It seems unlikely any new film will ever top – or even equal – 1935’s classic Bride of Frankenstein but we find sporadic new takes on the subject matter. With 2026’s The Bride!, actor Maggie Gyllenghaal goes behind the camera to give it a go.

In Chicago circa 1936, the Frankenstein monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening). The scientist specializes in reanimation and Frank hopes she can provide him with a mate.

When the spirit of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley possesses her, Ida (Jessie Buckley) dies in a fall. After Dr. Euphronius brings her back to life – minus her memory – Ida and Frank embark on a variety of adventures.

If nothing else, Gyllenhaal shoots for the fences here. She definitely doesn’t play it safe with Bride!, as the film embraces a variety of daring moves.

Whether or not these stabs at creativity succeed becomes a different matter. Some do but a lot don’t.

Bride! threatened to lose me at the start. Narration from Frankenstein author Mary Shelley (Buckley) relates that she died before she could tell a second tale, so she possesses Ida to get out this narrative.

This allows Buckley the chance to show her versatility, as she often shifts characters mid-stream and needs to take on a variety of attitudes. The whole thing feels clever-clever to me and I can’t help but think that Bride! might work better without these pretensions.

Bride! also barely attempts to cobble together an actual plot. Episodic in nature, it often feels like a mix of Bonnie and Clyde and Sid and Nancy.

At its core, though, Bride! gives us a female revenge story. This means it can feel like Promising Young Woman but without the same level of cleverness or insight.

Indeed, Bride! sometimes slows to a crawl so Ida can excoriate abusive male characters. I certainly get this POV but Gyllenhaal executes it in a clumsy manner.

This leads to some eye-rolling moments. During a scene in which Ida recites a list of abused women, Gyllenhaal actually forces a supporting role to shout “me too!”

That becomes just one of the many on the nose aspects of the film. Again, Gyllenhaal has her heart in the right place but she beats us over the head with her themes in a manner that undercuts their impact.

Even without these pretensions, though, Bride! only fitfully works. All over the place, it too often feels like Gyllenhaal generated a lot of ideas and plopped them in randomly whether they made sense or not.

Again, I admire Gyllenhaal’s ambition and her refusal to play it safe. However, the end product seems too messy to succeed.

Footnote: a tag scene pops up early in the end credits.

The Bride! appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K project, the Dolby Vision image worked well.

Sharpness seemed excellent. No obvious softness crept into the presentation.

Neither jaggies nor moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

The film’s palette leaned toward a grungy sense of orange and teal, though it infused shots of the Bride with reds. The colors appeared well-rendered given those choices, and HDR added breadth to the hues.

Blacks felt deep and dense, while shadows seemed appropriate. Those shots could look a smidgen dim but this stemmed from photographic decisions.

HDR brought impact to whites and contrast. All in all, the film looked very good.

Note that IMAX screenings of Bride! used alternate ratios like 1.43:1 and 1.90:1 along with 2.39:1. The 4K UHD stuck solely with 2.39:1, though.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack offered a quality affair. Unsurprisingly, the movie’s sporadic action scenes brought the best involvement to the proceedings, as they utilized the soundscape in a vivid way.

General ambience fleshed out the spectrum nicely as well. Music used all the channels in a pleasing manner.

Audio quality worked well, with speech that appeared natural and concise. The score and songs felt full and vibrant.

Effects became accurate and dynamic, with deep bass as necessary. Though not quite an “A”-level mix, the end product satisfied.

Four featurettes appear and Stitching Together The Bride! lasts eight minutes, 16 seconds. It brings notes from writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff, production designer Karen Murphy and actors Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, and Penelope Cruz.

They discuss story/characters and why Gyllenhaal pursued the project as well as cast, story/characters, visual design and Gyllenhaal's take on the tale. A few useful insights emerge but much of "Stitching" just offers banal praise.

Designing the Look spans eight minutes, 46 seconds. The reel involves Gyllenhaal, Buckley, Bale, Koskoff, Sarsgaard, special effects makeup designer Scott Stoddard, prosthetic makeup supervisor Robin Pritchard, prosthetic makeup artist Stella Sensel, hairstylist Lori Guidroz, costume designer Sandy Powell, and hair department head Kay Georgiou.

We get info about how the film brought Frank and the Bride to life. Some happy talk emerges but we find a generally nice view of the work involved.

Next comes The Muse and the Reimagined Monster. During this eight-minute, seven-second piece, we hear from Gyllenhaal, Buckley, and Bale.

Here we dig into performances and characters. This mostly winds up as fluff.

Finally, The Bride Party goes for six minutes, 17 seconds. We find remarks from Gyllenhaal, Buckley, Bale, Bening, Cruz, Sarsgaard and actors Julianne Hough and John Magaro.

"Party' offers an overview of the cast. Unsurprisingly, it mostly praises them.

An ambitious and audacious horror tale, The Bride! comes with some impressive elements. However, too much of it exists just as ‘message movie’ content and the final product seems borderline incoherent a lot of the time. The Blu-ray comes with strong picture and audio but supplements lack a lot of informational value. Despite some positives, The Bride! doesn’t stitch together.