Official synopsis: A group of murderous frat boys get more than they bargained for when they cross paths with a couple coming home from a wedding.
I have a difficult time with rape revenge horror, but director Mary Beth McAndrews’ Bystanders puts a feminist spin on the proceedings, delivering an intriguing take on the subgenre.
McAndrews keeps the sexual assaults offscreen, though it is clear what happens to teenage protagonist Abby (Brandi Botkin) and her two friends who attend a party thrown by a group of fraternity brothers. They are drugged and sexually assaulted before being told that they would be murdered.
Twentysomething couple Clare (Jamie Alvey, who wrote the screenplay) and Gray (Garrett Murphy) are coming home from a wedding, and when they stop their car to help a terrified Abby, Bystanders kicks into higher gear. The logline may heavily hint at what happens next, but the film holds its fair share of unexpected proceedings, and the bloody denouements provide plenty of fear-fare viewer satisfaction.
The performances from Alvey, Murphy, and Botkin are terrific. Bob Wilcox also does a solid job as the ringleader of the frat villains, all of whom viewers will absolutely hate from the get-go. I found things getting a bit too cute in the scenery-chewing campiness department in the third act when a couple of new characters suddenly appear, but not so much that it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the film.
Bystanders won Best Horror Feature at Nightmares Film Festival and McAndrews was nominated for Best Director, Feature, both for good reason. It’s a well paced, winningly acted shocker directed with a great deal of verve.
Bystanders screened as part of Nightmares Film Festival, which ran October 17–24, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. For more information, visit https://nightmaresfest.com/2024-attend-the-festival/.
