Film Review: The Bride!

The Bride!
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
First Love Films, In The Current Company
In Theaters: 03.06.2026

Mary Shelley may have somehow thought of Guillermo del Toro when she wrote Frankenstein. It’s a novel whose sensibilities are tailored to his style and his obsession with monsters that have heart. As good as del Toro’s adaptation was, I felt that he was afraid of its campy roots and, with all his might, avoided the groaning, bolt-necked pop-icon at the center of the 1931 adaptation. The Bride! intends to play into the pop-camp by adapting the 1936 sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, which wants to be a Bonnie & Clyde-like romp through the roaring twenties but ends up feeling like a serious case of “Jokerfication.”

The Bride! is about the death and rebirth of a woman (Jessie Buckley, Hamnet, I’m Thinking of Ending Things) possessed by the ghost of Mary Shelley and her relationship with a melancholic and lonely Frankenstein’s Monster (Christian Bale, American Psycho, The Dark Knight) — Frank, if you’re into the whole brevity thing.

Since Joker became the highest-grossing R-rated film back in 2019, we have been graced with the reimagining of characters that have been “Jokerified.” Characteristics of Jokerification include an act of violence that sparks countercultural revolution against the elites and corrupt; people dressing like and quoting the icon, a mentally-ill lead who’s at first debilitated by their insanity until they fully assimilate it into their personality; a form of amnesia; and a finale where it all falls apart. Ironically, Jokerification is actually a “Taxi-Driverification” of Joker.

In one word, The Bride! is inexplicable. You will go into this movie and find yourself asking more and more questions as it barrels through its bloated runtime, leaving nothing resolved while it beats your head in with scene after scene of the most grating dialogue, the most generic cinematography, the strangest performances of the year and the most subplots that can be crammed into a movie. I make it out to be a terrible watch, but I seriously cannot recommend this movie enough. I have no clue what compelled Maggie Gyllenhaal to write and direct this, but I am grateful. I haven’t had the chance to stifle a laugh at a movie in the theater for a while, and it’s always a joy when I can.

Oscar-winner Buckley’s portrayal of the Bride is certainly a performance of all time. I loved her in Hamnet. Obviously she is a very good actress, but the verbal ticks, erratic head swinging and a serious case of overacting make her out to be amateurish. Bale plays Frankenstein’s monster who, even at his lowest, delivers memorable performances. Frank is totally forgettable. There’s a highlight from Zlatko Burić, who is so awful that he steals every drama scene he is in and makes it outrageously funny.

The script is where the jokerification is at its worst. It turns the camp Bride of Frankenstein into a feminist revolution, except I can’t exactly explain how they’re revolting. Inspired by an act of the Bride where she calls out men for stealing ideas from women by proclaiming it’s a “brain attack,” a bunch of women go out on the streets, fire guns into the air and scream “brain attack.” I’m not critiquing the feminist ideology, mind you. I think the film is right in its examination, but the way it’s shown is ludicrous and feels like they’re revolting against nothing by terrorizing bystanders on the street instead of taking the fight to corrupt officials.

The dialogue is terrible, and the way the film portrays sex and debauchery is underdeveloped, feeling more excessive than it is liberating and impactful. The hundreds of subplots dilute the main story. Nothing feels fully developed, leaving its audience with a pretty empty feeling by the time the credits roll.

The Bride! was a genuine effort — that much is obvious — but it fails to stick the landing and doesn’t come close to honoring the campiness of the original. —B. Allan Johnson

Read more film reviews by B. Allan Johnson:
Film Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Film Review: No Other Choice