You May Now Kill the Bride

Moviecut—You May Now Kill the Bride

source: You May Now Kill the Bride

What's not crazy, is how predictable this is. And I don't just mean the title here that is quite the giveaway of what this movie is going to be about. What is crazy is one of the characters here ... and it becomes quite obvious early on. And while the characters at some point seem to get that, the next moment they seem to cut her a lot of slack. Maybe wear a helmet while watching this ... just in case you feel the need to rip out your own hair ... I don't know is this a thing in English? Or is it just a German saying? Whatever the case, I'm certain you understand what I mean by that ...

The film steadily goes down in quality and the scene before the last one at the wedding with the stabbing, the bride, and the bathtub sequence became increasingly off-the-wall. I've heard of the wicked step-sisters from Cinderella, but this step-sister has got them beat by a while. With an extremely strong emotional attachment to her step-brother, she is just about to ruin his chances by killing his first intended bride and well on her way to doing the same thing to his next fiancé. The film is basically a Lifetime usual of someone coming into the lives of people only to wreak absolute havoc on them and this causes them to have serious doubts about their relationship as the situations become zanier.

Nicole Cavanaugh grew up as a virtual orphan. Her mom abandoned her shortly after birth, and her father passed away while she was in high school. Now, she has met Mark, who would appear to be the love of her life. Everything augurs well for their upcoming wedding to take place at Timberwood, a site that Nicole was fond of since childhood. It all seems to too good to be true. And then, the nightmare begins. It was a really bad sign when the two love birds, Mark and Nicole, welcomed into their home Mark's stepsister Audrey, who cooks a breakfast of burritos, bacon, and eggs. That was the regular cuisine for Sundays when Mark and Audrey were living under the same roof. Now, Audrey is eager to take over, and her objective is to not allow another woman to walk up the aisle with Mark. At first, Audrey seems like the sister that Nicole never had growing up. She will be the bridesmaid at the wedding. But the dark side of Audrey kicks in when Audrey sets her sights on being Maid of Honor. That title belongs to Nicole's bestie, Celine. Suddenly, Celine takes a tumble off the top of a parking garage and lands in the hospital with a coma. The best scene in the film was when Nicole first began to realize that Audrey was the cause of everything going wrong with the wedding plans. But as soon as she confronted Audrey, Nicole became a backslider and apologized. Even when she learns that Mark's first fiancée Rachel fell off a bridge and died just before the wedding, the mishap with Celine, and the lie Audrey told about Becca Gould, one of Mark's girlfriends in high school, Nicole inexplicably continues to trust Audrey. The filmmakers tried to milk the script with multiple false endings that stretched credibility beyond the pale. Instead of being placed in prison, Audrey is sent to a hospital where she walks out the front door and makes a beeline to Mark. The film redeems itself somewhat with a dramatic battle in the bathtub in the bridal suite. Nicole's line about Audrey sums it up best: "She's always here!" Even by the end of the film, it appears as though Audrey will never be removed from the orbit of Mark and Nicole. Will their marriage be defined with Sunday breakfasts in bed with burritos?

The title "You May Now Kill the Bride" makes me think that the film's writer, Blaine Chiappetta (is that a man, woman or chia pet?), was probably hanging out with some friends and they were brainstorming what would be the silliest parody of a Lifetime movie title they could come up with. I had assumed it would be the hoary old Lifetime trope of a woman who seems to have met her dream man, only to discover once they actually tie the knot that he's a serial killer who's made it his habit to woo, marry and then off women. Instead it was the hoary old Lifetime trope of the nice young couple who seem to be altar-bound without any untoward complications when untoward complications arrive big-time in the person of a stranger who on the surface is just nice, perky and trying to be helpful, but who holds a deep, dark secret underneath. The man is Mark Pressler (Rocky Myers), not exactly a drop-dead gorgeous sex god but considerably more attractive than the tall, lanky, sandy-haired types who usually get cast as Lifetime leading men. His fiancée is Nicole Cavanaugh (Ashley Newbrough), a blonde who's way too trusting of the perky little woman who comes in, establishes herself as their house guest, takes over more and more of the job of planning their wedding, and ultimately reveals herself to have a hidden agenda. She is Audrey (Tammin Sursok), who's introduced as Mark's stepsister even though it's not clear whether they're any biological relation to each other at all — apparently she arrived with Mark's stepmother and was the offspring of a previous relationship of hers before she married Mark's dad. Apparently this film was shot under the working title "The Stepsister," though writer Chiappetta and director Kohl Glass (he sounds like something you'd buy at Home Depot) followed the formula of Christine Conradt's "Perfect" movies they might as well have called it "The Perfect Sister-in-Law." Trusting couple taken in by crazy bitch? Check. Heroine's best friend who checks out the background of the seemingly "perfect" crazy and gets assaulted for her pains? Check again. "You May Now Kill the Bride" is an O.K. Lifetime movie; despite its risible title (which I found at least two other entries for on IMDb.com, though one is an episode of a TV series), it's decently made. The direction is acceptable and sometimes more than that — Glass has a flair for suspense editing even though little in Chiappetta's script requires it — the writing is O.K. given the strictness of the formula, and the ending actually has a certain degree of power even though the beginning that supposedly foreshadowed it makes no sense. The first scene shows Audrey having bound a woman in a wedding dress and slowly torturing her, though since it isn't followed by a title reading either x amount of time earlier or y amount of time later, we don't know whether that's a tag scene showing what Audrey is going to do to Nicole at the end, a prologue indicating that she did this to one of Mark's earlier girlfriends, or just a fantasy on her part. "You May Now Kill the Bride" is just mediocre; not good enough to transcend its origins in the Lifetime/MarVista Entertainment formula (as Conradt's directorial debut, "The Bride He Bought Online," did) and not silly enough to be watchable as camp, either, though it came close a few times. It's also decently acted, though Tammin Sursok's performance would probably have impressed me more if I hadn't seen altogether too many of these superficially nice but really twitchy psychopath roles in previous Lifetime movies

A terror-stricken bride is bound and gagged. Apparently, she is beaten to death with a hammer. After the credits roll, the mood turns merry. We see still-attractive blonde schoolteacher Ashley Newbrough (as Nicole) celebrate her 30th birthday. Whispers about being "pretty much dried up" don't faze Ms. Newbrough. She is waiting for marriage before having a baby. The surprise birthday party becomes even more of a celebration when handsome, muscular and wealthy Rocky Myers (as Mark) proposes to Newbrough. No fool, Newbrough accepts. But, this being a "Lifetime" TV movie, all does not go well. Sending trouble-making signals, Mr. Myers' zealous stepsister Tammin Sursok (as Audrey) immediately moves in with the happy couple... This is strictly a formula movie. If Ms. Sursok doesn't send off warning signals, the title "You May Now Kill the Bride" is a dead giveaway. Director Kohl Glass, his cast and crew are competent, but they could just as well be working at a high-class restaurant in Salt Lake City. As you might expect, the best role is essayed by Sursok. She is quite engaging, as Mr. Glass allows the antagonist to go from playfully nefarious to over-the-top evil. Sursok's final scenes show good use of make-up in characterization. In the standard "best friend" role, Aubrey Reynolds (as Celine) does well. Writer Blaine Chiappetta gives the script a few snarky lines, especially in the birthday party and dress fitting scenes, but the violent opening scene is not fully explained. **** You May Now Kill the Bride (6/4/2016) Kohl Glass ~ Tammin Sursok, Ashley Newbrough, Rocky Myers, Aubrey Reynolds

Obviously the audience is well aware that Audrey is not right in the head, but in my opinion, the movie doesn't try to hide it, so it's perplexing why the bride is so clueless. The groom as well for that matter. I realize it's a movie, but it was so obvious. Did Nicole really not realize she was being insulted to her face within minutes of even meeting Audrey? The girl revealed so many things Nicole never knew about her fiance and yet, Nicole is not asking why. Audrey is throwing SO MUCH SHADE at her and she clearly ignores her intution and keeps going. One of the most obvious examples was Audrey trashing her wedding dress style. I understand wanting to make the effort to get to know "family," but it all went completely over her head. As for the groom, is he so stupid as to not possibly see the stepsister as a common denominator in his failed relationships? There have been movies where Lifetime pulls a switcharoo and have been vague enough to pull it off...this is not the case. This girl Audrey is overstepping soooo many boundaries way too much for no one in her family to acknowledge it. Of course, typical Lifetime, the bff is the only one wise (representing the audience I guess), but dropping her (and us?) off a parking lot balcony is so extreme. The basically incestuous thread running through this story and her clear mental illness really should have been it. I would not say she's a "fun villain" to hate, but making her a killer on top of everything else was over the top. Sometimes less is more, Lifetime. Still watching, so I will likely be back to edit as more things happen. Unless I missed it (or it's yet to come), it would be nice to get some exposition on how Audrey became romantically obsessed with her stepbro. I will say that Tammin S is clearly having fun here. I've only seen her as protagonists or straight-laced characters like Colleen on Y&R. But her character gets annoying by the climax. Seriously, the parents didn't make sure she was being watched? No one told them she was missing? Did no nurse or doctor do their rounds??! It's pathetic by this point. At the wedding, things are CLEARLY not normal and anyone with a brain should have been able to deduce that something happened to Nicole. Not only does NO ONE restrain Audrey but there's a long shot of the best man and he doesn't pull out his phone to call the police! The lead, Nicole, I recognize from Hallmark and she's decent here. I do have a problem with Nicole still marrying Mark after he sided with Audrey, but it is what it is. Finally at the end...she's still nuts and is still playing them all. Clearly not restricting her interaction with Mark while in treatment was a bad idea.

This some sort of Lifetime movie? Ahh it must be as other reviews mention. Well it seems like they do the same type of movie over and over again. This one is pretty bad. The culprit this time, well without completely spoiling it, the plot is dumb. Bad writing, Not good acting. Whatever. A skip that's for sure. 2/10.

For a lifetime movie this is quite good. Well acted, creepy and the cinematography was top notch. Recommended! And the sister is a great actress!!!