On March 6th Warner Bros released the latest Universal monster movie remake titled ‘The Bride!’ Starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, this film draws inspiration from ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’ (1935) and has left audiences split.
Directed By Maggie Gyllenhaal, this film is a blend of a monster movie, a crime noir, and an artsy period piece. It follows a recently deceased young woman in the 1930s who is revived by a scientist at the request of Frankenstein’s monster.
A positive of this film are the billed cast that give convincing performances. However, none of these hold a candle to the wild and sporadic acting of Jessie Buckley.
The 2026 Academy Awards Best Actress winner, gives a manic performance and clearly pours everything into this role. The duality present in her character of Ida borders on calm and sane, to wacky, crazy, and surprisingly trigger-happy. Contrasted with Christian Bale’s stony, monstrous performance, and that is a recipe for some nice character chemistry.
Additionally, the film has a unique style that seeks to combine early 20th century Art Deco while also infusing a refreshing modern look. ‘The Bride!’ is simply bursting with character.
Unfortunately, ‘The Bride!’ tries to do too much. The film begins strongly by delivering on what the trailers promised moviegoers: a film about a resurrected woman and her romantic escapades.
However, around the halfway point, the movie decides it wants to deviate from the smooth narrative and become a elongated chase film. It tosses in Bonnie and Clyde elements and inserts a localized revolution to bad effect.
The problem with these elements are that they start to lose focus themselves. There is another plot point introduced at the beginning of the film that serves as a backdrop for Buckley’s character’s accident. The issue with this is that it does not come into play until roughly the beginning of the third act.
This is not enough time for ‘The Bride!’ to develop this opening story point and thus the impact of the one of the antagonists in this film is lessened.
‘The Bride!’ sets out to refine the original source material it is based on, as well as add an artsy spin. It is a film that wastes no time in introducing the conflict and setting the stage. Sadly it attempts to weave too many plot points and ideas towards it’s latter half and loses focus.
So if you get past these problems and are looking for a film that is quickly paced and loads of fun maybe give ‘The Bride!’ a try. If not, perhaps just stick to the black and white classics.
Micah Mowry is a dude who likes to write stuff. That’s all you gotta know.