The Bride!

The Bride!

The Bride! is a 2026 American Gothic romance film directed and written by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Jessie Buckley (in a dual role), Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penélope Cruz. The film draws inspiration from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, which was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.

The Bride! had its world premiere at the Empire Leicester Square in London, on February 26, 2026. It was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 6. It received mixed reviews and was a financial failure, grossing $23 million worldwide on a budget of $90 million.

Plot

The Bride!

Speaking from the afterlife, Mary Shelley says she has a story she wanted to tell after Frankenstein, but could not due to her death. To tell it, she possesses Ida, a woman living in 1936 Chicago, who in her trance proceeds to discuss the criminal activities of crime boss Lupino. Lupino's henchmen Clyde and James discreetly take her aside where Shelley's ranting causes her to fall down a flight of stairs to her death.

Elsewhere in Chicago, Frankenstein's monster, AKA "Frank", arrives at the house of scientist Dr. Cornelia Euphronius. Having read about Euphronius' work on reanimation, he enlists her to create a companion for him after a century of loneliness. Euphronius and Frank choose Ida's corpse and successfully revive her, but she loses her memory in the process. Frank takes advantage of this and states that she is his bride and lost her memory in an accident.

Frank and Ida see a movie featuring Frank's favorite actor Ronnie Reed and then go dancing at a club. As they leave, two men attempt to assault her and Frank kills them. Frank tells her to leave him, but she decides to run away with him. They stow away in a train to New York City, killing a security officer who discovers them after Shelley causes her to have an outburst. Meanwhile, Detective Jake Wiles and his assistant Myrna Malloy investigate the murders and eventually follow them to New York.

While the pair are in hiding, Frank tells her her name is Penelope Rogers. Penelope causes chaos in a screening of Revolt of the Zombies and they seek refuge from the police and an angry mob at a high-class party. Frank runs into Ronnie Reed and expresses his adoration, but is dismissed. Frank begins to dance like Reed does in his films, Penelope joining him, as do party-goers possessed by Mary Shelley. Detective Wiles and the police arrive at the party, but fall back when Penelope holds Reed at gunpoint and calls out men in attendance for abusing women. Wiles recognizes her real identity as Ida. Penelope kills a police officer, and she and Frank escape the city in a stolen car.

Penelope and Frank's crime spree becomes well-publicized and Lupino recognizes her in a newspaper. He executes James for failing to silence her and dispatches Clyde to kill her again. Meanwhile, Malloy makes a connection between reports of murders/sightings of the pair in cities where Reed's films were set. This prompts Malloy and Wiles to travel to Niagara Falls where they find the couple. Wiles confronts them and informs Penelope of her previous identity as Ida before she shoots him in the foot. Fleeing, an angered Penelope takes the injured Frank to a drive-in, where he tells her the truth of her origins.

Wiles explains to Malloy that he and Ida were planning to take down Lupino and expresses guilt that his inaction led to her death. He decides to retire and promotes Malloy as his replacement. Malloy tracks the couple to the drive-in. Frank apologizes for his actions and affirms his love for Penelope/Ida who decides to call herself the Bride. As he proposes, Clyde fatally shoots him but the Bride escapes with Frank's body, returning to Euphronius' laboratory, followed by Malloy.

Euphronius refuses to reanimate Frank, citing that her attempts to reanimate her husband went wrong, leading her to have to kill him. Clyde breaks into the laboratory and fatally shoots the Bride before fleeing. The police arrive before Malloy orders them to search for Clyde, leaving Euphronius with the Bride's and Frank's corpses. Encouraged by Malloy and Mary from the afterlife, Euphronius decides to revive the couple. Outside, the police arrest Clyde. Malloy sees bright lights shine from the laboratory. Inside, the revived corpses hold hands.

During the credits, Lupino is apprehended by Wiles and female rioters inspired by the Bride.

Cast

The Bride!

• Jessie Buckley as Ida / Penelope Rogers / The Bride, a woman brought back from the dead • Buckley also portrays Mary Shelley, the ghost of the author of Frankenstein • Christian Bale as "Frank", the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein • Peter Sarsgaard as Jake Wiles, a police detective who investigates Frank and the Bride • Annette Bening as Dr. Cornelia Euphronious, a scientist who assists Frank • Jake Gyllenhaal as Ronnie Reed, a popular Hollywood actor idolized by Frank • Penélope Cruz as Myrna Malloy, Jake's assistant • John Magaro as Clyde, an associate of Lupino • Matthew Maher as James, an associate of Lupino • Zlatko Burić as Lupino, a crime boss • Jeannie Berlin as Greta, Euphronious' maid • Julianne Hough as Iris/Jinx, a Hollywood actress who co-stars in Reed's films • Louis Cancelmi as Officer Goodman, a police officer who crosses paths with Frank and the Bride

Swedish musician Fever Ray makes a cameo appearance in the film, performing music from the soundtrack.

Production

Development

In August 2023, the weekly issue of Production Weekly reported a forthcoming remake of the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein from Netflix, written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Penélope Cruz, Christian Bale, and Peter Sarsgaard (Gyllenhaal's husband).

Pre-production

The Bride! is the second feature film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

In January 2024, it was announced that Warner Bros. Pictures was producing the film and Annette Bening had joined its ensemble cast, which included Jessie Buckley (who starred in Gyllenhaal's feature directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, in 2021) as "the star of the movie", alongside Bale, Cruz, and Sarsgaard. According to Deadline Hollywood, Bale and Buckley were "circling this project well before the strikes". In March 2024, Julianne Hough came on board to star, with John Magaro and Jeannie Berlin joining the following month. In June, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie's brother, revealed he would also star.

In August 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, co-chairs and CEOs of the Warner Bros. motion picture unit, with "a reputation in Hollywood for being talent whisperers with a willingness to spend", had "stepped in to foot the bill" after Netflix left the project (which included a disagreement over Gyllenhaal wanting to film in New York while Netflix pushed for New Jersey because it would be cheaper), adding that "The movie's costs, including production and marketing, will likely exceed $100 million." Gyllenhaal emphasized the creative freedom granted to her by De Luca and Abdy.

Filming

Principal photography was scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024, in New York City. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher shot the film entirely with IMAX-certified digital cameras, marking his first collaboration with Gyllenhaal. Sher primarily shot The Bride! with the Sony Venice 2 digital camera while the Sony FX3 was used for select shots. The film's main aspect ratio is 2:39:1 which expands into 1:43:1 and 1:90:1 aspect ratios in the IMAX format. In January 2025, Deadline reported the film's budget as being $80 million, less than the $100 million it would have cost had it remained at Netflix.

Post-production

During post-production, editing was completed by Dylan Tichenor. The score was composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, who replaced the previously announced Jonny Greenwood. Swedish Musician Fever Ray announced they would compose two songs for the soundtrack and make an appearance in the film. Gyllenhaal cut some violent sequences, including those of sexual violence, from the film in response to negative test screenings; one particular moment cut involved Frankenstein licking the black vomit off the Bride's neck.

Release

Theatrical

The Bride! had its world premiere at the Empire Leicester Square in London, on February 26, 2026. It was first released in France and South Korea on March 4, 2026, and in the United States on March 6, 2026, in IMAX. It was previously scheduled for release on October 3, 2025, and September 26, 2025.

Home media

The Bride! will be released on digital streaming on April 7, 2026, and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on May 19, 2026.

Reception

Box office

As of March 26, 2026, The Bride! has grossed $13 million in the United States and Canada and $11 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $23 million. Variety, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter declared the movie a box office bomb.

In the United States and Canada, The Bride! was projected to gross $16–18 million from 3,304 theaters during its opening weekend. The film earned $3 million on its opening day, including $1 million from Thursday previews. It ultimately bombed in its opening weekend, only grossing $7.3 million in the United States and Canada, where it placed third behind Hoppers and second-week holdover Scream 7, and $6.3 million elsewhere for a worldwide gross of $13.6 million. The Bride! was expected to lose upwards of $90 million for the studio due to its limited appeal, high production costs, and negative word-of-mouth. In its second weekend, it dropped 70% and grossed only $2.1 million domestically.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 306 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Concocted with all the restraint of a mad scientist's experiment, The Bride! lurches in so many different creative directions that the overall effect is both sloppy and inspired." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100 based on 55 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

The Guardian's reviewer Peter Bradshaw gave four stars out of five and states, "Jessie Buckley is electrifying as frizzy-haired, black-tongued monster's wife". In a two out of five review, Donald Clarke of The Irish Times stated that "it is loud. It is brash. It is willfully discordant. But it also, alas, exhibits a contrasting strain of clunkiness that would be more at home in an undergraduate revue". Owen Gleiberman of Variety explained that "it's like [Joker: Folie à Deux] starring a grunge version of the Munsters, with dollops of Sid and Nancy and Natural Born Killers. Except that the movie doesn't move". In an explainer for MovieWeb, J.E. Reich concluded The Bride! could be best understood by accepting that "in Gyllenhaal's movie, the world operates on a single infuriating piece of tautology [in that the] stories we read or see on screen are lies, but they also mimic the stories we base our lives on [...] stories are lies and lies are stories, and it's enough to drive us beyond the brink". Writing for Empire Online, Leila Latif was less enthused, concluding "ultimately what the film most exudes is incompetence," and calling it "a hot mess" and "a crushing disappointment." Other critics shared a similar view of the film. Stephanie Zacharek of Time described the film as "an intellectual joyride without the joy". Richard Brody of The New Yorker stated that "the movie has the form of mismatched pieces stitched together and brought to life more willfully than coherently".