Prey for the Bride review.
I’ll be honest right up front. I was hung up on the title the entire time spent watching Prey for the Bride.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Prey for the Bride
Directed by Danny J. Boyle
Written by Bryan Dick
Starring Lina Lecompte, Jacky Lai, Spencer Borgeson, Brad Harder, Megan Peta Hall, Marnie Mahannah and Getenesh Berhe
Prey for the Bride Review
Prey for the Bride. I thought about it the whole time. As a fairly basic slasher movie with very little atmosphere played out…I found myself returning to that title. It doesn’t say Pray for. It doesn’t say Prey on. Was this just a name that someone thought looked cool? Prey for the Devil was about a demon preying on an innocent girl. Prey was about hunters in search of…prey. This is called…Prey for the Bride. Was it a spoiler? Is the bride going to be the killer? It probably says everything that needs to be said about the movie that searching every scene for this answer to something that was not intended to be a riddle was the most memorable thing about it.
A masked killer with ties to the past targets a bachelorette party weekend. Jordan (Megan Peta Hill) heads to Napa with her bridal party. Her best friend Dorit (Getenesh Berhe) isn’t fully on board with the marriage…and even less fond of the rest of the party. A peaceful retreat is shattered when reminders of a tragedy in Jordan’s past keep surfacing. Then a killer in the wolf mask comes to call on them.
Prey for the Bride throws around a few could-be killers. The group’s limo driver Darren is a decidedly creepy guy. The male strippers aren’t properly vetted. The bartender and chef look comfortable wearing their masks. An overbearing older woman is chaperoning the proceedings uninvited. The fiancé is always an easy suspect…especially when the motive begins to become clear. Then there is the queen bee of Jordan’s friend group Brooke (Jacky Lai). She is quick to accuse while clearly hiding some secrets connected to Jordan’s ex.
That ex? He’s less of a suspect. He’s dead. Whoever is behind this clearly suspects it was due to foul play. A weekend of revelations and slasher justice awaits everyone who was involved in his death. That’s not a bad plot. The problems begin when you are watching all the suspects and victims…scene after scene…and all you can think about is that damned title. Darren is lurking in the bushes and…it’s called Prey FOR the Bride. Does the movie want me to suspect Jordan? Is this a whodunnit that tells you the answer before the opening scene?
Eventually, Jordan becomes a target for the masked man. It’s impossible to build any suspense or tension when you watch every move closely to determine whether the movie is trying to trick you. This would be less likely to happen (at least at the intensity it does) with almost any other title. Now you watch her fend off the killer and wonder…are you trying to Billy Loomis me here?
The answer comes, obviously. It follows a very basic attempt at a slasher movie. As this killer is hell bent on getting answers…the kills come slowly. They’re after information first. Once they get that…the guilty are disposable. The killings are unremarkable. The story is far more invested in the mystery surrounding the death of Jordan’s ex. That’s what we are supposed to be more interested in than death scenes or who is behind the mask. It’s probably not the worst call, to be honest. That storyline is the best one they have.
Until the end. That’s when something kind of unexpected happens. The inevitable final girl is, against all odds, kind of interesting. Her journey to the spot isn’t the same standard stuff we’ve seen to that point. It allows the movie to deliver something surprisingly satisfying amidst a slew of predictable twists and turns. The cast does what they can with it. Prey for the Bride never feels much like a horror movie. It feels like a lifetime movie with a slasher aspect. That’s not the cast’s fault. There isn’t a lot they can do.
Prey for the Bride is a bad slasher movie that probably knew that going in. It’s a lousy whodunnit too…which seems to have eluded them. It isn’t the worst thing you’ll ever see. The cast tries. The backstory gives it something to do. There is a somewhat interesting final girl arch for people who are into that sort of thing. Mostly, however, it’s a mess. It’s not scary. There’s no atmosphere. Kills are forgettable. You’ll spend more time thinking about whether the title is a spoiler or a lazy pun than worrying about the safety of the characters. Maybe that’s why the decent final girl story was able to sneak up so effortlessly.
Scare Value
Like many Tubi originals…Prey for the Bride is best suited for a light Sunday afternoon watch. There are some ideas here. The movie fumbles most of them. The story is so concerned with concealing itself that it undercuts the potential of the payoff. In that way…I guess it ended up choosing the perfect title.
1.5/5
Prey for the Bride Link
Streaming on Tubi
