The Bride!

Last weekend, The Bride!, the newest classic monster remake, released in theaters. The Bride! follows Frankenstein's monster as he asks a mad scientist to help him create a companion by giving life to a murdered woman. I liked the original Bride of Frankenstein movie and was very interested when I found out that this movie was going to star Christian Bale and Frankenstein's Monster.

Unfortunately, I didn't think this movie was very good. On the positive side, I thought that the lead performances were very good. Christian Bale and Jesse Buckley were great as Frankenstein and The Bride. Both are Oscar-nominated actors who are just hamming it up in a monster movie. I also liked the period piece aspect of the movie. 1930's Chicago and New York are a fun setting to have a gothic horror movie in. There were also a lot of highly stylized moments that are reminiscent of 1930s movies. The movie had a lot of elements that reminded me of the two Joker movies from the costumed killer becoming a political icon and random 1930's musical numbers that are only in the character's head. The Bride! also features a subtle reference to Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

However, there was a lot about this movie that just didn't work. I thought it was super weird that there was this whole subplot about Mary Shelly (the author of Frankenstein) possessing The Bride, which doesn't make any sense and doesn't need to be in the movie at all. This isn't a spoiler, as it opens the movie and just starts things right off the bat with "well that was a choice". The movie also simultaneously tries too hard with its political allegory stuff while also completely dropping it partway through the film. I also wasn't really sure what this movie is trying to be. It has elements of classic monster movies, screwball comedies, musicals, and political activism, but doesn't do any of them well at all. The movie also can't decide whether it wants The Bride to be an independent woman who doesn't need a man or a wife who would rather die than be without her husband. There are just a lot of conflicting ideas.

Overall, this movie was a big letdown for me, as it tries to do too many different ideas that end up either conflicting with each other or not being successful at all. There was a bit of entertainment there for me, but I wouldn't call it a quality film.

Score: 5.5/10 Grade: C+ Recommendation: Skip it.