Stellar First 'The Bride!' Reactions Hint That Guillermo del Toro's 'Frankenstein' May Have Met Its Match

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Close-up of Jessie Buckley as The Bride from the poster art.

Published Feb 26, 2026, 5:36 PM EST

A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation."

An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account.

It's a big time to be a Frankenstein fan. That's partially thanks to Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-nominated hit from last year, but now, a new adaptation is just around the corner. The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal's new vision of the classic Bride of Frankenstein, is finally rising from the slab and into theaters next week. The film just had its red-carpet premiere in London, England, and social media reactions to the film are starting to filter in — but are viewers screaming "It's alive!" or storming Warner Bros. with torches and pitchforks?

Collider contributor and The Mary Sue editor-in-chief Rachel Leishman calls it "a love letter to storytelling, science fiction, movies, and so much more." Meanwhile, Nerdist praised the performances of leads Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, concluding that "It's what going to the theater is all about." This Ends at Prom co-host BJ Colangelo also shared abundant praise for this audacious new vision of Mary Shelley's seminal classic with the following glowing endorsement:

"Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley built The Bride! in a lab to give me the movie of my dreams. A shrieking, brazen journey of an ungovernable woman and a man who wants her to burn it all down if it means feeling her warmth. I loved every second of it."

What Is 'The Bride!' About?

Set in 1930s Chicago, the film marries classic horror with Bonnie and Clyde. Bale stars as the monster, who asks Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening, playing a riff on The Bride of Frankenstein's mad Dr. Pretorius) to build him a mate. She revives a murdered woman (Buckley, currently up for an Academy Award for her performance in Hamnet) known as "The Bride" and the two revenants end up going on a Depression-era crime spree. The film also stars Penélope Cruz, Julianne Hough, John Magaro, and Jeannie Berlin. It's also a family affair, with roles for Maggie's brother Jake Gyllenhaal and her husband, Peter Sarsgaard.

The Bride! is Gyllenhaal's sophomore feature as a director; her first, 2021's The Lost Daughter, is an adaptation of the Elena Ferrante bestseller of the same name. It was hailed by critics, earning a 94% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and garnered Oscar nominations for Buckley, Olivia Colman, and for Gyllenhaal's screenplay. If the movie is able to keep the positive buzz and momentum going, The Bride! could be giving 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple a run for its money as the best horror movie of 2026 so far.

The Bride! lumbers into theaters on March 6, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.