10 Best Movie Characters Not Introduced Until The End

It seems bizarre that a film centering around the titular Bride of Frankenstein would only feature the would-be Mrs. Frankenstein in the final act.

James Whale's 1935 outing has been critically acclaimed as one of the greatest horror films of all time, featuring Boris Karloff in his second appearance as the creature based on the monster from Mary Shelley's novel. The film seeks to explore a subplot of Shelley's original story; as no living thing will accept the monster in its current state, it demands that a mate be created for it, a request eventually obliged by Dr Septimus Pretorious, a mentor of Henry Frankenstein. This is a notable diversion from Shelley's novel, in which Henry initially agrees, before becoming horrified at the notion of multiple monsters and destroying his latest creation.

Despite being the focal point of Whale's film, the Bride does not appear in her living form until the film's final act. It's a heartbreakingly ironic entrance as well; the horrified Bride rejects Karloff's monster, leading him to destroy the laboratory with both of them still inside. Regardless of Elsa Lanchester's exceedingly brief appearance within the film however, Bride of Frankenstein holds a proud reputation as one of the most significant and progressive horror movies of all time. The film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry on the basis that it was "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

None of these lofty accolades would have been possible without the contribution of the eponymous Bride herself.