JP Nunez
If wedding horror isn’t already a thing, it needs to be. Movies like Ready or Not, Corpse Bride, and REC 3: Genesis have proven that a wedding can be an excellent setting for a horror movie, and now, there’s another title we can add to that list. Til Death Do Us Part takes the horror aesthetic of Ready or Not and marries it (see what I did there?) with the fast-paced action of a martial arts film, and the result is a fun new member of the wedding horror family.
Til Death Do Us Part was directed by Timothy Woodward Jr., and it stars Cam Gigandet, Jason Patric, Natalie Burn, Orlando Jones, Ser’Darius Blain, Pancho Moler, and Nicole Arlyn. It’s about an unnamed couple who work for a mysterious and shady organization, and they’re about to get married. However, right before their wedding, the bride-to-be decides that she wants out of both her relationship and her job, but unfortunately for her, leaving isn’t going to be quite that easy.
Apparently, the people she works for never allow their employees to quit, so her fiancé sends his seven groomsmen to find her. He wants to talk her back into marrying him and staying with the organization, but she’s made up her mind. She absolutely refuses, so when her fiancé’s friends track her down, it leads to an all-out fight for survival.
Right from the get-go, Til Death Do Us Part had me pretty hooked. In particular, there were three things about it that really stood out to me. First, let’s talk about the characters. The entire cast is quite good, so I had a really fun time watching all of these people, even the bit players who didn’t get much screen time.
But hands down, the best of the bunch is the best man. He’s played by Cam Gigandet, and he’s one of the absolute most charismatic horror villains I’ve ever seen. He combines a calm, cool, and collected exterior with some very obvious and dark undertones of violence, and he does so in a way that’s both totally believable and utterly captivating. Seriously, every time this guy showed up, my eyes were glued to the screen, so he just might’ve been my favorite thing about the film.
Secondly, we have the mystery. For most of Til Death Do Us Part, you’re not entirely sure what the shady organization actually does. The characters talk about it almost as if it’s a John Wick-esque league of assassins, but they also refer to it as a school. It doesn’t quite add up, so it’ll have you wondering just who these people really are.
On top of that, the movie also gives us what seem to be flashbacks of the prospective spouses’ life together before their wedding day, but they don’t fit what we know about the characters in the present. The couple says they’re on their honeymoon, so you begin to question whether these scenes really are flashbacks. Could they actually be flash-forwards that show us how this whole situation works itself out in the end, or is this yet another mystery involving the shadowy organization they both work for? Or is it something else entirely? We don’t know, and that simply adds to the intrigue.
Then, when Til Death Do Us Part finally pulls back the curtain and lets us know what’s really going on, it all comes together pretty nicely. To be fair, I wouldn’t say that the answers are mind-blowing, but they’re satisfying enough. I didn’t walk away feeling disappointed, and given how often these kinds of mysteries just lead to huge letdowns, I count that as a win.
Last but not least, I want to talk about the horror in this film. The trailer made it seem like the horror would come almost entirely from the movie’s bloody martial arts action, but that’s not quite true. Sure, Til Death Do Us Part has plenty of that, but before the fights start, it actually feels more like a home invasion movie.
For a good chunk of the story, the bride-to-be is just hiding in a house as her fiancé’s groomsmen walk around outside and try to get her to let them in, and it’s pretty riveting. In fact, this part of the film reminded me a lot of the home invaders in The Purge before they break into the family’s house. The groomsmen give off a similar vibe of devilish evil, and they also hide it under a similarly thin veneer of respectability. That combination is pretty irresistible to me, so for my money, the horror in the first act of Til Death Do Us Part is top-notch.
Then, when the groomsmen finally find the prospective bride, the film gets even better. The action kicks into gear, and it’s pretty awesome. Sure, some of the fights are better than others, but they’re all pretty fun, and the best ones are an absolute blast.
All that being said, I have to admit that Til Death Do Us Part isn’t quite perfect. Most notably, I had a bit of an issue with the flashbacks. Even though I ended up liking them as a whole, they didn’t grab me nearly as quickly as the rest of the movie did. The first two were a bit lackluster, and it was only about halfway through the third one that I finally got on board with them.
However, as the saying goes, all’s well that ends well, so since the flashbacks did eventually win me over, I can’t complain about them too much. My issues with these scenes ended up being relatively unimportant, so on the whole, I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed Til Death Do Us Part. It has excellent characters, an intriguing mystery, and two awesome kinds of horror, so if you’re looking for something good to watch, I highly recommend that you check this film out.
Til Death Do Us Part hits theaters on August 4.
