Movies

The Bride!: A Feminist Frankenstein That Plays Like a Lost Remnant of Woke Culture

A cinematic time capsule from before the vibe shift.

Peter Suderman | 3.6.2026 10:27 AM

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The most impressive thing about The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal's feminist revamp of The Bride of Frankenstein, is how thoroughly ill-conceived it is. This movie fails at everything. 

There is not a single scene, line reading, or fleeting moment that lands. Every single actor is miscast. Every single idea is underdeveloped. Every single moment of intended catharsis is maximally cringe. It is a total and complete misfire, in which every creative choice is a bad one. I have not one good word to say about it. It's the Kristi Noem of feminist monster fantasias. 

The story begins in a Prohibition-era speakeasy, as a young woman Ida (Jessie Buckley) begins to speak out against a grubby local gangster. For her sins, she is killed and buried. And then, shortly afterward, she's dug up and brought back to life. A hundred years after his creation, you see,........

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