Olivia Cooke trades dragons for fangs in Brides, a gothic vampire romance where feminist fire disrupts a blood-soaked paradise.
Olivia Cooke Sinks Her Teeth Into A Bold New Role
Olivia Cooke, fresh from her starring role as Queen Alicent in HBO’s House of the Dragon, has been cast as the lead in Brides, a vampire horror movie from writer-director Chloe Okuno.
Cooke replaces the originally cast Maika Monroe (It Follows, Watcher), who exited due to scheduling conflicts with Universal’s Reminders of Him.
Her casting follows a career filled with performances in films like Thoroughbreds, Sound of Metal, and Ready Player One.
Cooke will star as Sally Bishop, a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown who finds herself at the mercy of a mysterious count in a remote Italian villa.
Known for period-appropriate scowls and elaborate gowns, Cooke seems perfectly suited to this role
A Feminist Gothic Tale Set In 1960s Italy
Described as “gothic, glamorous, and gory,” the movie is set against the evocative backdrop of 1960s Italy - a time of societal change and lingering aristocratic grandeur.
Sally Bishop and her husband travel to a remote villa in the wake of Sally’s nervous breakdown. The villa’s owner, a mysterious count, takes a peculiar interest in Sally. But he gets far more than he anticipated when Sally’s feminist chaos is added to his perfect, violent Eden of vampire brides.
The film’s premise aligns with the simmering sociopolitical tensions of the era. The 1960s, particularly in Western societies, marked the rise of second-wave feminism - a movement that questioned traditional gender roles, pushed for workplace equality, and challenged patriarchal norms.
Reimagining Dracula
Inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Brides promises to flip the original narrative on its head.
Instead of helpless female victims or obedient vampire wives, we get Sally, a woman who brings “feminist chaos” into the count’s carefully controlled, centuries-old power structure.
The movie promises adressing the themes of carnal desire versus societal repression, aiming to unpack the underlying themes of vampire mythology.
Creative Team And Production Details
Brides is directed and written by Chloe Okuno, whose breakout feature Watcher earned praise for its slow-burn tension and feminist subtext. The film will be produced by Anthony Bregman and Stefanie Azpiazu of Likely Story (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, In the Heights), with Neon distributing the movie theatrically.
Though the film is set in Italy, filming started spring 2025 in Budapest, Hungary — a favorite filming location for gothic tales thanks to its old-world architecture and atmospheric decay.
The Movie Industry: From Teen Vampires To Mature Horror
Brides arrives during a growing resurgence of vampire cinema with serious bite. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and the newly announced Flesh of the Gods starring Kristen Stewart suggest that the genre is pivoting away from the sparkle-and-angst aesthetic of the 2000s and toward more complex, historically rooted, and psychologically intense storytelling.
Where once vampires brooded in high schools, they now haunt the fringes of power, and trauma - and the upcoming Brides seems perfectly poised to continue that evolution.