News

Hollywood icon Maggie Gyllenhaal explains why her Warner Bros. movie The Bride! is so far removed from the source material.

Per Variety, Gyllenhaal discussed the origins of the film and what audiences can expect during an exclusive first look at The Bride! at CinemaCon. The actor explained that, following The Lost Daughter, she was looking for her next film to be "pop and big" and "radical." After catching a glimpse of a man's Bride of Frankenstein-inspired tattoo at a party, Gyllenhaal decided to take in the 1935 original for herself and begin working on her own version of the story.

"In the original Bride of Frankenstein, the bride is in the movie for about three minutes, and she doesn't speak, which could not be more different than our bride," Gyllenhaal noted. She added that her initial concept for The Bride! centered around the question of "What happens if his bride...

As the nights grow longer and the air turns crisp, it’s the perfect time to settle in with some of the best spooky films ever made. From eerie silent classics to modern horror hits, spooky cinema has evolved across decades, yet each era has its own spine-tingling gems. Whether you love atmospheric terror or heart-pounding scares, here’s a journey through the best films from the 1920s to today that will give you chills. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. 1920s - 1980s ‘The Haunting’ (1963) Cast: Julie Harris,...

Sequels tend to rub people the wrong way. Sure, audiences will go see them, but they'll certainly bemoan their initial announcements and speculate about their quality before seeing a single frame. There's an inherent, deafening cynicism. Meanwhile, if you talk to hardcore horror fans, the sequel is given far more goodwill. A variety of major horror franchises have seen many sequels prolong their legacies and become part of the genre's fabric. Though these sequels are far from perfect, they are never boring. In fact, horror sequels tend to up the ante following the original film's success, leading to massive swings that are rejected by the masses but are wholly embraced by the more open-minded horror fanbase.

Unfortunately, this is all difficult to translate in the era of rating aggregates like Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, despite the last few years revealing its inherently broken system, the Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal-owned...

Christian Bale transforms physically once again for upcoming role in The Bride. Jessie Buckley joins Bale as The Bride in the horror movie remake. The star-studded cast of The Bride includes Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Julianne Hough, and Peter Sarsgaard.

We now have our first look at Academy Award winner Christian Bale as the iconic horror icon Frankenstein’s Monster, as well as our first look at Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley as The Bride. Bale and Buckley will lead the movie, which is all set to be directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and will remake the 1935 Universal monsters sequel, Bride of Frankenstein.

You can check out the first images from The Bride below.

Thanks to roles in the likes of The Machinist, Batman Begins, The Fighter, Vice, and more, Christian Bale has become known for transforming himself physically for the sake of art and our entertainment. The Bride will be no different,...

Christian Bale will shave his head for the Warner Bros. Frankenstein project. The film will have to draw its inspiration from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, since Universal Pictures holds the copyright for the 1935 film, Bride of Frankenstein. Director Maggie Gyllenhaal will undoubtedly rely on original storytelling and new characters, too, as the synopsis alludes to.

“It’s alive! In the name of God, now I know what it feels like to be God!” Hearing actor Colin Clive recite Dr. Frankenstein’s dialogue must have been shocking to moviegoers when Universal Pictures' Frankenstein opened in 1931. And now, over 90 years later, it’s Christian Bale’s turn to step into those larger-than-life shoes. The Oscar-winning performer (Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter) is preparing to start filming on the upcoming Bride of Frankenstein-esque reimagining, and he is altering his physical appearance yet again. Bale said (via...

John M. Stahl’s superior melodrama is a focus point for the study of African-Americans in Hollywood. Businesswoman Claudette Colbert a housekeeper Louise Beavers raise their daughters together for a story that expresses the racial divide in simple terms. Determined to pass for white, Beavers’ daughter Fredi Washington rejects her mother outright. The tale of motherly sacrifice is in some ways more honest than later ‘social justice’ films about race, yet it sticks closely to Hollywood’s segregationist rules.

Imitation of Life

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1167

1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 10, 2023 / 39.95

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Juanita Quigley, Alan Hale, Henry Armetta, Hattie McDaniel, Paul Porcasi, Teru Shimada, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Jane Withers, Dorothy Black.

Cinematography: Merrit Gerstad

Costumes: Travis Banton

Art Director: Charles D. Hall

Film Editor: Philip Cahn, Maurice Wright

Original Music: Heinz Roemheld...

This January, NBCUniversal is offering fans the chance to dive into some of Universal Pictures’ most gruesome classic films ever made on one of the world’s biggest horror YouTube channels, ‘Fear: The Home of Horror.’

Starting January 15th 2021 horror fans will have the opportunity to scare away the January blues and take a step back in time to watch an incredible array of classic re-mastered cult films for Free including Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Each film will premiere individually and be available to watch for seven days on the Fear: The Home of Horror YouTube channel. Additionally, during each film’s premiere week, fans will have the opportunity to add these films to their digital collection at a discounted price, allowing them to watch whenever they want, for as many times as they want!

–

20. The Innocents

Directed by Jack Clayton

Written by William Archibald and Truman Capote

UK, 1961

Genre: Hauntings

The Innocents, which was co-written by Truman Capote, is the first of many screen adaptations of The Turn of the Screw. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad because most people haven’t – but The Innocents deserves its rightful spot on any list of great horror films. Here is one of the few films where the ghost story takes place mostly in daylight, and the lush photography, which earned cinematographer Freddie Francis one of his two Oscar wins, is simply stunning. Meanwhile, director Jack Clayton and Francis made great use of long, steady shots, which suggest corruption is lurking everywhere inside the grand estate. The Innocents also features three amazing performances; the first two come courtesy of child actors Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House), and Martin Stephens (Village of the Damned...

Imitation of Life

Written by William Hurlbut

Directed by John M. Stahl

USA, 1934

Written by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott

Directed by Douglas Sirk

USA, 1959

The debate about the necessity and worth of continual remakes rages on every year. Will the new version be as good as the original? Or even better? Should it have even been made to begin with? While we do seem to hear more about this recently, the concept of a remark is, of course, nothing new. Examples go back to the very dawn of cinema. What makes a remake particularly worthwhile, however, is when the films involved are dissimilar in certain aspects yet notably congruent in other areas: just enough to keep the basic premise or theme consistent, but varied enough to keep it up to date and original in one way or another. If both versions have their merits, a considerate comparison and contrast...

Conceptually, a horror film should seem like a self-contained endeavor. One brainstorms for a neat idea to pull off a few scares on the audience through a tale filled with some ghouls, goblins, and other various ghastly figures that go bump in the night, the end. Film history and the ever-pervasive reality of box office rewards has dictated otherwise on plenty of occasions. Warranted or not from a story perspective, horror films, from slashers to ghost tales, have seen a near-incalculable number of sequels (and now prequels and reboots) ordered into production. It is doubtful even a scientific calculator could keep proper count of all the further installments developed from horror films.

Even though the fans’ common reflex is to proclaim a sequel’s dip in quality in relation to the first episode that does not entail that a sequel is not a good film in its own right. Every now and then,...

Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time around for one simple reason: that is, the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. Enjoy!

Special Mention:

Un chien andalou

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel

France, 1929

The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece.

Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.

As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.

****

Special Mention:

Shock Corridor

Directed by Samuel Fuller

Written by Samuel Fuller

1963, USA

Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. In order to solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum, Barrett sets to work, interrogating the other patients and keeping a close eye on the staff.

The Bride of Frankenstein

Directed by James Whale

Written by William Hurlbut et al.

U.S.A., 1935

For the people who take aim at the Hollywood system for its near-constant dependency on producing sequels, prequels and remakes, they should be reminded that the studio system has engaged in such a practice essentially since its inception. While it is true that fewer sequels existed in the earlier decades of the movie making business, they did happen when a film was met with significant box office success. In fact, more to the point, sequels were made in the same mindset as they are today, bigger is better, proving that things really have not change so dramatically in the past 100 years of movie making when it comes to studios reacting to the success of one of their products.

In 1935, four years after directing the original Frankenstein movie, James Whale was convinced to return...

Did you somehow miss this amazing sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man? Who could ever forget The Wolf Man vs. Dracula, the Technicolor square-off between Bela Lugosi’s villainous vampire and Lon Chaney, Jr.’s, hirsute antihero? You don’t remember it? Of course not, because it never existed. But, it almost did!

Welcome to “An Alternate History for Classic Film Monsters,” a wonderful series of previously unpublished screenplays from the Universal Monsters era. Curated by Philip J. Riley (Count Dracula Society Award winner and inductee into the Universal Horror Hall of Fame), this collection of newly dug up scripts offers any devoted monster fan who’s “seen ‘em all” a special opportunity indeed of seeing some classic chiller movies that might have been.

Published in the same style as Riley’s earlier screenplays of the ‘30s thriller greats put out by MagicImage, these BearManor Media volumes include a...

It was on this day, April 22 1935, that the Bride was born…

One of the most iconic images in all of horror cinema, the Bride has haunted our nightmares for 75 years now, an eerily beautiful, hissing figure covered in gauze from head-to-toe, draped in a brilliant but inelegant white shroud, and with flaming white streaks shooting up a jazzed, Nefertiti hairdo.

The Bride’s part in the 1935 Universal classic The Bride of Frankenstein is a small one, but it burns instantly and indelibly into one’s psyche, as the radiant Elsa Lanchester and the immortal Boris Karloff enact the ultimate nightmare version of a blind date.

The Bride of Frankenstein has endured for 75 years, its reputation as one of the great touchstones of early horror movies – and of Hollywood’s Golden Age — only looming larger as the decades tick past. The absolute zenith of the original Universal Horror cycle, Bride effortlessly combines everything: ghoulish chills,...

It looks as if Universal are already casting around for follow-ups to this year's Benecio Del Toro starrer The Wolfman. Clearly the venerable studio is looking to open up the vaults and dust of its classic monsters, with reports coming in that first off the blocks may be The Bride of Frankenstein.A new version of James Whale's 1935 classic has been in various stages of development for some years. Most recently the writers of American Splendour, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, were attached to an updated take on the material.But the project has now found its way to Illusionist director Neil Burger and screenwriter Dick Wittenborn. There are, of course, plenty of screen adaptations of Mary Shelley's original novel, with another one in preparation by Guillermo Del Toro. But James Whale's sequel to the 1931 Universal version was an original screenplay by William Hurlbut: in the novel,...