★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for otherworldly blood-spilling of various sorts
A bachelorette party goes to hell when the groom-to-be springs a supernatural surprise on his fiancée and her friends in this blood-soaked shocker.
Directed by Spider One
Unholy smokes, dear readers, I was not ready for how terrific Bury the Bride is — and neither should you be, which is why I am making this review as spoiler-free as possible. The second feature from director Spider One packs wallops galore of both the fear-fare and emotional variety, and boasts no small amount of the red stuff.
June (Scout Taylor-Compton), having seemingly never before watched a single horror movie in her life, opts to have her bachelorette party in a creepy house in the middle of an even creepier nowhere, much to the dismay of her older sister Sadie (Krsy Fox, who cowrote the screenplay with Spider One and contributed toward the film’s music, as well) and their friends, party girl Carmen (Lyndsie LaRose), no-nonsense Liz (Rachel Brunner), and wife and mother Betty (Katie Ryan). It’s bad enough that Sadie disapproves of June’s fiancé David (Dylan Rourke) who is referred to as a hillbilly type said to be missing a tooth, but the remote location makes matters even worse for the older sister.
The girls get their partying on, which leads to hot tempers and drama, but things really come to a head when an unexpected nighttime knock at the door brings David and his friends. Sadie’s intuition is not good, and suffice it to say that June should have listened to some sisterly advice rather than rebelling against it.
I don’t want to give away any more of the plot, as it holds a good deal of surprises. I’ll just quote the film’s official logline, “Bride-to-be June’s bachelorette getaway turns deadly when her bloodthirsty fiancé and his friends show up to crash the party,” and state that if you a connoisseur of cinema with supernatural elements, you’re in for a treat. Bury the Bride takes plays with viewer expectations as it plays with horror traditions and tropes, delivering finely tuned suspense and a wholly satisfying climax and ending. The practical effects and makeup work look great.
The acting is solid from the ensemble cast members. Taylor-Compton is no stranger to fright-fare audiences, and Fox’s performance in Allegoria, Spider One’s debut film from last year that also starred Taylor-Compton, was one of the highlights from that feature. The two show superb chemistry together here as they do outstanding work as the film’s leads.
I highly advise avoiding watching the teaser trailer linked below, as it gives what I feel is too much away. Don’t let your curiosity get the better of you; go in as cold as possible when the film debuts on Tubi on April 22, 2023.
Review by Joseph Perry
Bury the Bride screens as part of Panic Fest 2023, which takes place in person from April 13–19, 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri, and which offers a virtual fest from April 14–23.
