There are a lot of 2026 movie releases I’ve been looking forward to, and as of today, the Maggie Gyllenhaal-helmed The Bride! is added to the list. This Frankenstein-inspired flick already piqued my curiosity with Gyllenhaal writing and directing, as well as Christian Bale playing Frankenstein’s monster. But now I definitely plan on seeing this Jessie Buckley-starring upcoming horror movie because of the Bonnie and Clyde vibes the first trailer for The Bride! is giving off.
Pulling chiefly from 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, The Bride! sees Frankenstein’s monster asking Annette Bening’s Dr. Euphonius to create a companion for him in 1930s Chicago. This leads to the “birth” of Buckley’s titular character, and it’s outright said in the preview that her original self was murdered in order to fulfill The Monster’s desire. From there, the two go on the run and raise hell in a way that’s reminiscent of what outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow did from 1932 to 1934. Those two, of course, were the subjects of the 1967 movie Bonne and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
The longer a story has been around, the harder it becomes to adapt said story and make it stand out from what’s come before. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is already drawing early mixed critical reception for its more faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel, so we’ll have to see what the rest of the world thinks when the movie becomes available to stream with a Netflix subscription starting October 17. In The Bride! ’s case though, its looser handling of the source material definitely works to its benefit.
I’m a sucker for period pieces set in the first half of the 20th century, and I’m more specifically a fan of movies like Bonnie & Clyde, The Untouchables and Public Enemies that explore bank robbers and organized crime in the 1930s. So if you give me a movie where Frankenstein’s monster and his new “bride” are being pursued by the police and igniting fear in the general populace in the aftermath of the Prohibition era, I’m hooked! I didn’t know I needed to see those characters robbing a bank until now, and I’m crossing my fingers tightly we’ll get to see them wield Tommy guns.
On a more complex note, I’m also intrigued by how The Bride! may put a different twist on the Bonnie and Clyde dynamic. While those two criminals were heads over heels for each other until they were gunned down by lawmen, who’s to say that Frankenstein’s monster and his bride will always feel the same way? While I suspect Christian Bale’s character will always be obsessed with the woman who was “made” for him, we could easily see Jessie Buckley’s character realizing she wants to embark on her own path and get away from him, if not simply grow to hate him.
Whatever happens, I’m excited to see what The Bride! delivers when it’s released on March 6, 2026. Bale and Buckley are joined in the cast by Peter Saarsgard, Penélope Cruz, Jake Gyllenhaal and Dancing with the Stars’ Julianne Hough, among others, and it’ll go up against Pixar’s Hoppers that opening weekend.
