Film / A Bride's Revenge

Never Say I Don't

A Bride's Revenge is a Made-for-TV Movie Thriller directed by Robert Malenfant and produced/distributed by Johnson Production Group. The film premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network on January 11, 2019.

Miya Ellerson (Katie Leclerc), the owner of the N' Style Salon, is happily engaged to Ian Ferguson (Jeff Schine). However, things begin to take a frightening turn after Miya receives an invitation - to the wedding of Ian and his deranged ex-fiancée Lori Parker (Hannah Barefoot).

When Lori resurfaces and Miya is subsequently stalked by a veiled figure in a bridal dress, she's convinced that Ian's ex-fiancée is out to sabotage her upcoming wedding to him out of spite. Unfortunately, the police don't believe her story, and even the initially supportive Ian begins to doubt Miya's sanity. She must not only save her relationship with him, but also his life.

Additional details and a trailer are available on the production company's website.

---

A Bride's Revenge contains examples of:

• Accidental Murder: 14 years before the film's events, Lori's younger sister Rose unintentionally killed their father Brady when she was 16 by burning down his house. Another example of this occurs in the film's climax during a struggle between Miya and Rose, with Lori accidentally shooting her younger sister in her back during an attempt on the life of Ian's new fiancée.
• Alas, Poor Villain: After Lori accidentally shoots Rose and Miya gently sets her down, you can't help but just feel sorry for how she was blackmailed into doing what she did.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Lori tries to use a Literal Metaphor to scare Ian into marrying her after he calls off their wedding and ends their relationship.
• Avenging the Villain: Seconds after Rose's death, Lori tries to avenge her younger sister by fatally shooting Miya, only for Ian to kill her before she can via a Staircase Tumble.
• Ax-Crazy: Most of Lori's behavior points to her not being a sane woman.
• Big Bad: Lori Parker, Ian's ex-girlfriend is the titular bride.
• Best Friend: Caroline and Sandra are Miya's best friends. It's too bad that one of them is Lori's accomplice and her younger sister.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: The film's climax has Ian forced into this sort of situation, as Lori threatens to shoot him dead herself if he doesn't drink a fatal mix of rat poison and orange juice in order to help complete her Evil Plan of making it look like a Murder-Suicide.
  Lori: You see, it would be so much more dramatic if you kill yourself in front of your beloved mother's crypt. Of course, you would have some remorse for killing Miya.
• Blackmail: Lori forces her younger sister Rose into being a villainous conspirator by threatening to reveal to the police that she latter burned down their father's house when she was 16, causing his death in the process.
• Cassandra Truth: Miya to begin with, though by the final act Ian realises just how crazy Lori is.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Ian's choice of words when he ends his relationship with Lori heavily implies this.
  Ian: That's the problem, Lori! I can't... be everything for you. You want me in this small little box, with no other life; I can't be that guy! I won't be. I'm really sorry— I'm sorry.
• Cool Mask: The stalkers have one in the form of the bridal veils they wear.
• Dating Service Disaster: On the night Rose lunges at Miya in a restaurant bathroom with a knife, Lori's attempt at online dating culminates in her going on a date with a man named Derek. It doesn't end well, as his lust for her prompts her to lash out and detail her belief that he confirmed her mother's philosophy that all men "break [women]."
• Deadpan Snarker: While she is celebrating her 60th birthday, Deborah (Ian and Mark's mother) is this to Lori.
  Deborah: I'd ask you to join us, but I know you were never a fan of family gatherings.
• "Dear John" Letter: The film's trailer opens with a Voiceover Letter variant, narrated by the deranged and vengeful Big Bad. More of the letter gets a voiceover in the film itself, and it turns out that Lori sent it to Ian after he called off their wedding.
  Dearest Ian,
  Today I waited for you, sure you would follow through on your promise to be together until death do us part. But you never came. You left me broken with a heart that bleeds and grows colder every second, every minute, every hour. A heart that I doubt will ever mend. How you can live with yourself for what you have done I will never understand. Because a heart so cold can never be happy.
  Lori
• Designated Girl Fight: Inevitably, Miya confronts the women under the veils in the film's climax.

• Disappeared Dad: Ian's father Grant is nowhere to be seen, as he died nine years before the film's events. On a different note, Lori and Rose resented their father Brady for leaving their mother Nancy behind to live on his own. When the latter was 16, her desire to "destroy his home like he did to [theirs]" culminated in the arson that accidentally killed him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: How does Lori respond to Ian not wanting to marry her? She initiates a murderous scheme against him, his family (including his dog), and his new fiancée out of pure spite.
• The Dragon: Caroline/Rose Parker, albeit reluctantly.
• Does Not Like Men: After Lori's father Brady left to live on his own, her mother Nancy began "going on and on" about how men only exist to "break [women]." Lori herself comes around to believing this after Derek's attempt to initiate sex with her backfires.
• Driven to Madness: From sending Miya items such as an old wedding invitation and a bridal bouquet to having her younger sister Rose stalk her, Lori is evidently attempting to drive her crazy as part of her twisted scheme.
• Dying Clue: While not able to identify the perpetrator, Mark tells Ian that a woman dressed as a bride was responsible for his car accident, which leads Ian to realize Miya's been telling the truth all along. Lori intends to silence Mark for good before he can reveal any more potentially implicating information, but her attempt on his life fails.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Lori and Rose are killed, and Ian and Miya finally get married.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While it doesn't make her any less Ax-Crazy, Lori loves not only her mother Nancy, but also her younger sister Rose—to the point she's utterly horrified when she unintentionally shoots her.
• Evil All Along: Although she didn't have much of a choice since she didn't want to go to prison for unintentionally killing their father Brady, Caroline is this, as she is Lori's younger sister Rose and her accomplice.
• Evil Plan: Lori's scheme involves her and her younger sister Rose tormenting both Ian and Miya before they kill them and make it look like a Murder-Suicide, with Ian supposedly "murdering" Miya and then "killing himself out of remorse" by drinking a mix of orange juice and rat poison.
• Evil Wears Black: Lori wears an all-black outfit (including black gloves) when she sets up Ian's dog Winston to be killed by oncoming traffic and also during her attempt to murder his brother Mark by shutting off his life support system.
• Frame-Up:
  • Part of Lori's scheme involves making it seem as though Miya is an insecure woman who is stalking her.
  • Knowing Miya would eventually find out about her existence, Caroline/Rose Parker briefly manages to frame Sandra as Lori's accomplice/sister by painting a rose onto one of her fingernails.
  • The final part of Lori and Rose's scheme amounts to this, as they plan to make it appear as though Ian killed Miya and then himself out of remorse in front of his late mother Deborah's crypt.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The end of the trailer features a church bell ringing ominously in between shots of the knife-wielding bride, a panic-stricken Ian, and a rather desperate-looking Miya.
• Gory Discretion Shot: At the moment Ian's dog Winston dies, the audience only sees Miya's reaction and hears the sounds of a vehicle screeching to a halt after its driver accidentally hits him.

• Hidden Villain: Caroline's real name is Rose Parker, and she acts as The Dragon to her older sister Lori.
• Howl of Sorrow: Lori's reaction to the fact that Ian didn't show up at their already-cancelled wedding.
• Hypocrite: Hoo boy. Lori's personal brand of hypocrisy is truly something to behold, especially when she calls Deborah "controlling," insinuates that Miya is a "stalker," and calls out Rose for "[having] a conscious about killing someone."
• I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: When Rose protests that their plan was "just to scare [Ian and Miya]," Lori reminds her younger sister of how she burned down their father's house when he was inside, leading to a variant of this being said by the former in response.
  Lori: Are you saying you have a conscious about killing someone? After you killed our father—
  Rose: That was an accident! I just wanted to destroy his home like he did to ours!
  Lori: Okay! That's fine. We'll just make sure Miya also has an "accident."
• Implied Death Threat:
  • Downplayed, as Lori threatens to inform the police that Rose was their father's accidental killer if she stops going along with her plan.
  Lori: But Rose? We're doing this together, or I swear - I will never protect you again.
  • In the film's climax, when Ian is reluctant to commit suicide by drinking orange juice that's been mixed with rat poison even as she holds him at gunpoint, Lori makes quite a few threats of this sort, which range from inverting this trope to playing it straight.
  Lori: Okay. This is simple. You can either drink that, or I will put a bullet in your heart. Your call.
  (after he still refuses and she fires a warning shot into the air)
  Lori: Don't make me shoot this thing again. There's no telling what part of you I might "accidentally hit."
• In the Back: Rose's accidental death occurs because of this thanks to a bullet Lori fired which was meant for Miya.
• If I Can't Have You…: Lori feels this way about Miya's engagement to Ian to the point that she wants to kill both of them.
• It Was Here, I Swear!:
  • On what would have been her first anniversary with Ian, Lori sends Miya an invitation to their cancelled wedding. When both Ian and Detective Watts ask to see it, she's unable to find it because Rose threw the invitation away when she wasn't looking.
  • After Miya is almost attacked by Rose acting as the bride in a restaurant bathroom, she rushes out to tell Ian. When he comes to look, the only woman present is an innocent blonde in a white dress. Cue Miya desperately trying to convince Ian she's not crazy.
  • It happens again when Miya spots Lori acting as the bride and fleeing from the Ferguson residence in the wake of Deborah's murder. Detective Watts mentions how no intruder was spotted by anyone else.
• Karmic Death: Lori's ultimate fate, as she is pushed down a stairway just like she did to Ian and Mark's mother Deborah.
• Kick the Dog: Lori loves this trope to death.
  • She exaggerates it at one point by unhooking the leash of Ian's dog Winston, walking him to the side of a busy street, and allowing him to run into oncoming traffic—resulting in his death offscreen.
  • At Deborah's funeral, she "apologizes" for "not knowing" that Miya's mother was dead. She then twists the knife in even deeper by revealing Miya's whereabouts on the day Deborah died, making it known she's been following her around, and labeling her a "crazy" woman... all in front of Ian.
  • In the film's climax, she mockingly says to Ian that it's "so sad" seeing Deborah's crypt at the Brentcliff Mausoleum.
• Kill Him Already!: A villainous version of this unfolds in the film's climax. With Miya having broken free of her captivity and found a way to get to the Brentcliff Mausoleum, Lori continuously shouts for Rose to just stab her to death. She reluctantly goes through with her attempt on Miya's life because she doesn't want to be imprisoned.
  Lori: CUT HER!
  Lori: DO IT!
  Lori: KILL HER!
  Lori: Do it, Rose, or so help me God: I will make you burn for what you did!
• Lifetime Movie of the Week: Of the woman vs. woman variety.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • The murderous bride dresses in an all-white outfit: long dress, veil, sandals and elbow length gloves.
  • Averted when Lori tries to kill Mark at the hospital, when more traditional black gloves are used.
• Literal Metaphor: Lori threatens Ian's happiness in every sense of what she says.
  Lori: No. No; you're confused... by your mother... by your job. No; you'll do the right thing. I know you will. You know how I know? Because you love me... and if you don't... I swear to you—you'll never be happy again.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: When the brides resort to murder, this is the method used. It applies for the murder of Ian's mother Deborah, and it almost works when Rose appears in front of Mark while he's driving. He ends up crashing into a tree, but then ultimately survives.
• Manipulative Bitch: Lori sure knows how to steer people into doing exactly what she wants them to do.
• A Man Is Always Eager: Derek, Lori's date, shows himself to be a man who plays this trope straight. When he tries to initiate sex with her in his car after their first date, he claims he's trying to "[find] out if [they're] truly compatible." Needless to say, it doesn't succeed.
• Missing Mom: Miya's mother died a year before the film's events in a carjacking. Miya herself was also in the vehicle, witnessing her final moments alive.
• Murder by Suicide: Lori attempts this on Ian while she's holding him at gunpoint by having him drink a bottle of orange juice laced with rat poison. It fails.
• Never the Obvious Suspect:
  • Lori is a crazed and delusional woman who clearly resents Ian, but the bride's face remains hidden for much of the film thanks to her veil - suggesting that not everything is as it seems.
  • Subverted almost halfway through the film. The bride unmasks herself to reveal Lori under the veil after she kills Ian's mother Deborah...
  • ...except she also has an unwilling accomplice - her younger sister Rose - who dresses up as the bride whenever Lori does not. This is part of a twisted scheme to make Miya appear to be crazy.
  • When Miya spots a rose painted onto a fingernail of her colleague/friend Sandra, she suspects her to be Rose using a false identity, only to be quickly proven wrong. However, the rose was painted by Caroline - one of Miya's other colleagues - as part of a Frame-Up since she is the real Rose.
• Obsessive Love Letter: Lori sends Miya a wedding invitation - for her cancelled marriage to Ian on what would have been their first anniversary.
• Oh, Crap!: Miya's reaction to discovering an incriminating bridal dress and veil in a closet at the Parker residence. Seconds later, she has a similar reaction upon realizing that Caroline is Rose Parker. A few more moments pass as Miya tries to escape out the front door while Rose desperately asks her to "wait" and "just stop," only to come face-to-face with Lori, who knocks her out by hitting her over her head with a brick.
• Patricide: When she was 16, Lori's younger sister Rose unintentionally killed their father Brady by burning his house down.
• Playing the Victim Card: After Miya is attacked by the bride in a restaurant bathroom and confronts Lori about it the next day, the vengeful ex-fiancée insinuates that she is stalking her.
• Police Are Useless: Detective Watts, who is investigating Miya's allegations, comes to believe she's the crazy one. Like most female-driven thrillers, it's left to the heroine to prove her innocence and save the day.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Doubling as a psycho ex-fiancée, Lori is determined to exact revenge against Ian for his choice not to marry her, showing up uninvited at the Ferguson residence while his brother Mark is helping their mother Deborah celebrate her 60th birthday.
• Psychotic Smirk: Lori definitely shows this off whenever things go right (or almost do) as part of her Evil Plan.
• Rage Breaking Point: Lori plays innocent and remains level-headed for most of the film, but she finally loses it in the climax after she accidentally kills Rose during her struggle with Miya.
  Lori: (aims her gun at Miya) YOU BITCH!
• Red Herring: Miya notices that Sandra never mentioned any of her relatives to her before she mentioned the rose painted onto one of her fingernails along with how she keeps a red rose at her station in the N' Style Salon. This leads the former to eventually suspect that the latter is Rose Parker, Lori's younger sister and her accomplice. It then turns out that Caroline is Rose.
• The Reveal:
  • The house fire that killed Lori's father Brady 14 years before the film's events was an act of arson perpetrated by Lori's younger sister Rose.
  • Lori blackmailed Rose into being her accomplice, threatening to let the police know that she was the arsonist who accidentally killed their father if she refused to do so.
  • The final part of the Parker sisters' plan is to lure Ian to his late mother Deborah's crypt at the Brentcliff Mausoleum so that Lori can force him to commit suicide before they kill Miya.
• Revenge: Lori's motive for concocting her scheme against Ian, as she wants both him and his new bride to be to suffer.
  • Revenge by Proxy: A large part of Lori's plan for revenge includes this, as she sets up his dog Winston to die by allowing for him to run into oncoming traffic, kills his mother Deborah, and instructs Rose to play chicken so that his brother Mark gets into a car accident. When that fails, she shuts off his life support system, but he in saved in time by hospital staff.
• Rewatch Bonus: Upon watching this film again, quite a few things Caroline says and is mentioned to do serve to foreshadow who she truly is.
• The Runaway: Even after Lori covered for her, Rose still ran away when she was 16.
• Runaway Fiancé: Other than the perplexed Reverend Connelly, Lori is the only person who shows up to her cancelled wedding.
• Say My Name:
  • When Miya witnesses the death of Ian's dog:
  Miya: WINSTON!
  • When Lori realizes too late that she shot Rose instead of Miya:
  Lori: ROSE!
• Scatterbrained Senior: Lori's mother Nancy is mentioned by Ian as displaying symptoms of advanced stages of dementia by the time he first met her. Lori also states that she now lives at the Cloverfield Retirement Home.
• Ship Tease: There's small hints of this between Sandra and Mark in the film's Wedding Finale.
• Sibling Murder: An accidental example of this happens in the film's climax when Lori attempts to shoot Miya in her forehead, only for the bullet she fired to go into Rose's back instead.
• Sickbed Slaying: After Mark survives a near-fatal car crash caused by the bride playing chicken in the road, someone pays a visit to his hospital room and unplugs his life support system. Ultimately subverted since the hospital staff arrive in time to save him.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Joseph Young, the lead detective in the investigation into the house fire that killed Lori's father Brady, provides more than one Wham Line to Miya while he talks to her about Lori's younger sister Rose.
• Smug Snake: Lori's overall attitude, especially when she reassures Rose about her "perfect plan."
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Lori has nothing nice to say about dead people who she absolutely despises, and neither does her mother Nancy. The same applies to Lori's younger sister Rose, who accidentally killed their father Brady.
  • One example of this happens after Lori kills Deborah via a Staircase Tumble. She has these thoughtful words to say about both her and Ian, which Rose listens to offscreen while standing in her older sister's doorway.
  Lori: What? Don't give me that look. If you have something to say, just say it. You know she was a bitch, and Ian's always been just a little Momma's Boy; he's done whatever she told him to... but not now.
• Staircase Tumble:
  • Lori murders Ian and Mark's mother Deborah by pushing her down the staircase connecting the ground floor with the second floor of the Ferguson residence.
  • This is also how Lori herself dies in the film's climax, with Ian pushing her down a stairway at the Brentcliff Mausoleum before she can shoot Miya dead.
• Stalker without a Crush: What Lori and Rose are, mainly to Miya and Ian.
• Two Dun It: Miya's impromptu investigation into Lori's machinations eventually leads to the discovery that there are two women acting as the bride.
• Vehicular Sabotage: After she catches Miya following her around, Lori deflates the rear right tire of her car to buy time for her next deadly move.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: In fact, Lori clearly knows where Ian and Miya live. However, it's Rose who is sent over to the latter's house acting as the bride.
• Walking Spoiler: Rose Parker is this, especially because of her status as a Hidden Villain who is Lori's reluctant accomplice, her younger sister, and the accidental killer of their father Brady.
• Wedding Finale: A real wedding occurs in the film's epilogue, when Miya and Ian get married after surviving the drama.
• Wham Line: When Miya visits retired detective Joseph Young in Bakersfield and talks with him about the fire that killed Lori's father Brady, she gets several of these.
  Joseph: I questioned the family, including Lori. She was a teenager at the time. She had... no involvement in the fire.
  Miya: Really?
  Joseph: Yeah. She had a solid alibi...
  Miya: Of course she did. Thanks anyway.
  Joseph: ...but her sister. She didn't.
  Miya: Her sister?
  Joseph: Yeah, Rose Parker. We had some evidence that she was there at the scene—just not enough to convict her. Given that and her age, the DA... refused to press charges. It was a big mistake in my opinion. There was something definitely off about that girl.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Derek is never seen, heard from, or spoken of again after Lori lashes out at him.
  • With her two daughters dead, their mother Nancy's fate is left unknown.
• White Mask of Doom: The bride's thick, identity-concealing veil doubles as one. In fact, it works out well for both brides.
• Would Harm a Senior: The bride kills Ian's mother Deborah through a Staircase Tumble.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When Ian confronts Lori about everything she's done, she smashes her head against a mirror to make it appear she's a victim.
• You Have to Believe Me!: As the scheme orchestrated by Lori slowly intensifies, Miya's desperation to prove her involvement in it grows to the point everyone thinks she's crazy - including the police.
  Detective Watts: You were the only one in the house... as far as we know.
  Miya: You think I did this?

---