Fresh off the hit success of this summer’s Longlegs, scream queen Maika Monroe has found her next project, and it looks like a doozy. She’s set to reteam with Chloe Okuno – who she worked with on 2022’s Watcher — for Brides, a new vampire movie that puts a feminist twist on Bram Stoker’s immortal count and his harem of wives.
A period piece set in 1960s Italy, Brides is set to follow Monroe’s Sally Bishop as she and her husband move to a remote villa after she suffers a nervous breakdown. There, she meets a mysterious count (any guesses who?) and they strike up a peculiar partnership, but he gets more than he bargained for when his coven of brides is upset by Sally’s feminist chaos.
Loosely inspired by Dracula, Okuno wrote the script she’ll be directing, which is described as “gothic, glamorous, and gory” by Deadline, a story that will “flip Bram Stoker’s narrative on its head, exploring the struggle between societal repression and carnal desire.” This will be her first feature film since Watcher’s release, though she did recently direct two episodes of Peacock’s horror series Teacup, produced by genre legend James Wan.
“Brides is set to redefine the horror genre with Choe Okuno’s unique blend of feminist themes and gory visuals,” producer Anthony Bregman told Deadline. “The script is dynamic and unsettling in all the best ways. Chloe always brings such dread and complexity to her characters, and we can’t wait to work with her and Maika to bring Sally to life or to un-death as the case may be.”
Monroe is obviously coming off a huge hit with Longlegs, directed by Osgood Perkins, where she starred opposite Nicholas Cage’s serial killer, but that and Brides aren’t all she has in store for us. She’s also set to star in They Follow, the sequel to the hit It Follows that propelled her to horror stardom, as well as a remake of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, alongside Scott Pilgrim vs. The World star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Brides has not yet set a release date.
