Film Review #195: The Bride!
Film Review #195: The Bride!
The Demands of Being Alive
At least, the simple succinct movie title with an exclamation mark tells us it’s about to be a banger.
Thank you Warner Bros and Singapore Film Society for the privilege of attending The Bride! premiere. It was a little girl’s dream come true.
BEFORE THE RESURRECTION
When I first heard about The Bride! I wondered: why is there another Frankenstein film? Is this connected to Guillermo del Toro’s version that came out in 2025?
I have never read Mary Shelley’s novel nor watched the earlier films. My only exposure to anything remotely similar was Frankenweenie (2012), watched on DVD with my sister and my late golden retriever, Princess. [FRANKENWEENIE SPOILER IN THE NEXT SENTENCE] We cried when Sparky died and spent the whole afternoon treating Princess like royalty.
That was my introduction and probably only prior reference to Frankenstein.
So, I entered the cinema with limited knowledge. I avoided the trailer on purpose and only knew two things; Jessie Buckley was starring, and the film was directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, the Oscar-nominated director of The Lost Daughter (2021). I also knew that the film revisits 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein.
What I was truly drawn to was the story being told through The Bride’s perspective. I’ve always had a soft spot for women directors, and the idea of seeing this classic horror concept reimagined through a woman’s lens, I was all in.
As I thought about how to review this, I found myself reaching for other reviews. It’s a bad habit of mine to read other people’s online discussions before fully forming my own, and this was no different. While browsing, I even came across a Reddit user suggesting Lady Gaga as the Bride. I couldn’t help but imagine how fascinating that casting choice might have been. But after watching the film, I can decidedly say that Buckley brings a raw and unpredictable energy that makes the character feel uniquely her own.
GOTHIC AND UNIVERSAL
Set in 1930s Chicago, the story begins when a murdered young woman (Jessie Buckley) is dug up and brought back to life by Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale), Dr. Euphronius (Annette Benning), and her assistant Greta (Jeannie Berlin). But she is not merely a romantic companion. She becomes The Bride and more…
This is a gothic noir with feminist bite. It is violent and sexual. Tongues are cut out. Organs are kept as souvenirs. Women are murdered. This is equally a revenge romance and a detective thriller. These moments underline the film’s main theme: women’s voices being literally and metaphorically taken away.
What makes The Bride!
particularly compelling is that it seems less interested in the monster himself and more in the woman created beside him. Traditionally, versions of this story often ask what it means to create life. This version asks something more unsettling: what happens when that life demands agency of its own?
Watching it at Shaw Lido, the trippy panoramic cinema view made me extra conscious of the film’s details. Buckley’s unnameable smeared mascara ink-dark around her eyes and mouth, gives her a rebellious look contrary to typical beauty standards. In Nerdist's virtual interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal, she explained that the character came from noticing Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935), who only appears briefly and doesn’t speak, yet still makes a strong, defiant impression. She had originally imagined the story in the 1860s and ’70s, when people were speaking to the dead after the Civil War, and felt that same kind of strange, formidable energy fit her version of the character.
The Bride’s iconic saturated orange dress pops violently against the muted cityscape of the period setting, making her impossible to ignore. One particular dance sequence beneath a grand hotel chandelier felt strangely hypnotic, almost like choreography straight out of Netflix’s Wednesday.
This is no coincidence and credits are due. The film was shot on a Sony Venice 2 by Joker’s (2019) Director of Photography, Lawrence Sher, with the costumes designed by Oscar-nominee Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, 1998). These details contributed by them and the entire team that Gyllenhaal worked with build the very specific mood we see and feel connected to: dark, theatrical, gothic romance.
JESSIE BUCKLEY, THE WOMAN YOU ARE.
What I appreciated most was how messy the film allowed her to be. The Bride is not a typical polished symbol of empowerment. She is confused, furious, vulnerable, and sometimes frightening. That emotional unpredictability makes her feel human despite the film’s premise. It was beautiful seeing Buckley become a statement that other girls can model and protest their rights in the film.
Buckley, playingThe Bride, was able to split into the different internal characters and monologue. The depiction of the ‘internal lady’ within her was the cherry on top in showing her growing fury and self acceptance.
At its core, The Bride! reimagines the tale not simply as a monster story, but as a study of loneliness. Frankenstein’s monster, is simple and kind, feels less like pure terror and more like a sad man clinging onto love. Meanwhile, The Bride awakens without memory but has a fierce and independent instinct. Around them, corrupt police and murdered women reveal a wider pattern of misogyny that the film refuses to ignore. The horror becomes a symbol: Whose voices are silenced, and who dares to reclaim them?
All I have left to say about the underlying message is, women deserve to be heard, respected, and believed. And while some may try to suppress and take advantage of them, there are also men who have a choice to listen, learn, and help create a world where no one has to abuse or feel superior, just to have a voice.
For audiences willing to dive into its beautiful, bold gothic world, the film offers a visually rich story about rage, identity, and the power of finally speaking up.
Perhaps that’s why the exclamation mark in the title works so well. The Bride! isn’t trying to scare you. Instead, it jolts us into thinking emphatically about sexual violence, abuse, manipulation, bodily autonomy and calling someones inappropriate behaviour out.
And for those watching in theaters, it’s worth staying till the end of the credits.
The film officially releases in Singapore theatres on March 5, 2026.
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This article is written by Shree.
This review is published as part of *SCAPE’s Film Critics Lab: A Writing Mentorship Programme, with support from Singapore Film Society.
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