There’s a new Frankenstein in town and she’s a lot. Feeling dizzy after watching Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale’s new film The Bride!, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal? Morbidly curious and looking to spoil yourself before you dive in? Let’s explore what happens at the end of The Bride! and why this grimy, twisted, epic love story is not necessarily over.
The Bride! is about a woman played by Buckley who gets possessed by the spirit of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and also played by Buckley. She falls head over heels first down some stairs, and then in love with her possessor’s most famous creation (Bale). They go on the run together, and her radical actions start a punk feminist movement that affects some minor but not insignificant societal change and takes down at least one mafia boss, NBD. (That’s kind of all you can ask for!)
First, a disclaimer of sorts: The Bride of Frankenstein is not a character in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus. Yes, in the book the creature does ask Victor Frankenstein to build him a bride. But he doesn’t go through with it. This movie posits that Shelley had an idea for a sequel she never got to write, taking a cue from the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein that created the beehive-loving character you know and love and had a similar framing device.
Shelley finds Ida, a woman on the verge in Depression-era Chicago, and worms her way into her brain. She gives her the push she needs to speak out against the rampant misogyny and abuse around her. Unfortunately, two men then give her a literal push down some stairs. She’s not dead for long, however.
Coincidentally, Frankenstein’s monster himself a.k.a. “Frank” has been wandering the Earth for over a century in pursuit of another scientist capable of doing to another what his so-called father Victor did to him and finds one in Chicago. He wants a companion for love, fellowship, and touch. He convinces Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening), a mad scientist, to resurrect Ida as The Bride. The next thing they know they get into some fights, kill some people, and are on the run from the law. Oops!
Do Frank and The Bride make it out alive?
That is the question. Can the undead actually die? Frank gets shot at a drive-in movie theater. The Bride takes his limp body to Dr. Euphronious and begs her to bring him back, this time for her. Initially, the doctor refuses. The recently promoted, Detective Myrna Malloy, somewhat reluctant mafia goon Clyde, and a whole host of cops show up soon after. The men shoot at her excessively. She’s flailing all over the place.
At that moment, they’re both technically dead. But Myrna and Cornelia have other friends. The detective clears the cops out of the lab, alerting them to Clyde’s presence in the process. Myrna leaves the room, heavily indicating to the scientist that she can and should use the opportunity to save her monster’s lives. Cornelia takes the hint, and in the final moments of the film we see Frank and the Bride’s fingers twitch back to life and towards each other. Love, albeit twisted, prevails.
What happened with the mafia boss?
Before she died, Ida was sleeping with Detective Wiles and preparing to testify against a gangster named Lupino. Between The Bride’s memories of Ida emerging, Mary’s spirit compelling her to squeal, Detective Wiles’ guilt, and the cops arresting Clyde, there’s enough information to take down the guy.
His fate, at the end of the film, is more of the vigilante justice variety. It’s not the police that have him in custody: it’s The Bride’s young female acolytes. They tie him up and tattoo her signature stain onto his face. Are they feeding him the tongues he collected from those who double-crossed him, too? Hard to say, and I’d rather not think about it.
What else do I need to know?
I have a few unanswered questions about this movie. For example, Ida/The Bride (also called Penelope and “Pretty Penny” at times) has the power to see the pain and stories of other women, living and dead. How come? Why did Frank, a.k.a. Frankenstein’s monster, need to see a movie star named Ronnie Reed tap dance for his health? If The Bride was possessed by Mary Shelley, was Mary Shelley a real person in her world?
I think I have an answer to that last one: no. At the beginning of the film, Mary gives her protagonist the name “Ida,” implying that this is all happening within her fictional universe. She calls it a sequel. She says her story is unfinished. The other characters know who Victor Frankenstein is, too, ergo this is not taking place in Shelley’s world. Having a protagonist possessed by her own author is a bit avant-garde, but the more I think about it the more I can make it make sense.
Did Mary ever stop possessing The Bride?
That’s unclear. We don’t see the results of the final resurrection. The last time we hear Mary Shelley’s voice, she’s disembodied and speaking directly to Euphronious and her assistant Greta. Who knows if she’ll be in Ida/The Bride’s head when she wakes up.
However, I do want to point out something that I noticed. Dr. Euphronious, mentions at the end that her first human test subject was her own late husband. He died, and she brought him back… but he came back wrong. He had no memory of her. He was erratic, and dangerous. So she put him down. Since The Bride also experienced memory loss the first time around, it can officially be categorized as a side effect of the procedure.
That indicates to me that there’s a chance both Frank and the Bride’s memories will be erased again the second time they get brought back. Maybe they won’t remember what they went though. Maybe they’ll fall in love again (and again), this time from a more equal footing. And finally, at least, that might mean Mary Shelley got knocked out of The Bride’s conscious in the process. Now she can be her own person shaped by the author’s pull and not literally possessed by her creator. That’s how I choose interpret the ending. It’s not what I think is the definitive answer. But the movie ends with “Monster Mash,” so I think it’s find to make your own happy ending.
It also means that a sequel to this unofficial sequel could absolutely happen. What happens next? Frank and The Bride could continue their couple’s killing spree. They could start a whole monster family. They could try and make it in Hollywood. Think of the possibilities!
