The Bride!: plot, cast and release date

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sophomore feature as director, set to be released in March, puts a spotlight on Frankenstein’s bride like never before. Here’s everything we know so far about The Bride!

Great news for viewers left wanting more gothic romance after the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein last year: filmmaker and star Maggie Gyllenhaal has resurrected characters from Mary Shelley’s gothic classic.

Following up her directorial debut, 2021’s The Lost Daughter, The Bride! reimagines Bride Of Frankenstein, James Whale’s 1935 sequel to his iconic 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein. The Bride herself only featured in Whale’s Hollywood classic for a few minutes, but in Gyllenhaal’s monstrous melodrama, and played by Jessie Buckley, she is refashioned as the central character in an iconoclastic horror-comedy with shades of Poor Things and Wild At Heart.

This is the plot of The Bride!

In this standalone reimagining of the classic tale, a murdered woman in 1930s Chicago is brought back to life by Dr Euphronious.

The woman returns to life disfigured and bearing a Lady Gaga-esque platinum hairdo. Sparking up a romance with Frankenstein’s monster, the reanimated couple conjure chaos while on the run from the authorities, their wild love igniting radical cultural change. Think Bonnie and Clyde meets Harley Quinn and the Joker.

This is the cast for The Bride!

The film is the second time Gyllenhaal has directed Jessie Buckley, who stars in the titular role. Christian Bale will play Frankenstein’s monster.

The outlaw lovers are joined by Annette Bening as Dr Euphronious and Penelope Cruz as Myrna, as well as Gyllenhaal’s husband Peter Sarsgaard and younger brother Jake Gyllenhaal, adding star power to an already stacked cast.