Okay I have THOUGHTS about THE BRIDE! and I’m still kind of processing them.
Where Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein felt like a love letter to Mary Shelley’s original novel, THE BRIDE! feels like someone completely ripped the Frankenstein mythos out of its original context and rebuilt it into something entirely new. The story being told is definitely not about the creature (Frank) and his bride. The focus from beginning to the bitter end is about the Bride and her identity, her autonomy, and what it means to be created without your consent and then forced to figure out who you are anyway.
I’m not gonna lie, I left the theatre with very mixed feelings. Some characters (including Mary Shelley and Frank) felt weirdly mischaracterised at times, and there were moments where I genuinely didn’t understand some of the Bride’s choices or her behaviour (like I gather the way she speaks, oscillating between an amnesiaed Ida and the grandious Mary Shelley is supposed to mean something and maybe provide social commentary, but at this moment I havent figured out what it could mean). The side plot also occasionally felt like it wandered in from another movie. But at the same time, the cinematography, the colour palette, the theatrical dialogue, and the sheer energy of the film made it feel like something that was deliberately chaotic.
But honestly, I can already tell this is going to become a cult classic. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s so unapologetically weird.
What I really loved was the dynamic between Frank and the Bride. He doesn’t try to control her or force her into being the “perfect wife” she was literally created to be. He lets her run wild, explore the world, build her own identity, and only really steps in when she asks for help or when she’s in danger. It feels less like ownership and more like trust. Like he wants her to experience the freedom he never got when he first woke up.
And the Bride herself is such a fascinating character because the entire movie revolves around consent. She’s lied to, manipulated, threatened, and assaulted throughout the story, but she never stops asserting her autonomy. From the moment she’s revived she keeps repeating “I’d rather not,” over and over like a mantra, and I loved that. When she ultimately reconnects with Frank, it’s not because she owes him anything, it’s because of the bond they built despite everything.
Is the movie messy? Absolutely.
Did I understand every choice it made? Not really.
But I also can’t stop thinking about it, I want to write so much more about this movie, but I am holding back so hard, hich honestly might be the biggest compliment I can give it.
I love how humans have literally not changed throughout history like the graffiti from Pompeii has people from hundreds of years ago writing stuff like “Marcus is gay” “I fucked a girl here” “Julius your mum wishes she was with me” and leonardo da vinci’s assistants drew dicks in their notebooks just for the banter and mozart created a piece called “kiss my ass” so when people wish for ‘today’s generation’ to be like ‘how people used to’ then we’re already there buddy we’ve always been
The Hagia Sophia has inscriptions that were considered sacred for centuries until they were deciphered in the 70s to be Nordic runes saying “Halfdan wrote this”
my old english prof told us that theres a cave in Scandinavia where a viking gratified some runes like 14 feet up on the wall and when they finally reached it all it translated into was “this is very high”
I feel bad about laughing at some of these, like the missed jump, but none of the cats appear to be hurt by their misadventures, and the rest had me literally WHEEZING. The cat crossing the unpleasantly-textured mat…I am LITERALLY CRYING.
a couple of months ago when i was 100%ing luigis mansion 3 i was doing a lot of multiplayer mansion games trying to get the rare ghosts and after one of these sessions i got a friend request from one of the people i played randomly with. anyway his name is luigi his profile pic is luigi and his library consists solely of luigi games and i’ve never seen him play anything else so i just have to assume luigi himself is my friend on switch
So my trainer’s bf cheated on her. She broke up with him. He’s holding her stuff hostage until she agrees to talk with him. Which she refuses.
She trains; for free mind you; three college linebackers, a college wrestler, two martial artists, a body builder, and… wait for it…. a Navy seal. We’re gonna go get her shit for her.
So everyone who commented on this being like the avengers, you are absolutely right. That’s what all of us had in our heads as we were rolling over to dude’s house. But I’m very proud to say, this ended without violence.
Arrival:
So the super friends all jumped into one of the linebacker’s explorer and headed over to dude’s house. Ok the squad: you all know me, but the other martial artist is a little wirey hapkido guy, the linebackers are all giants (an estimated combined weight of I’d say 750-800lbs), the wrestler looks like an escaped gorilla, then the navy seal looks like your average guy but something about him is unsettling. Really unsettling. Unfortunately, the body builder had to work. Anyway, we send the Hapkido guy and the wrestler to the door first and dude answers, screams at them, and then slams the door in their face. Then the giant linebackers head over and they ring the door bell again. Lo and behold, he was much more polite, but still denied access. Finally, me and the seal join the fray. I casually make my way towards the front of the group, but the seal decides to CLIMB THE BANISTER. We all just turned and started at him completely shocked when dude answers the door. He looks at this weird mismatched group of relatively threatening individuals and one guy perched on his banister like batman. He was like “FINE. Go take what you’re looking for.”
Retrieval:
So we’re all walking through the house gathering what we think are her things and putting them into two boxes. Mind you. We are completely guessing. We didn’t even tell her we were coming, therefore we had no list of items.The only one really being productive was Hapkido, who was legitimately looking for stuff. The linebackers were just randomly picking up furniture, turning it over, and putting it back down. Just showing off how strong they were. In case the numbers game wasn’t enough, I guess they were letting him know they could break him if they wanted to. The seal was just shadowing dude in his own house. Walking behind him, not saying much, just being creepy. Then there’s me. Who was causing general mischief…. He said to take what I was looking for, that’s what I was looking for. Ahaha and the wrestler made a fricken sandwich. Because “you guys look like you have it under control, and I’m a sucker for egg salad.” We were in and out in 15 minutes.
Delivery:
So the autobots rolled out and headed towards homegirl’s spot. She was conveniently outside when we rolled up. We got out and she was like, how do you all even know each other. The truth is, we don’t. She sent us all an email once and didn’t blind copy us all. She vented to all of us about dude holding onto her stuff and we started emailing and that was that. We told her that we went to see her ex. “OMG what did you say to him?” Nothing. We’re not messenger boys. We’re delivery boys. And we gave her her boxes of stuff. She went through the first box and said that was most of her stuff. Then she got to my box and asked “Wtf is all that shit.” So I explained that I took all the batteries out of his remote controls, his deodorant, the light bulb out of his master closet, every pair of dress socks that I could find, the laces out of his running shoes, and all the toilet paper in the house. The guys just looked at me and kind of nodded like they were impressed. She then unexpectedly started CRYING and thanked us. So you have this group of meat heads all standing awkwardly with this weeping trainer. It was quiet for a second when the seal was like “So…. chipoltle?” And we all got burrito bowls.
