The Bride! claims to be the untold story of Frankenstein, but throws Mary Shelley under the bus

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The film, The Bride!, started with a simple question: What if Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, had other, bolder ideas she couldn’t express at the time? As writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal explained to the Los Angeles Times, she imagined a more rebellious and unrestrained side to Shelley that this film explores – a desire to say things that didn’t quite fit into her famous novel.

The film attempts to explore the hidden motivations behind intense emotions and desires, taking inspiration from both Mary Shelley’s original novel Frankenstein and the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein. However, despite hinting at provocative themes, the movie ultimately falls short of its ambitious ideas. Critics have already expressed disagreement with the film, and it arguably misrepresents the work of a significant female author.

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Victor Frankenstein creates a Creature who desperately asks for a companion to alleviate his profound loneliness. However, as Frankenstein begins to build a female counterpart, he fears she could become even more dangerous than the first Creature, reasoning that a thinking, feeling being might not cooperate. Driven by this fear, he destroys the unfinished female creation.

This scene sparked the idea for director James Whale and writer William Hurlbut to make The Bride of Frankenstein, a follow-up to their successful 1931 film based on Mary Shelley’s novel. The Bride herself appears for only a few minutes and doesn’t speak a single word before the Monster (played by Boris Karloff) destroys her, seemingly out of compassion.

I’m so excited about The Bride! It’s finally giving this character a voice, and Jessie Buckley absolutely nails it – she’s incredible! The story is wild: this woman, who used to run with gangsters in 1930s Chicago, gets brought back to life by a doctor at the request of this really lonely Monster, Frank. But things don’t go as planned – she totally rebels! She and Frank end up on this crazy crime spree that seriously gives me Bonnie and Clyde vibes. It’s going to be a ride!

Inspired by the 1935 film and exploring how female characters are often silenced in movies, the story starts with a clever idea. However, the plot gets lost in a lot of side details. We follow a detective (Peter Sarsgaard) and his overlooked assistant (Penélope Cruz) as they investigate, while Frank develops an obsessive one-sided relationship with a movie star (Jake Gyllenhaal).

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Gyllenhaal clearly references Mary Shelley’s work by mirroring the structure of The Bride of Frankenstein. The original film begins with Elsa Lanchester, who played The Bride, appearing as herself to share her idea for a sequel with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. In The Bride!, Buckley not only portrays Mary Shelley, but embodies a Shelley who actually inhabits The Bride and occasionally speaks through her.

It’s really tough to see the author so down on her own work. As a fan, it’s heartbreaking to hear her call her famous book a failure and say it doesn’t even come close to the story she had in mind – the one she felt she couldn’t even dream of writing at the time. It makes you wonder, what was that story?

The Bride reacts to the pain and injustice she experiences – both as a victim of murder and as a supernatural being – with intense anger and violence. Her story is a classic one of having her power and choices taken from her, subtly highlighted by her repeated use of the phrase “I would prefer not to.” This fuels a nationwide uprising where women fight back against a world that has failed to show them love, respect, or value. Ultimately, her journey can be summarized by a line from Frankenstein: if she can’t earn affection, she will demand fear.

If Mary Shelley were writing Frankenstein today, it’s interesting to consider if she’d have made Victor and his creation female. While it’s plausible, the Creature’s role as a disruption of nature, and the fact that Victor is a man, highlights a key anxiety of the time: the fear that science would not only challenge traditional religious authority, but also diminish women’s fundamental role in creating life.

Suggesting that simply adding a female creature automatically makes Shelley’s work more profound is an oversimplification. It implies she couldn’t effectively explore complex ideas through her male characters already.

Shelley’s personal experiences deeply influenced her novel. In 1815, she tragically lost her premature daughter, who lived only eight days. Shortly after, she wrote in her journal about a vivid dream where her baby was revived, only to wake up to the painful reality of her loss, a thought that stayed with her throughout the day.

Like the doctor in The Bride!, Victor Frankenstein is driven by intense obsession while creating his monster. However, Frankenstein works in a state of ecstatic frenzy, only realizing the horror of what he’s done after the Creature comes to life. He initially experiences the process as a beautiful dream, but that quickly turns to “breathless horror and disgust” when he finally sees his creation.

Shelley wrote Frankenstein during a period of incredible scientific breakthroughs. The novel is filled with questions about whether her fictional daughter, under different conditions, might have survived, and if even wanting that to be true was a challenge to fate or a higher power. These themes are central to the story.

Dr. Euphronious sees the Creature not as a mistake, but as a symbol of female empowerment – a justified challenge to the established order. She describes the Creature as a form of “disobedient geometry,” which is a thought-provoking interpretation of the novel. However, the movie seems to assume the Creature isn’t already capable of such insightful thinking, even though his story is ultimately a tragic one.

Shelley’s novel is powerfully told through the Creature’s perspective, and his heartbreak from Frankenstein’s rejection resonates deeply when you learn the author experienced a similar pain – her own father, William Godwin, disapproved of her relationship with Percy Shelley. This personal detail even played a significant role in Guillermo del Toro’s recent film adaptation.

While The Bride! explores themes of control and agreement, so does Frankenstein. The Creature famously laments his existence, questioning why he was brought into the world at all. This expresses the anguish of someone who is mistreated and disliked simply for who they are – something they can’t change. It’s the pain of being abused and rejected for inherent qualities.

Even when considering gender dynamics, the Creature’s plea for a companion – ignoring her potential wishes – is a theme Shelley already explored in Frankenstein. The novel shows Frankenstein anticipates a female creature might not obey him and would have her own goals, which is precisely why he destroys her before she’s completed.

Mary Shelley isn’t just telling the story through Victor and his creation; she also speaks through her female characters. Elizabeth, intended to be Frankenstein’s wife, and Justine, the servant falsely accused of a crime, are both shaped and ultimately ruined by their powerlessness and inability to control their own fates.

The Bride of Frankenstein claims she’s avenging the novelist, but her argument that Frankenstein only presents one side of the story shows she doesn’t fully grasp the novel’s meaning.

The Bride! is out now in cinemas.

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2026-03-06 20:22