The Bride is a subpar romance tale with dry acting and poor chemistry. The quirky adventures of the monster and his new unlikely friend were promising though were not enough to save this overly long boring film.
When you first pop in this Blu-Ray the logo for scream factory, a subsidiary of Shout Factory that releases horror and science fiction movies, pops up. This in combination with the subject of the movie being Dr. Frankenstein and the creation of the Bride of Frankenstein led me to believe this was going to be a horror film. In fact, it even says it is part of the horror genre on IMDB and to say that is just plain and simple inaccurate.
Despite the overall film not being a horror movie, the opening scene features some pretty good imagery as well as a genuinely unsettling shot. The introduction to this film is done through various slow-moving shots of the equipment around the lab. Each piece of equipment being interestingly designed and featuring a wide array of colors from item to item. After we pass through all the items we see a body covered in wrappings sprawled awkwardly in a web of fabric. The body is then electrified by an apparatus that is harnessing the lightning from the storm outside and the body on the panel begins to convulse. Baron Von Frankenstein because shouting that she was receiving too much electricity and that it needed to stop, this leads the audience to believe that something horrible may have happened. This scene had some pretty good effects considering it was 1985 and caused me to be legitimately unsettled which was unexpected for me. It made me rethink my expectations of this film and what it would be.
Unfortunately, my new found hope was short-lived as within a moment the new monster had her bandages removed to show that it was a beautiful woman who was just a little confused. She was no monster and is indistinguishable from any other human. After that beginning scene, the rest of the movie is split into two plots: Frankenstein & Eva (the new monster) and Frankenstein’s (original) monster & Rinaldo the dwarf.
With Frankenstein and Eva, we start with Frankenstein teaching Eva various things not just about life but about life as a high-class citizen, which brings me to another interesting choice for this movie. Here, The Baron is actually a well respected upper-class scientist. Whereas in other depictions he is an ostracized man who is nearly insane, we see him attending fancy parties and having eloquent meetings with other important individuals. I don’t see this choice as being bad necessarily, it is just something that I have not seen before with Frankenstein. Anyways, after Eva acquires a ludicrous amount of knowledge in a ridiculously short span of time, people (notably men) begin to notice how attractive and smart she is. One man in particular (Clerval) makes an advance on her and it drives Frankenstein crazy. The rest of the movie is Clerval and Eva’s relationship growing with Frankenstein filling with jealousy. All three of these actors were not great, there was little to no chemistry between them and in nearly every scene involving romance with these characters, I found myself wanting to go see what the Monster (who now goes by Viktor) and Rinaldo are up to.
By no means was the plot about Viktor and Rinaldo actually good, though in comparison to the dry love triangle plot it was far more entertaining. Viktor storms out of the castle in a rage after Eva was created and didn’t want him. He then happens across a dwarf who he befriends, then the two of them run off and join the circus. This portion of the story is rather fun, I’m not sure if it would hold up on its own, though when the alternative is Eva looking being slightly confused at everything this storyline becomes gold. Clancy Brown portrays everyone’s favorite big green monster and I really can’t complain about his performance, though I need to address the makeup. The only thing that allows you to see that he was a monster was that his skin was slightly gray and he had a deformity in his head. Though the deformity isn’t always seen, for the most part, he just looks like a regular person until he stumbles around. Rinaldo and Viktor have themselves a grand ol’ time working for the circus until tragedy strikes which lead Viktor to head back to the castle just in time for some ‘monster ex machina’.
As for the Blu-Ray itself, the quality of the picture was surprisingly good. Based on the picture quality alone I wouldn’t have guessed this movie was as old as 1985. However, I cannot say the same for the audio. The audio seems to have been untouched when remastering the film for the Blu-Ray format which was disappointing after seeing how well the video turned out.
Overall:
This movie claimed to be a horror and started out as a horror though, in reality, it is a subpar romance tale with dry acting and poor chemistry. The quirky adventures of the monster and his new unlikely friend were promising though were not enough to save this overly long boring film.
