Movie Review: 'Brightwood'

Brightwood (2023)

Directed by Dane Elcar

Written by Dane Elcar

Starring Dana Meryl Berger, Max Woertendyke

Release Date August 22nd, 2023

Published August 22nd, 2023

Brightwood is a trip. A bickering couple goes for a run. The husband whines and complains, the wife won't stop listening to a podcast. He wants to go home but can't because he's trying to spend time with her as he feels his marriage is disintegrating. She would like to run alone but feels a pull from who they used to be and lets him come along. They go for a run around a local pond and something supernatural occurs. The couple becomes trapped in the forest, unable to escape and seeing strangers in the woods who may or may not be hostile.

Jen (Dana Meryl Berger) and Dan (Max Woertendyke) have an immediately tense chemistry. Their bickering is charged with various slights and a lengthy history of misdeeds and miscommunication. The night before this run that they are on, the couple was at a party where an inebriated Dan appeared to flirt with everyone there, much to Jen's increasing irritation. Dan thinks he was just being friendly but tries to apologize, though Jen isn't particularly interested.

As he struggles to keep up, Jen says she's going to the pond for a few laps. Dan wants to quit but also doesn't want his wife to have the last word in their conversation. He follows along and the two end up in an unfamiliar spot. There is something off about the trail on this day, something Jen can't quite put her finger on. Eventually, after a lap, she can't find the path they came in on. More attempts to leave, more times arriving back where they started.

Eventually, the couple starts to see other people on the trail. These strangers however, refuse to acknowledge them, even going as far as to run from them. But why? What is happening here? Why are Jen and Dan trapped in this forest? What is the supernatural source of this unending loop in time that sees them encountering versions of themselves at different points in the argument they've been carrying on since they arrived. The answer is building toward something that I won't spoil here.

Brightwood is a clever, deeply metaphorical exploration of a declining marriage. It's deeply cynical, but what is a marriage but a series of circuitous arguments and makeups that go on for the rest of your lives? Brightwood takes the idea of a couple arguing themselves to death to its frighteningly logical conclusion. It's not a commentary on all marriages but it will be familiar to a lot of people, and far too resonant for those who have found themselves in a severe marital rut where every little thing becomes a source of world-ending irritation.

Brightwood is a horror movie and a relationship drama that uses horror movie tropes and imagery to illustrate the often frustrating rhythms, or lack thereof, of a bad relationship. Is there hope for Dan and Jen? Maybe, just as there is hope for many marriages where the biggest problem is routine and miscommunication. It's clear that Jen and Dan don't hate each other but they have reached a breaking point and what happens next will determine the future of their relationship, for better or worse.

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