If you’re not familiar with Tubi, it’s a free streaming platform featuring a pretty decent selection of movies and TV shows. While you’ll find some old big name movies, Tubi specializes in B-movies and cult classics – you just have to suffer through a few very short commercials while streaming. And Tubi has ramped up its production of original content. Most of these movies look like the older content – lower-budget horror and thriller movies. Horror fans may recognize the name behind the latest release, Bury the Bride. Writer and director Spider One (aka Michael David Cummings) was the frontman for metal band Powerman 5000. He’s also Rob Zombie’s younger brother, so horror runs in the family.

Synopsis

Bride-to-be June arrives at her soon-to-be home – a rundown cabin in the middle of nowhere – for her bachelorette party. Tensions are high as neither June’s sister Sadie nor her friends have met her fiancé, David. And no one seems to understand the attraction between the urbanite June and the backwoods David. Soon after arriving, the tensions escalate when David and his friend show up to the cabin unexpectedly turning the festivities into a fight for survival.

Bury the Bride Slowly Recycles Hillbilly Horror Tropes … Until It Doesn’t

Fair or not, Spider One’s movies will inevitably draw comparisons to his brother’s work. While his debut movie Allegoria was more experimental than Zombie’s work, Bury the Bride spends its first half mixing hillbilly and survival horror tropes. Same subject matter, different approach than his sibling. That is, Spider One doesn’t seem to be as interested in the more exploitative aspects of the subgenre. Limited somewhat by a small budget, Bury the Bride looks cheap out of necessity rather than a fixation on Grindhouse aesthetics.

…Bury the Bride spends its first half mixing hillbilly and survival horror tropes.

Moreover, Bury the Bride plays out much more slowly than a House of 1000 Corpses or The Devil’s Rejects. In fact, Spider One and co-writer Krsy Fox – who also stars as Sadie – take a much more meditative approach to the material. Much of the first 20 minutes or so is surprisingly dialogue-heavy for the movie. And the final moments feel like Bury the Bride wants to aspire to more than just a movie about homicidal hillbillies. Unfortunately, the slower pace and focus on dialogue leaves too much time to pick out all the lapses in logic. Meditative or not, Bury the Bride doubles down on its rural stereotypes. Arguably, the worst of these lapses is the inexplicable attraction between June and David.

Bury the Bride Does Manage to Pull One Surprise That Should Keep Audiences Watching

If Bury the Bride drags its feet on a tired premise, Spider One and Fox introduce a twist that comes out of nowhere. Spider One handles the twist quite well, and the scene itself may be the best part of the whole movie. Briefly, Bury the Bride feels like it’s going to amp up the survival horror mixed with a bit of supernatural. On one hand, Spider One throws in a few bits of effective gore that don’t outstretch the budget. But the thriller never really ignites any ‘cat and mouse’ stalking long enough to put audiences on the edge of their seats. Without spoiling the twist, there’s also some inconsistencies in a certain familiar monster’s mythology.

Spider One handles the twist quite well, and the scene itself may be the best part of the whole movie.

All of the performances are better than what you typically find in low-budget horror movies. Horror fans will be happy to see veteran ‘Scream Queen’ Scout Taylor Compton (Halloween, Halloween II, The Long Night, Feral) in the starring role as June. She knows her way around a horror movie and it shows as she lends credibility to a character that’s not well developed. Though he’s not immediately recognizable, Dylan Rourke actually makes for quite a compelling villain. Aside from the twist itself, Rourke is a stand out of Bury the Bride.

Bury the Bride Doesn’t Quite Make the Most of Its Mid-Act Shock

While it’s not going to make anyone’s ‘Best of’ list for this year (or any other), Bury the Bride is a perfectly serviceable, and occasionally surprising, horror movie. There’s a mid-act twist that adds a bit of life to what was previously a sluggishly paced hillbilly horror movie. Budgetary constraints clearly limit the action, and Spider One doesn’t do much to mitigate the limitation. Ultimately, Spider One limits how much fun you’ll have watching this one by slowing down things too often. There’s a handful of decent gore scenes and the promise of an intense ‘cat and mouse’ chase that fizzles before it really starts. Good performances and a meditative finale aren’t really enough to warrant much more than a lukewarm recommendation.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: C