The Bride (2017)

Directed by Svyatoslav Podgayevsky

Viewed on Amazon Prime

 

Hey guys! Back again with everyone’s favorite kind of movie, obscure Russian psychological horror films! Okay, so it isn’t THAT obscure, it is a somewhat recent wide release film, but I don’t watch that much foreign horror that isn’t Asian so any Russian movie would be a bit obscure for me. Let me paint you a picture of the exact circumstances that I watched this under; it is Labor Day and my fiance’s family had just left and we were looking for ways to unwind. We were relaxing and having a few drinks, which I don’t normally do when I watch things that I am planning on writing about, and we were trying to decide on a movie to watch. I wanted something lighter but we eventually ended up in the psychological horror section of Amazon Prime, like you do, and we picked The Bride, based on its interesting summary. From the first frame things didn’t go quite as we planned. Because the movie is dubbed. Very badly. And there was no option to watch it with subtitles. Hooray.

As the dialogue was somewhat garbled by this dub the plot was kind of impenetrable, but I will do my best to describe what happens in the movie to the best of my recollection. So it started in the 1800s where a chemistry genius invented a new kind of silver that when used in a camera it would be able to capture someone’s soul when you take a picture of them. The chemist’s bride falls ill so he uses the camera to take her soul, which turns her into some kind of zombie monster and then in order to keep her alive he has to give her offerings of virginal young women. This monstrous creature then immediately turns on the monstrous chemist and murders him. Oh that’s not the end of the movie, this isn’t the plot of this film, this is just the first minute of backstory that the movie front loads itself with so you are brought up to speed and ready to absorb the REAL plot, which is about a young married couple that goes back to the husband’s family home. After arriving and meeting her husband’s family, Natsya notices that things are a bit strange there but doesn’t pay it much mind. That is until her husband goes missing, and even though his family assures her that nothing is wrong Natsya does a bit of investigating into the situation. But that investigation mostly involves walking around in a daze and doing nothing.

As you can probably tell the movie is a bit complex and that, combined with the horrendous dubbing, makes it a bit difficult to follow the movie. It’s kind of hard to convey this in writing but things just seem to happen, with most of the film just being Natsya walking around this old house and occasionally seeing things that are creepy. Now that isn’t necessarily a terrible way to frame things in a psychological horror film but the problem here is twofold, the first being that what is happening in the house never particularly makes sense (and I mean that in a bad way) and the dubbing is just so distracting and badly done that it is nigh impossible to get invested in what is happening. I would be much more accepting of this situation if ALL the creepy things that were introduced had to do with the backstory of the film but it is quickly established that this old family mansion has an even bigger problem in that occasionally everyone there just sees ghastly apparitions that can only be temporarily stopped by closing your eyes and holding your breath until they go away. This isn’t clearly established as having been caused by the zombie bride but I think that is what they are implying is the reason that everyone has been seeing these visions. And even stranger is that its Natsya’s new husband who tells her about this, which is a little weird to me because if I knew my childhood home was infested with ghosts then I probably wouldn’t bring my new bride there. Maybe we could just stay at a hotel and do a day trip. Or, and this might be kind of out there, maybe DON’T take your new wife to the ghost house at all?

 

I haven’t much gotten into the characters here but that’s mostly because we don’t see very much characterization play out. And while that may be due, at least partially, to the utilitarian translation which doesn’t allow for too many acting flourishes, this was caused much more by the barebones script that was way too focused on Natsya wandering around this old house rather than character interactions and dialogue. If I had to infer anything about Natsya from her wandering it’s that her main character trait is that she really isn’t very smart. On her first day there her husband’s family starts acting strangely and, when Natsya is out of the room, they have an argument about an unknown topic which sends her husband into a rage. He tells Natsya that they are leaving in the morning because things are not right. When Natsya wakes up in the morning her husband is gone and his family tells Natsya that he left without telling her and will be back tonight. Instead of instantly realizing that something terrible has happened and investigating or just leaving and finding the nearest town, she just walks around. Sees some visions, has dinner with the family. It just seems like such an inhuman response to the really weird scenario she is in.

 

On a more positive note, even though nothing really makes sense, it was hard to look away from this film. It is a little boring but it does get livened up by the strange imagery that we occasionally see and the absolutely unpredictable plot twists that happen with regular frequency. Even the dialogue adds a strange edge to what is happening, its robotic quality giving the surrounding events a bit of a surreal feeling. Whether or not that was intentional I’m not really certain of, but it gives something to a movie that otherwise would be kind of lacking. Also the premise was interesting enough and I could see a good movie coming out of this story, unfortunately that isn’t exactly what we got.

 

So now here is the tricky part, would I recommend this movie? For a general audience no, there isn’t enough happening to justify a watch for someone who isn’t already into slow moving atmospheric horror. But on the other hand someone into slow moving atmospheric horror might find the weird dubbing and strange storyline alienating and tough to get through. So, here is my recommendation, if you have Amazon Prime watch maybe the first 15 minutes and by that point you’ll know whether or not you want to continue. I know that is super specific but it’s the best I can do for this strange movie. Hopefully the next film I examine will be a bit more clear cut.