By the end of this coming weekend, Netflix film head Dan Lin might look like an absolute genius for not greenlighting Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride” after she asked the streamer for $100M to make her very-hard-to-describe Frankenstein movie — a mélange of Bonnie & Clyde, monster movies, with a sprinkle of musical numbers.
Critics are currently under embargo when it comes to this film, so I’ll just stop there. What can be reported is that pre-sales have been abysmal for “The Bride,” which is looking at a sub-$10M opening — and maybe much less if, as I suspect, reactions are sour.
Let’s circle back to August 2024. Only a few months after Netflix dropped the project due to budget concerns, “The Bride” quickly found a new home at Warner Bros., and soon after, production began on Gyllenhaal’s peculiar film. That’s when all of the problems started.
In early 2025, I reported on “The Bride” having had terrible test screenings. Puck later confirmed the intel and wondered how Warner Bros. allowed Gyllenhaal — who had directed just one film before, a $5M indie — to finance her $100M passion project.
Here’s an early 2025 reaction from a test attendee: “‘The Bride’ is awful. Set in 1930, Jessie Buckley plays a prostitute with a split personality who thinks she’s Mary Shelley and gets killed by her mobster husband. Annette Bening’s character convinces Dr. Frankenstein to resurrect her. I can’t overstate how this movie has no idea what it wants to be. Buckley gives an insane performance — easily the highlight of the movie. But God, such a mess of a movie.”
The report further stated that Warners’ co-film chief, Pamela Abdy, had been tasked with getting the film into shape for a planned release, and word was she’s having a hard time of it.
Now, appearing on The Interview podcast, Gyllenhaal basically admits that the cut hitting theaters on Friday is not hers, describing the unusually intense testing of “The Bride,” with audiences and Warner Bros. executives scrutinizing the film’s depiction of violence and sexual violence. Viewers at early mall screenings flagged the film, which prompted Abdy to ask Gyllenhaal to soften some of the imagery; she acknowledged that what ended up in the final cut is “pulled back” from her original vision.
In discussing the reactions, Gyllenhaal also reflected on how gender may have played into responses to the film’s difficult subject matter, noting conversations with friends about whether similar content would be seen differently “had a man directed it.”
Despite the pushback, Gyllenhaal maintained that the scenes she had cut from the film were intentional and necessary, particularly in how violence is depicted, arguing that such scenes need to be shown in a way that underscores their brutality rather than sensationalize them. She also shared some of the behind-the-scenes negotiations with studio executives — for instance, with Warner Bros. leadership quipping that she “can’t have Frankenstein lick black vomit off the Bride’s neck,” a vivid example of the kinds of creative adjustments discussed during the feedback process.
Gyllenhaal previously helmed the Netflix-backed 2021 psychological drama “The Lost Daughter,” starring Olivia Colman, which turned out to be a critical hit. It garnered three Oscar nominations and won Gyllenhaal Best Screenplay honors at Venice.
“The Bride” has a talented cast: Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, John Mulaney, and Jake Gyllenhaal. It opens this Friday.