Love at First Sight – The Bride by Tom Bagshaw

This is an unusually poignant rendering of the Bride, by UK based illustrator Tom Bagshaw.

I think it’s an amazing work, thankfully untainted by the dreadful campiness or overt horror that most artists seem to find irresistible when taking on this subject. In fact, this may be the perfect treatment of the Bride; it captures her beauty and tragedy so well.

I absolutely love it.

Check out the artist’s website, Mostly Wanted.

I have said this before, but I find it mind-boggling that so many people I’ve spoken with about the Bride find her ugly and frightening. Of course I can’t say for certain, but I believe this odd perception is the result of several factors.

First, I think far fewer people have actually seen “The Bride of Frankenstein” than say they have, and thus have no clue what they’re taking about.

Second, the idea of what horror is about is far different today than it was in 1935 when that film was released, and those of us raised on Jason and Freddie and the Saw films were raised on bloodthirsty shit.

And finally, people today who are thoroughly unfamiliar with classic Hollywood fail to understand that it was all about creating fabulously beautiful and idealized images of women, and for all the talk about horror and monsters, the Bride was clearly no exception.

Of course she was meant to be a disturbing character in the legendary film “The Bride of Frankenstein,” there is no question about that. But she was by no means a hideous monster. On the contrary, she is upsetting precisely because she is so beautiful, and so pitifully disoriented and confused and afraid, unsteady on her feet and nearly overwhelmed at being thrown back amongst the living.

The horror of her character is that she has been callously re-animated in order to serve as the mate to a true monster, and her screams at the sight of him make us realize how awful her intended fate truly was.