ROMAN'S BRIDE
2010, USA
lowa-based writer/producer Anne Paul stars as Lily, a reclusive, highly religious woman who has been nurturing an unrequited obsession for her lifelong neighbour Roman since they were kids.
Alone in the old farmhouse where she lived with her venomously punishing mother - until her mother had an unfortunate 'accident' - Lily spends her days self-medicating and creating bizarre floral arrangements with weeds and sticks that her lovelorn friend Amos orders in bulk in order to ‘keep her busy'.
But Amos isn't the only one maintaining Lily's delusions - Roman himself doesn't clearly demarcate the boundaries in their relationship until he's on the verge of getting married to his live-in girlfriend, which sends Lily spiralling over the edge.
Her strict sense of religious propriety contradicts her own deeply inappropriate behaviour - following Roman around through the woods and fields, violating his privacy, molesting him when he's incapacitated by frequent drinking binges - and the appearance of her disapproving mother's ghost doesn't help things.
She takes up her mother's punitive regimen: in several squirm-inducing sequences, she responds to rejection by punishing herself for having the kinds of feelings that would prompt rejection in the first place.
Paul's performance as Lily starts off overly affected, but her creepiness becomes more authentic as the film wears on: her long red hair hanging over pasty white skin; her feet and fingers noticeably dirty; her eyes betraying a gradual dissociation that will allow her homicidal impulses to bear out horrific results for men, women and children alike.
Two standout sequences include Lily trying to figure out how to use a power-saw in front of its intended victim, and a rather large farm implement being utilized to its maximum potential (and I'm not talking about farming).
