Maggie Gyllenhaal's Monster Mash

"I think connection is scary for people. Real connection includes not just the parts of us that we're proud of, but the parts of us that we're terrified of and ashamed of-what I've been sort of calling the monstrous aspects. And to love someone or to connect to someone, including those aspects, takes real bravery."

"Is it a horror story, a ghost story, or, most frightening of all, a story? What follows is a cat-and-mouse road movie, a jewel-toned Jazz Age thriller, a romantic caper following Frankenstein's monster-who goes by his maker's name, Frank, or Frankie if you know him like that, and is played by Christian Bale."

Maggie Gyllenhaal's second directorial feature opens with Mary Shelley's ghost contemplating an unwritten sequel to Frankenstein. The film follows Frankenstein's monster, named Frank or Frankie, played by Christian Bale, and a woman he resurrects from the dead, portrayed by Jessie Buckley, in a Jazz Age thriller combining romance, action, and cat-and-mouse dynamics. Shelley's ghost periodically appears to encourage the monster toward fearless action. Gyllenhaal emphasizes that genuine connection frightens people more than traditional horror, as it demands accepting both admirable and shameful aspects of ourselves. The film adopts a galvanizingly feminist tone, with the resurrected bride's screams of frustration becoming a revolutionary battle cry for women in 1936.

Read at Filmmaker Magazine