Oh, how alive it is to feel to be dead! (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot; Cartuna x DWECK)

The Bride!

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Matthew Maher, Zlatko Burić, Jeannie Berlin, Julianne Hough, Louis Cancelmi, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Steve Purcell, Ego Nwodim, Nichole Sakura, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Bayer, Demetri Martin, Joe Spano, Eric Edelstein, Lori Alan, Karen Huie

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Running Time: 126 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: March 6, 2026 (Theaters)

Dead Lover

Starring: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Leah Doz, Lowen Morrow

Director: Grace Glowicki

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: March 20, 2026 (Theaters)

Whoa, hey, two wacky romances inspired by Frankenstein coming out within a few weeks of each other? One of them’s a major studio release, while the other’s a super-independent low-budget scamp. What do you think about that? Well, here’s what I think about that!

The Bride! is pretty fun, in a “use all the body parts lying around” sort of way. Honestly, it might be my favorite Jessie Buckley performance? (Or actually probably second to Fargo Season 4, weirdly enough.) How riveting to see her as the titular Bride talking to herself as Mary Shelley. And my oh my, what glee there be in Annette Bening and Christian Bale’s indulgent turns. Essentially, this is one of those movies where I certainly didn’t love everything, but I only want to talk about the stuff that I did love.

As for Dead Lover, it has one MAJOR advantage over The Bride! (and almost all other movies, in fact): it’s presented in Stink-O-Vision! That’s right, upon entering the theater, you are presented with a card that you are meant to scratch and sniff during the presentation to catch whiffs of such scents as “Banana” and “Ghost Puke.” As for the whole shebang, the tale of the Gravedigger (Grace Glowicki) and her Lover (Ben Petrie) is a smoke-filled, unplaceably idiosyncratic trip into the subconscious surreal, which I imagine is what coming back from the dead must feel like.

Grades:
The Bride!: 3 out of 5 Dead Lovers
Dead Lover: 3.5 out of 5 Stinky Brides