Reel Review: Bystanders (2024)

“Bystanders” offers a wickedly fun feminist take on rape-revenge horror, with satisfying thrills and unlikely vigilantes worth cheering for.

While I’m not inherently opposed to the rape-revenge subgenre, many horror fans I know and respect are—and for good reason. The primary objection revolves around the subgenre’s tendency to feel exploitive of women, often lingering over the depravity of the violation and seemingly delighting in a woman’s trauma, even if it later allows some gratifying retribution.

Bystanders, written by Jamie Alvey and directed by Mary Beth McAndrews (both making their feature film debut), smartly sidesteps that issue by allowing the inciting event to happen entirely offscreen, merely alluding to its horror before thrusting us right into the aftermath.

Additionally, while the film begins with the death of young women at the hands of their vile frat boy rapists, those deaths, too, happen offscreen. This film has no desire to fetishize female suffering, and it’s all the better for it.

Instead, it gets right to the good stuff and makes revenge its central focus.

No doubt, that important narrative shift is owed to having two women at the helm of this ship — just another reason why we must get more genre films with women behind the camera.

In the film, three college-bound girls— Abby (Brandi Botkin), Jade (Erica Dodt), and Brie (Callie Kirk)—get tricked into attending what we think is a frat party hosted by some cute college boys. Instead, they’ve been lured into a trap where they will be drugged, raped, and taken out to the woods to be hunted and killed.

That’s as positively icky of a setup as it sounds. Thankfully, we get in and out of this nastiness quickly, with just enough stomach-turning innuendo to make us vehemently hate this quartet of entitled abusers—ringleader Cody (Bob Wilcox), Travis (Zach Hurley), Thad (Chaney Morrow), and Brad (Deaton Gabbard).

Just before meeting our victims and perpetrators, we meet a loving young couple, parents-to-be Gray (Garrett Murphy) and Clare (writer Jamie Alvey), getting ready to attend the wedding of Clare’s sister. On their way home from the wedding, their paths collide with Abby, the lone girl who has managed to escape her attackers, stumbling out into the street to flag down help.

Roughly twenty minutes in, and Bystanders throws us a pretty big curveball (SPOILER ALERT):

Clare and Gray aren’t quite the happily domesticated innocents we believed. They are savage, stone-cold serial killers. But, ala Dexter Morgan (Dexter), their victims are very bad men who do very bad things.

Along with a hefty dose of bloody brutality, Bystanders delivers ample dark comedy.

It’s rather gleeful to see how quickly the boys crumble in the face of Gray’s nonchalant and chillingly charming viciousness. They quickly drop the bravado and become comically bumbling idiots when they realize how outmatched they are.

Alvey and Murphy are a treat to watch as the murder-loving lovebirds who take on their mission to dispense justice and save Abby with devious delight.

Alvey, with her maternal tenderness and disarming Southern drawl, shines in her feature film acting debut. She’s not what you’d expect from an ass-kicking, murderous antihero, but that’s part of what makes the film work so well.

In another dazzling debut performance, Murphy (a young Ethan Hawke doppelganger), is a standout as the nerdy doting boyfriend turned cool-as-a-cucumber assassin who’s as wickedly charming as he is ferocious and fiercely funny.

Most of the film consists of the couple, with Abby in tow, hunting town, terrorizing and brutally offing the offenders one by one.

If that sounds like a complete blast, it’s because it absolutely is!

With a cast of novices and two first-time feature filmmakers leading the charge, it’s impressive how much this film is firing on all cylinders.

Alvey was inspired to write the script, which collected numerous accolades in competition before garnering the interest of Dread Central Editor-in-Chief Mary Beth McAndrews following the high-profile Brock Turner case in 2016. The first draft was completed in the spring of 2017 and was subsequently revised and entered into festivals as a screenplay for the next few years.

It’s a labor of love, with personal and intense material that demands and thankfully receives a smart feminist perspective.

With that said, it’s a noticeably low-budget affair that’s somewhat rough around the edges. Yet, none of its budgetary constraints detract from the film’s strong points.

There’s a lot of believable blood for horror fans, though it’s never really scary or particularly tense. After the first twenty minutes, the bad guys never truly regain the upper hand and are mostly just sniveling, inept rich boys who deserve everything coming to them.

BYSTANDERS is simply about justifiable vengeance and making monsters pay for their crimes against humanity, which will be plenty satisfying for many viewers—especially women.

It looks and sounds quite good, even if its film work is not particularly innovative. There’s a minimal score, and some scenes could benefit from more atmospheric tension. On the other hand, I appreciate that the film avoids the cardinal sin of letting the soundtrack overpower the action or drown out the effective quieter moments.

A late-in-the-game introduction of another boy, Geoff (an entertaining Eric Six), adds a fun bit of momentum heading into the sadistic final act. Wilcox as Cody is especially good in the film’s climax. The ending packs a punch.

A pair of genre regulars get limited but memorable screentime: Hannah Fierman of V/H/S and Siren fame and Channey Morrow (Malum, Wrong Turn, Haunt). When they’re on screen, playing despicable parents, there is delicious scenery chewing that I wish we got more of.

Ultimately, I had tremendous fun with Bystanders.

I loved the film’s creativity, feminist approach to rape-revenge horror, ample wit, and take-no-prisoners takedown of toxic masculinity (while celebrating positive and supportive masculinity).