never a bride
Many horror films deal with dark subject matter. Whether it is a young girl possessed by an evil spirit or a psychopath wearing a leather mask and wielding a chainsaw, the outcome is usually a dark, chilling, and sometimes gruesome experience that the viewer might recall the next time they walk into a dark hallway or their car breaks down on a dark country road. Horror films have the ability to instill a sense of fear in the viewer both during the film and sometimes long after the credits have rolled.
Never a Bride is no exception. The film is about how the roles of good and evil realistically play out in human nature. Each character in the film has two sides to them that are revealed as the film progresses. This is especially true for the central antagonist who physically changes his appearance and seemingly becomes a different person. I see the antagonist as only one person, however, that has both good and evil churning within him, living from moment to moment never knowing what side of the coin he, or she, will be on.
Evil manifests itself in the most unlikely of places, a lonely bed and breakfast owner and a priest. Evil and wickedness are real, and horrible things occur every day. As I strive to be an agent of truth, I believe that is important to shed a light on the wickedness in this world, even if it comes from a friendly business owner or a revered man of God. George Romero, director of zombie classics like The Night of the Living Dead, put it best when he said he has “always felt that the real horror is next door to us, that the scariest monsters are our neighbors”. The central message conveyed in the film is that there is corruption in the most righteous of people, darkness in the most holy of places, and perversity in the most sacred of vows.
kyle mallow,
director
