A Good Deed Will Not Be Called a Marriage: Hollywood Scares Audiences with Brides

A New Trend

In spring, films about brides flooded both big and small screens worldwide. But the seasonal exacerbation of romantic feelings has nothing to do with it: all the notable new releases featuring rings, white dresses, and wedding vows either belong to the horror genre or at least focus on the theme of violence.

"Bride!" by Maggie Gyllenhaal about the bride of Frankenstein's monster; "I’m Coming to Get You 2," a sequel to the comedic horror film about surviving the first wedding night; "Dramatic" with Robert Pattinson, who is about to marry Zendaya, who almost shot her entire class; the series produced by the Duffer Brothers (showrunners of "Stranger Things") with the telling title "I Have a Very Bad Feeling" – all of them prove to the audience in various ways that a good deed will not be called a marriage.

The Battalions Request Fire

The Netflix series has a lot in common with the duology "I’m Coming to Get You": both visually (the authors of both stories rightly, though unoriginally, believe that blood looks spectacular on white lace) and ideologically – in both cases, we observe events from the bride's perspective, and both times the girl's fear of entering a large, wealthy family turns out to be completely justified.

It is no coincidence that both brides – played by Samara Weaving in the film and Camila Morrone in the series (known from the second season of "The Night Manager") – are orphans.

Creating a family unit for them also means acceptance into the clan – it is clear that the key concept here is "family." It is the source of horror. Seven "I's," and we have battalions requesting fire, as the song goes. Lord, burn.

Welcome to the Family

…Rachel (Morrone) and Nicky (Dimarco) decide to get married after three years of dating. They plan a modest ceremony in Nicky's family's forest cabin.

Rachel essentially has no parents – her mother died at her birth, and she has not communicated with her father for a long time – and she has not yet been introduced to the groom's relatives.

Most of the first episode shows the couple traveling to the wedding venue through the snowy forests of an uninhabited American wilderness, encountering the strange and unpleasant, but upon arrival, everything turns out to be even worse.

Instead of the promised cabin, Rachel sees a mix of the Overlook Hotel (endless ominous corridors) and the Great Northern Hotel from "Twin Peaks" (forest outside, all wood inside).

A hundred guests are expected at the wedding from the groom's side – the concept of "family" is interpreted broadly here. Nicky's immediate family consists of a gloomy father who stuffs animals with dogs, a narcissistic mother (Lee), a haughty, sarcastic sister, a rude brother who argues with his own wife, and their timid six-year-old son.

"Don’t Marry Him!"

Everyone behaves strangely. In the surrounding forests, there are rumors of a certain "Uncle Sorry" who apologizes while disemboweling women. On the very first night, Rachel's wedding dress disappears from the closet, only to soon be found on a stuffed animal hanging from a branch. Turning over the invitation card, the heroine sees a bold inscription: "Don’t Marry Him!"

It’s no wonder that she is overtaken by the very bad feeling mentioned in the title. However, instead of premonitions, we have solid knowledge: for the very first thing we see is a flash-forward featuring that same house in wedding decor, drenched in streams of blood.

Expectations Were Not Deceived

Each episode begins with the title "So Many Days Until 'I Do.'" As the wedding vow approaches, the tension is supposed to build – but in reality, it turns out to be almost the opposite. The series is scariest in that part where nothing is clear – at the beginning. When the plot begins to emerge from the veil of frightening uncertainty and ominous signs, it turns out to be far less fresh and inventive than one might have hoped.

Worse still – closer to the finale, instead of increasing dynamics, the amount of tedious pretentious chatter increases, and the last episode consists of it for a good half.

"Don’t Marry, Girls"

Another thing is that the chatter isn’t just for show – it articulates an idea. "Premonition" is a rather programmatic series. It’s not only about how suffocating and unpleasant wealthy families with traditions are, and not only about the fact that evil is family in general: legalized relationships bound by ties.

The slogan for "Premonition" could be the vulgar ditty "Don’t Marry, Girls – Nothing Good Will Come of It," but it’s not even about marriage – it’s about long and stable relationships in general.

There is no deep or witty reflection here, but there is a combative, assertive didacticism. It directly contradicts everything that Western civilization has read in books and seen in films about soulmates, love until death, long happy lives together, and dying on the same day surrounded by loving children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. However, the moral of the series fully corresponds to the demographic dynamics of the "first world."

So I have a premonition – I don’t know whether it’s good or bad. Something tells me that relatively soon, stories with weddings as happy endings will flood both big and small screens. Only this will be a wedding according to Muslim rites.