What makes Bride such a powerful entry in the Frankenstein canon—and the classic Universal series as a whole—is its ability to keep its horror under the surface. Only occasionally does it truly allow it to come to the forefront full force...

| Aug 4, 2024

The Bride of Frankenstein is without a question the best sequel in the cycle and ranks alongside Frankenstein (if not slightly above it) at the apex.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 14, 2024

Advertised as a chiller, this film turns out to be something else, having a lot of jollification, nice fancy, elegant mounting -- there is, in short, beauty as well as the beast.

| May 8, 2024

It’s no secret that monsters have always appealed to queer folks who see themselves in an “other” that fights eradication, and Bride understands that sentiment perfectly.

| Oct 26, 2022

The baroque blast of stylized design, gothic hysteria and black humor teases, terrifies, and raises the drama to operatic levels.

| Oct 9, 2022

Made by a gay filmmaker in 1935 who understood better than anyone what it was like to be hated for who he was, and crafted as unabashedly queer a film as anything else in Hollywood at the time.

| Jun 30, 2022

Chock full of stunning black and white photography, groundbreaking make-up and special effects, and mad dark comedy, classic horror doesnt get much better than Bride of Frankenstein. It doesnt get much gayer, either.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 20, 2022

A masterpiece of classic horror with plenty of queer subtext to boot.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 26, 2021

This is an absolutely unforgettable film, a must-see for every gay horror fan.

| Oct 30, 2020

The chief new element is the monster's bride, played by Elsa Lanchester, who doesn't appear in her entirety until approximately five minutes before the movie ends.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 24, 2020

Splendid pictorial composition and dramatic lighting make this a worthy successor to Frankenstein.

| Apr 16, 2020

It is no surprise that Bride of Frankenstein is heralded as one of Hollywood's best-ever sequels: it does everything a good sequel should.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jun 19, 2019

Whale proves a master of moody thrills, while Boris Karloff is silently expressive as the hulking monster.

| Jul 13, 2018

[James ]Whale's film is fantastic and essential queer gothic. He exquisitely uses light and shadow to highlight the actors' faces and creates a marvelously eerie atmosphere in mist-covered moors.

| Dec 19, 2017

James Whale's extravagantly produced sequel to his own Frankenstein still ranks as one of horrordom's greatest achievements.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 6, 2013

A riveting, funny, and suspenseful horror classic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 2, 2011

This was to be [director James Whale's] last horror film. Small wonder; what could he possibly have left to prove?

| Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 15, 2009

Screenwriters Hurlbut & Balderston and Director James Whale have given it the macabre intensity proper to all good horror pieces, but have substituted a queer kind of mechanistic pathos for the sheer evil that was Frankenstein.

| Oct 7, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 16, 2007

A must for anyone with even a passing interest in horror, this not only confirms Karloff as a master of the genre, but also shows, more than any of Whale's subsequent films, the influence of his vision.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 24, 2007