Dead Bride UK Digital Review

3 star creepy haunted house/possesion horror.

Dead Bride is a 2022 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Francesco Picone (Anger of the Dead) . Although an Italian film it is presented with all the actors speaking English.

It is released in the UK on Digital platforms from 20th March 2023, courtesy of Trinity Creative.

“You need to breathe. To take a deep breath. It’ll help you. There’s no need to be scared, it’s only a bad dream. We all have dreams. I dream. Mummy dreams.”

As the film opens we see an old man in his attic, after hearing sounds up there. He sees a shadowy figure in the corner and throws a sheet over it, but the sheet stands up, very scary stuff.

Now we see Alyson (Jennifer Mischiati – Waiting for Bardot, Game Therapy) and her husband Richard (Christoph Hülsen – Freaks Out) moving into the home she has just inherited from her estranged father (David White – Boneless, Le Musk), following his death by suicide. It was her childhood home until she was put up for adoption aged nine due to her mother’s mental health issues. Although it is a nice house, it has some very dark associations for her, and she struggles a little with her mental health too, so it’s a worry for her and baby Seth.

When Richard goes away on business, things begin to get darker, as she sees shadowy figures and hears noises, believing Seth to be in danger. When she finds some old family video tapes, and sees a priest, Father Elbert (Sean James Sutton – Almost Dead) on there, she decides to contact him to try and find out what is happening. She also enlists psychic Dave Owen (Douglas Dean – Stalking Eva) to try and help. Can they unearth her family’s secrets before it’s too late?

“Moving to this house is something big for me. A huge sacrifice. The least you could do was at least stay by my side.”

Dead Bride is a surprisingly enjoyable film, which undoutedly has some good cinematography and makes good use of light and shade in its storytelling and atmosphere (although all the red lights are a bit strange).

It’s also a good idea for a story, but very familiar, think large doses of Insidious with a little bit of Exorcist thrown in for good measure. Where it does fall down a bit is the audio, which is terrible. It has been dubbed back over the film post production and in places just doesn’t sync with it. The result is that everyone comes across as a bit bored, even during the most exciting parts of the film.

The other problem is the acting, the only person with any spark is Douglas Dean, and he does a great job. Even with its flaws though, I found this film to be fun and it’s definitely worth a watch.

“Father Elbert, I need to know. I live in the same house with my husband and my son. I don’t feel safe there. Please.”

Dead Bride is available now on UK Digital Platforms.