“The Bride!” Teaser Trailer: Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley Reimagine Frankenstein and His Bride as Prohibition-Era Outlaws in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Noir Horror Thriller
🎥 Gyllenhaal reinvents the monster’s tale as a Prohibition-era fever dream, with Buckley’s feral Bride and Bale’s brooding creation tearing through 1930s Chicago.
There’s something about monsters that fascinates us as an audience—the ones born out of our nightmares and the ones we accidentally create ourselves. Take Frankenstein, for instance. It’s a timeless horror legend that tackles our fears of science and the consequences of playing God.
Visionary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro will soon deliver his Gothic take on Mary Shelley’s classic tale later this year for Netflix. And from what critics have been saying, it’s a visually sumptuous film more interested in exploring the complex relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his monster—a portrait of father and son, if you will, and the toxicity that can grow when creation and responsibility are at odds.
We can’t wait to check it out once it finally arrives in a couple of months. However, it’s not the only forthcoming movie featuring the Frankenstein monster. A few months after the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, audiences will get the chance to see Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Unlike del Toro’s version, which aims to stay more faithful to Shelley’s novel, Gyllenhaal is interestingly using the aesthetic of 1930s noir to reimagine the tale in a bold, stylized way.
So, don’t expect to see any familiar traces of the Gothic era of the late 1700s. This monster tale is being reshaped into something more gangster-like—almost as if James Cagney and Jean Harlow were playing the Frankenstein monster and his bride, running wild through the gritty streets of 1930s Chicago. Only it’s Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley who are stepping into those roles, bringing their own dark, combustible energy to this classic horror yarn.
The film marks Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second feature directorial effort, following her Oscar-nominated debut The Lost Daughter. She also penned the screenplay, transforming this monster tale into a visually striking Prohibition-era thriller that reimagines these monstrous lovebirds as a twisted take on something like Bonnie and Clyde.
Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale are two actors known for diving headfirst into complex characters. Bale, as anyone familiar with his work knows, has built a reputation for giving more than 100 percent to the roles he takes on—even to the point of putting his own physicality at risk. It will be fascinating to see what he brings to a perennial character like the Frankenstein monster. From the glimpses in this first teaser trailer, Bale is grunting and lurching with a raw, almost animalistic intensity, embodying the monster as both brutish and, dare we say, a little boneheaded.
Buckley, on the other hand, is a firecracker. Her version of the Bride seems to be a dash of Clara Bow, a heap of Jean Harlow, with a manic touch of Harley Quinn. Makes us think DC might have missed their chance at casting Buckley as Gotham’s clown princess of crime. Or perhaps there’s still an opening for a recast. Hmmm.
In the upcoming film, Bale plays a lonely Frankenstein, wandering the smoke-filled streets of 1930s Chicago, desperate for connection. His solution? Convince pioneering scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create him a companion. The result is Buckley’s Bride—a murdered woman brought back to life, brimming with a feral energy no one, not even her creators, can control.
From there, things spiral into utter mayhem: murder sprees, feverish love affairs, and a burgeoning cultural movement that threatens to upend everything in its path. What begins as a grotesque experiment becomes something more—a dangerous romance, and a reminder that most monsters are often made, not born.
The film doesn’t skimp on star power. Alongside Buckley, Bale, and Bening, the ensemble features Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penélope Cruz. Behind the camera, Gyllenhaal has assembled a murderer’s row of talent, including Lawrence Sher (cinematographer of Joker), editor Dylan Tichenor (There Will Be Blood), composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, The Mandalorian), and legendary Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, whose work is on full display as both Bale and Buckley are dressed to the hilt.
The Bride! will be hitting theaters and IMAX on March 6th in North America, with international dates starting March 4th.
So, expect electricity. Expect a bit of fire. And maybe, just maybe, expect to fall in love with a monster all over again.
Official Synopsis:
There’s a monster inside us all.
From Maggie Gyllenhaal (Academy Award-nominated writer/director of The Lost Daughter) and starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley and Academy Award winner Christian Bale comes THE BRIDE! A bold, iconoclastic take on one of the world’s most compelling stories.
A lonely Frankenstein (Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious (five-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride (Buckley) is born. What ensues is beyond what either of them imagined: Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!
In theaters March 6th.
Just for fun —and for comparison, here are some trailers from previous films about the Bride:
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director James Whale’s classic Universal monster film where Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is forced to create a mate for his Monster (Boris Karloff). A true classic featuring Elsa Lanchester’s iconic performance, with her white-streaked hair and hissing rejection of the Monster. Unforgettable.
The Bride (1985)
A cult ’80s reimagining starred Police frontman Sting (fresh off David Lynch’s Dune) as Baron Frankenstein and a young Jennifer Beals (hot on the heels of her breakout in Flashdance) as the Bride, here named Eva, who ultimately seeks her own independence.
The Bride of Chucky (1998)
The horror franchise takes a darkly comedic turn when Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), Chucky’s murderous girlfriend, becomes a doll bride. This is a silly, fun spin on the Bride, with Tilly fully leaning into the camp and chaos.
Corpse Bride (2005)
A stop-motion animated musical by visionary filmmaker Tim Burton. Not necessarily a direct take on the Bride, but it’s easy to imagine Burton drew inspiration from the classic tale. Here, a nervous groom accidentally weds a deceased bride, Emily, setting off a hauntingly beautiful story about love, loss, and second chances in the afterlife.