elegant movie musicals featuring matinee idol Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), but can’t match the depth of feeling Jacob Elordi brought to the role for del Toro.
…which was about a week after watching the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein and kind of getting to see these extremely audacious, kind of idiosyncratic visions of Frankenstein and the Frankenstein myth kind of in strange conversation with each other.
…it seemed likely that it didn’t want to debut directly alongside Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein…
After last year’s Frankenstein film from Guillermo del Toro…
It would be unfair to make comparisons to Guillermo del Toro’s recent, Oscar-nominated “Frankenstein,” but at times these two find some of the wounded tenderness Jacob Elordi evoked to such a high degree in the del Toro film.
…and The Rocky Horror Picture Show…
Homenaje al terror clase B, al gore y a los clásicos de monstruos de la Universal, a las historias de amor épicas y trágicas que van desde Romeo y Julieta hasta Bonnie & Clyde, al musical paródico con estética camp con citas que incluyen a El joven Frankenstein, The Rocky Horror Picture Show y Cabaret, a las películas de gánsteres, al film noir (Pacto de sangre / Double Indemnity), a las screwball comedies (Ayuno de amor / His Girl Friday), a las road movies (Thelma & Louise), pero también con elementos que remiten de forma directa a la exitosa Guasón y al despliegue pop de Zack Snyder…
…a rackety, violent black comedy with twists of Rocky Horror…
It’s not unlike The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
…carries a vibe that reminds me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show…
But there are also big nods to wilder takes on the legend, including YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and even movies that have nothing to do with FRANKENSTEIN, like BONNIE AND CLYDE.
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…with a side of “Wild at Heart,”…
Wild at Heart is probably the best point of comparison — a doomed and complicated couple on a nightmarish yet beautiful road trip. Sure, these ones are literal monsters.
A mix of classic horror and “Bonnie and Clyde,” with a side of “Wild at Heart,”…
David Lynch’s Wild at Heart…
Reconceiving the tale as an art deco, neon-infused, lovers-on-the-run story — as much Wild at Heart as Bonnie & Clyde…
It's the Moulin Rouge! of monster movies. Or maybe it's the Natural Born Killers of monster movies. Or maybe it's both.
Imagine Moulin Rouge! (both films earning their exclamation points) remounted as a proto-feminist horror movie, and you’ll begin to get a sense of the wild swings being taken here.
…part tragic romance, part gangster drama and part, I don’t know, “Moulin Rouge” spectacle…
But Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! earns its exclamation point like no movie since Moulin Rouge!
…leading to some chaos that veers from Bonnie & Clyde to Moulin Rouge…