A secluded bachelorette turns into the girls night from Hell in Spider One and Krsy Fox’s Bury The Bride. Starring Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween, 2007), Chaz Bono (American Horror Story) and multi-hyphenate Krsy Fox (who also produced, co-wrote, and edited the film), Bury The Bride is a one-way ticket to a remote nightmare in the California desert with a fun cast of characters and a stacked deck of horrors hidden up its sleeve.
We’ve all watched friends in bad relationships excuse away the behavior of their untrustworthy boyfriends but at some point, there’s nothing you can do but wish them well. June (Scout Taylor-Compton) has a great group of friends around her, and a watchful sister that wants nothing more than to see her happy. Despite their reservations about the shotgun wedding to her mysterious hillbilly fiancé David (Dylan Rourke), June’s sister Sadie (Krsy Fox) drives the whole gang out for one last hooray together.
David, being the southern-fried gentleman that he is, has graciously offered his family hunting cabin for June‘s impromptu bachelorette. Which would be great if it wasn’t ramshackle, run-down, and smelling like the death of 1000 animals. Determined to make the best of weekend, the girls pour a few drinks and get the party started. And despite a few heated words and sincere apologies, the bachelorette is going great…until David and his hunting buddies crash the part unexpectedly.
The darkness of Bury The Bride is its best kept secret. You know in your bones that something just isn’t’ right, but you don’t know when the rug is gonna get pulled out from underneath you. Are David and his good-old-boy pals just like every other pack of sadistic rednecks you’ve seen? Or is there something more sinister lurking in the shadows? You’re on edge and left guessing until the movie slams into high-gear and the blood starts flowing.
Dylan Rourke’s performances as an untrustworthy son of the soil is pitch perfect. There’s 100 hundred years of history behind the twang in his voice that immediately has you raising an eyebrow to his sweet talkin’ but the movie cleverly plays on your prejudice of these characters. He has strong cult-leader energy, but maybe he’s just weirdly into hunting and the “natural order of things”.
Not owning a cell phone isn’t a red flag necessarily, but after a lifetime of watching horror movies and true crime documentaries, you think you know exactly what this guy’s deal is as soon as he shows up. I promise you though, this movie’s got a much bigger surprises in store.
The rest of his crew consists of burley, bearded baddasses and a mute fella they all call Puppy (played by Chaz Bono). Unfortunately for Puppy, he’s the plaything of the group. The butt of every joke and the poor unfortunate bastard they love to kick around. The dynamic of the group couldn’t be more different from the ladies that June has brought along. While David and the boys are gruff under spoken brutes, June and Sadie‘s friends are hotheaded but protective of each other. And when the shit hits the fan, the gals draw a line in the sand and team up to fight for their lives.
Bury The Bride is a surprising left turn for Spider One from his semi-experimental debut Allegoria. It’s just as scrappy a production (filmed in only 7 days!) but it’s a much more straightforward story with clearly defined baddies and one hell of a body count. Like a plinko game of scary possibilities, the first third of the movie plays on your expectations and leans into every evil avenue it could take before rolling up it’s sleeves and getting to business. It’s a great reminder that indie filmmaking is still the beating heart of horror storytelling and a crowd-pleasing survival story with a wicked cool twist on some of your favorite blood-soaked tropes.
“AÂ crowd-pleasing survival story with a wicked cool twist on some of your favorite blood-soaked tropes.”
Spider One and Krsy Fox’s Bury The Bride celebrated its World Premiere at Panic Fest 2023 and will be available to stream on Tubi April 22. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the fest and share your thoughts on Bury The Bride with us over on Twitter or in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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