'The Wedding Game' Review

This one is for fans of vertical dramas and thrillers. As more and more thriller storylines are making it into the space, I wanted to highlight one of the early risk-takers to give us a killer (pun intended) vertical thriller that will have you at the edge of your seat from the opening scene, where we see two women in wedding dresses going off against each other with literal murder weapons.

This was actually such a chaotic watch, and you cannot look away.

Hannah Kemp and David Michael Reardon in "The Wedding Game" | Source: youtube/viglooofficial

In an interview with the author, Hanna Kemp, who played Anya, enthusiastically shared her first reaction to receiving the script:

Newly engaged, Anya visits Harry’s (played by Ford Nelson) ancestral home to meet his family for the first time after accepting his proposal. What she doesn’t know is that her “yes” has turned her into a candidate of a brutal family tradition where three women need to fight to the death to marry into his family.

First of all: Ladies, no man will ever be worth fighting three other women to the death for–I promise you–especially one who actually, in his heart, believes he is worth being fought over in this way. That in itself is already the biggest red flag of Harry, who forces Anya to undergo an unhinged family tradition to prove she is worthy of being part of their family.

Harry’s mother, Jocelyn, played by Jenny Frame, is determined to ensure her son’s future wife is one who can survive the fight to the death. She favors Lizzie, played by Chloë Marie Rhoades, who seems to be more interested in proving her worth than winning the man, and I can actually respect that.

Of all the “competition,” it was Lizzie who showed the most competitive spirit and ruthlessness to win the game, possibly borne out of the eagerness to prove herself to Jocelyn. She was trained for this since birth. Think District 1 and 2 from the “Hunger Games” level of preparedness.

In his own twisted way, Harry did love Anya and still wanted to be with her… to the point of even eliminating some of her competition himself. Homicidal? Yes. Unhinged? Absolutely. Romantic? Not for everyone (or anyone in their right mind).

Nelson played Harry with a dark, devilish charm and a deranged self-assurance that he is worthy of such a bloody tradition.

Halfway into the story, and into the competition, Anya falls for Harry’s half-brother, Edward (played by David Reardon). He isn’t bound by the same traditions and tries to help Anya escape his crazy family.

I did feel it was a bit abrupt for Anya to catch feelings for Edward, but I guess if I had a fiancé and he forced me to fight for my life in order to marry him, I’d lose any love I had for him and latch on to the first sane person in the room as well.

A standout moment for me was the scene of Kemp singing. What a beautiful voice, but what a troublesome scene it was juxtaposed with.

She not only sang the song; she composed it herself. Sharing the process, she was told they needed something “haunting, musical theater-esque, and lullaby-esque” and she took those descriptions and gave us something terrifyingly beautiful to match the horror of the scene it went with. You have to watch it to understand. It gave me goosebumps when I first saw it on screen.

Omar Derby, creator and director of “The Wedding Game,” shares that it was his “way of blending the bite-sized structure of verticals with stronger storytelling and characters that keep the audience engaged,” adding, “Regardless of its reception, I’m happy there are viewers out there who enjoy watching it.”

And I, for one, truly did enjoy watching it and hope more people can check it out on Vigloo because these are the kinds of stories that need more attention in this ever-growing industry.

• Starring Hanna Kemp, Ford Nelson, Jenny Frame, Chloë Marie Rhoades, and David Reardon
• Directed by Omar Derby

Watch the teaser: