Review: "The Bride Wore Blood"

By John Oak Dalton / MICROCINEMASCENE.COM / November 7, 2007

Iowa directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have been doing interesting work in their young careers, with The Bride Wore Blood their most accomplished to date. This time out, Beck and Woods go for a more stylized vibe in this neo-spaghetti western outing, with a memorable genre-appropriate score and some unusual touches in character and production design.

But I believe their strengths remain the talented group of actors they surround themselves with -- from my perspective one of the strongest continuing ensembles in microcinema -- among them Travis Shepherd, Justin Marxen, Jim Siokos, Shane Simmons, and Sabien Minteer.

These talents help the directors over a few rough spots on the production side; I felt the screenplay called for more dramatic tension in both shooting and editing, and a little tighter cutting and more dynamic framing would have helped an agreeably laconic script.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are both filmmakers to watch as they continue to add to their filmography.

Three stars.