The Bride!
Warner Bros. | Release Date: March 6, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
24
Negative:
7

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Radio TimesJeremy AspinallMar 5, 2026
Gyllenhaal should be applauded for her ambition, stylish flourishes and obvious respect for the original film. However, there’s a sense that all the elements don’t cohere entirely. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 5, 2026
It doesn’t always make sense tonally and intellectually, but the whole thing is energetic, handsome and stocked with enough expert, appealing performers to hold your interest through the rougher, less coherent passages. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMar 4, 2026
There’s a playfulness there, and a real burst of imaginative thinking, but Gyllenhaal has regrettably pulled a Frankenstein herself. All those ideas, yet they haven’t quite stitched up together to make a beautiful corpse. Read full review
55
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeMar 4, 2026
Veers off in so many exhausting directions that it ultimately amounts to little more than sound and fury. She’s alive, alive, but she can’t maintain this pace. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 9, 2026
Ultimately, The Bride! has "cult classic" written all over it. It possesses very little mainstream appeal—it is simply too weird and outlandish for the average moviegoer—but there are enough flashes of brilliance to fascinate a niche audience in years to come. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMar 6, 2026
Unfortunately, The Bride! falls victim to this hollowing out of character, and the result feels simultaneously like a reduction and an expansion—or call it an inflation, an accretion of curious traits that crop up conveniently but remain undiscussed and undeveloped. Read full review
50
The Travers TakePeter TraversMar 6, 2026
Despite Christian Bale and a wow Jessie Buckley as Frankenstein and his missus, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s big swing at remaking a horror classic is a hot, unholy mess. One caveat: no one who still values artistic risk should dream of missing it. Read full review
50
The RevealKeith PhippsMar 5, 2026
Drunk on its own ambitions and the permission to go as big as possible, The Bride! is seldom cohesive (and occasionally incoherent) but it’s also rarely boring, the sort of noble failure that’s more compelling to watch and discuss than a lesser success. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMar 5, 2026
Made up of stylish pastiche, girl power slogans and one go-for-broke performance, The Bride!, like her Monster, isn’t much more than an assemblage of parts, and the slipperiness of time, place and character leaves the film unmoored and unrooted. Here comes The Bride! — unfortunately, she’s brain dead. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 4, 2026
It’s an intellectual joyride without the joy. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMar 4, 2026
Individual parts of “The Bride!” work, but as a whole, the critic in me found it confusing and irritating. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 4, 2026
I admire what Gyllenhaal attempts in The Bride! I was less satisfied with the execution. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 4, 2026
It’s a scrappy punk feminist tragicomedy of l’amour fou, a renegade take-off on the “Frankenstein” myth. And while the movie doesn’t quite work — it lumbers along and blows fuses; it has lots of flesh and blood but not enough storytelling spine — there’s a spark of audacity to it. Read full review
50
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 4, 2026
A Frankenstein-ian cine-monster that both reinvents and pays homage with all the clumsiness and unsightliness of its fabled creature. Read full review
42
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferMar 4, 2026
There’s a floor for entertainment with a cast this strong, especially two leads who can contort themselves bodily and emotionally with such dexterity. But “The Bride!” spends too long operating at that level because it cannot escape the mire of confusion about its own identity. Read full review
42
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMar 4, 2026
The Bride! is full of rage and feeling, striking an anarchic pose against oppression. But who it’s yelling at, who it’s yelling on behalf of, remains out of focus, the mystery of whatever Elsa Lanchester’s Bride might’ve been thinking left unanswered. Read full review
40
Little White LiesHannah StrongMar 10, 2026
The Bride! doesn’t have a single original thought worth pursuing. The fact that this film appears so shrilly convinced of its radical praxis speaks to a bizarre disconnection from reality. Read full review
40
StatusBrian LowryMar 6, 2026
The stitched-together concept proves too bizarre and disjointed to catch lightning in a bottle. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 4, 2026
All sincerely intended. All a bit rickety. Still, The Bride! does just about get by on suave style and committed performances. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 4, 2026
There are flashes of greatness, especially when Gyllenhaal and cinematographer Lawrence Sher capture some of the film’s wilder set-pieces. But then the narrative messiness undercuts the beauty of those images. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 4, 2026
A wildly arresting performance from Buckley is not enough to save this generic and uninspired adaptation. Read full review
40
EmpireLeila LatifMar 4, 2026
Fans of Maggie Gyllenhaal will be disappointed; fans of Mary Shelley will be disappointed; fans of unhinged cinema will be morbidly intrigued. Read full review
40
Next Best PictureJosh ParhamMar 4, 2026
This film may be more memorable because of its filmmaking, but it’s all sound and fury, amounting to very little. The momentum is lethargic, the characters shallow, and the narrative lacking any sense of intrigue from the romance that is supposed to anchor it. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 4, 2026
The very capable ensemble, all of whom have done impressive work elsewhere, mostly gets smothered by the over-conceptualized, over-intellectualized approach to the material. Read full review
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