Each of these three flicks had a slow burn element to them, and two of them turned the heat up higher after the burn. Let’s find out which ones.
THE HOOT OWL (2022)
Running only 71-minutes long, this is a backwoods slasher with an Evil Dead vibe, but the decision to start killing people 52 minutes in hurts the pacing.
A movie that’s just a bit over an hour should not take almost an hour to get to the good stuff.
The plot is simple. A group of friends comes to stay at a house in the woods.
They discuss music (Billy Joel vs. Elton John), they drink from red Solo cups, they have conversations by the fire, they fish, there’s sex with boobs, the girls put on a fashion show montage, there’s pregnancy drama, and there’s a tale told about violence that befell a family that lived in the house.
Yet with all that, there’s not much character development to make us feel anything for these characters when a killer in an owl mask shows up with only 20 minutes left to go.
Even so, the practical effects gore is awesome, the Evil Dead feel of the camera work is like coming home, and the cast is killed off quite quickly. It all leads to some heinous visuals involving pregnancy. Ew. However, since the character development isn’t all that, the final actions of the lone survivor seem quite extreme.
Meanwhile, this daddy stole the show for me just by being on camera.
THE WINTER WITCH (2022)
The Winter Witch is as slow and dull as The Blair Witch Project, with one upside…we get to actually see the witch. Twice.
A journalist is sent by her boss back to her hometown to explore a rash of child deaths blamed on “the winter witch”.
There’s an estranged grandmother who believes their family is cursed, there’s a detective lurking around because he’s on the case, and there are some locals that believe the journalist has brought the curse upon them by returning.
Almost an hour in, we get the first witch appearance. It’s brief but delivers a satisfying jump scare. The second appearance is also fleeting near the end, in one of the most anticlimactic final battles ever.
BURY THE BRIDE (2023)
Directed by Spider One, who is the brother of Rob Zombie, lead singer of Powerman 5000, and the director of Allegoria, Bury the Bride is a Tubi original and the absolute winner in this bunch. I don’t want to give much away, so I’ll make this brief and sort of vague.
Scout Taylor-Compton, her sister, and her friends go on a trip for her bachelorette party to a cabin in…the desert? It’s a nice change from the usual cabin location.
Keep an eye out for the friend in glasses who looks exactly like the late Penny Marshall.
There’s a bit of a slow burn as the girls party and get spooked by a few faux scares.
Also of note is a dance montage set to the now wave goodie “Your Addiction” by Night Club.
The party is crashed by some unexpected guests…Scout’s white trash redneck fiancé and his buddies (proving white people can be two colors at once).
The film soon does what horror should…it makes you very uncomfortable. It feels like the guys have something very nefarious planned, and I feared this was just going to be some exploitative rape/revenge flick. I was psyched to discover it isn’t—it heads into classic horror territory. Plus, our final girl kicks ass. And that’s all I’m going to say. I’d highly recommend this one.
