Between this, “Nosferatu,” and “Frankenstein,” we’re finally getting a monster cinematic universe!

“The Bride!” is based on Mary Shelley’s infamous novel “Frankenstein,” and follows the titular Bride of Frankenstein (Jessie Buckley) who is raised from the dead by a scientist (Annette Bening) to be a partner to Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) in 1930s Chicago. Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penélope Cruz also star as Maggie Gyllenhaal writes and directs.

I’ve liked this recent influx of updated classic monster movies, from Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (and “Werwulf” later this year), as well as Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.” Each one has had its own style and flair, and Gyllenhaal’s “Bride!” is the most unique one to-date. Many targets are shot at and not all are hit, and while ambition is admirable it doesn’t always result in a good movie.

As our titular antiheroine, Jessie Buckley (fresh off her second Oscar nomination, this time for “Hamnet”) is pretty good. She certainly has a screen presence and the role requires both physicality and changing voices on a dime, which she usually pulls off pretty well. It isn’t as layered a character or performance as Emma Stone’s in “Poor Things” (similarly a brought back to life woman who then has no memory of her past life), but to be fair what is? And that may be part of problem with “The Bride!”: so much of what we see has been done before.

It’s easy to compare the film to “Joker: Folie à Deux” because of its out-of-nowhere musical numbers, but if anything I thought it borrowed a lot more from the first “Joker” film, with its themes of social isolation and depiction of dirty 20th century American cities. There are also shades of the aforementioned “Poor Things” as well as “Nightmare Alley” and “Bonnie & Clyde,” and it all comes together like a stitched-together concoction that would make Dr. Frankenstein blush.

The film looks pretty good, the $80 million budget was certainly not put to waste by Gyllenhaal and her team, though by the third act it’s clear that she never really had a true narrative vision so much as things she thought would be cool to see monsters do in mid-century America. And sure, there are nuggets of intrigue and some scenes are fun, but there are subplots that go nowhere and add nothing, all leading up to a very busy and unsatisfying climax.

“The Bride!” is not without its merits, and I’ll always prefer a bold swing and miss from an auteur over a studio-mandated checklist, but it goes in so many creative directions and leaves too many threads hanging that you admire it more than enjoy it. A few big-name actors show up and that’s always fun, and as a fan of period pieces it’s cool to see the neon lights of old Times Square or architecture of Chicago, but end of the day, this is a bride you can feel free to leave at the alter.

Critics Rating: 5/10