October is the only acceptable month for carving faces into pumpkins, hanging skeletons up trees and scaring small children – often all during the same week. It’s also a great time to delve into the horror genre, whether you’re going for slasher films or movies with a more subtle vibe.
While exploring what’s good and terrifying for this time of year, I came across a short film called The Bridge Partner.
Delight ensued. What’s better than a mix of horror and bridge?
Here’s why it’s worth a watch.
The Annual ScreamFest
ScreamFest takes place as a yearly event in Hollywood, and it’s one of the best resources for binge-watching short horror – especially if you’re a fan of horror presented in short bursts or anthologies like Creepshow or Terror Tract.
With some spare time and access to YouTube, ScreamFest is enough to keep you occupied with related unsettling horror films for longer than your average film festival.
Now, let’s get to The Bridge Partner…
The Bridge Partner
The Bridge Partner first screened during the 2015 run of ScreamFest, based on a short story by Peter S. Beagle. It also won the Comic-Con International Film Festival award for Best Horror/Suspense – and you’ll have to watch it to see why.
It blends some great horror elements into the setting of a bridge game. What if you were to get matched up with a bridge partner who appears less than sane? What if you thought that your bridge partner might have it out for you from there.
Everything goes perfectly fine until after their first game as a partnership. The story’s protagonist apologizes for a bad game. Olivia, her newly chosen bridge partner played by Sharon Lawrence, leans in and whispers a not-so-friendly: “I’m going to kill you.”
The movie is also filled with small, very detailed touches for anyone who loves background Easter eggs. (A tee standing next to a photograph tells you that the woman’s husband is also a golf player – and the writer has a cameo as the hairdresser.
My favorite? It has to be the manicure scene somewhere in the middle. It’s subtle, but effective at the same time. They even worked in a good old jump scare, but I’ll leave it up to the viewer to figure out when and where.
Bridge partnerships have never looked this unsettling on camera before.
(ScreamFest: The Bridge Partner)
If you’re a combined fan of bridge and horror, this is sure to make you smile.