Wedding season has barely started, and already this year I’ve witnessed enough catastrophic nuptials for a lifetime. I’m not talking about tacky dresses or those ill-timed downpours that struck Alanis Morissette as ironic. The weddings I have in mind were soaked in tears, vomit, and other bodily fluids. Many involved violence or death, of the soul if not the flesh. One union was sealed by Satanic rite, alongside a pit of corpses. Another ended with lifeless bodies splayed out on the dance floor or slumped in their plates, their blood staining white tablecloths crimson.
Brutal fantasies like Game of Thrones' Red Wedding massacre aside, this is not the way we typically see these sacred rituals depicted on screen. Think of the sumptuous spectacles of romance, family, and culture that make up the wedding-movie canon: Monsoon Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Crazy Rich Asians, The Wedding Banquet, The Best Man. Having a beloved couple (Jim and Pam, Cory and Topanga) exchange vows was once a foolproof way to juice TV ratings. To the generation now eyeing the altar, such ostentatious bliss may be a relic of more innocent times. But this year’s red wedding season probably says less about their cynicism toward the institution of marriage than it does about broader anxieties regarding the future.
From left: Brad Alexander, Chase Infiniti, and Mattea Conforti in The Testaments —Russ Martin—DisneyGilead has always been a chilling vision of what America might become if right-wing theocrats seized absolute power and stripped women of all independence. A wedding in Gilead reveals the misogyny still latent in a ritual supposedly liberated from its origins as a transfer of property from father to husband. Evidence suggests that progress toward equality within heterosexual marriage has not moved in a straight line since women’s lib. Just this year, a 29-country study found that Gen Z men are twice as likely as their baby boomer counterparts to believe wives should obey their husbands. Which might help explain why the share of 12th graders who hoped to marry someday decreased significantly between 1993 and 2023—a trend almost entirely accounted for by girls’ declining enthusiasm.
Margot Robbie in "Wuthering Heights" —Warner Bros.
It’s Elordi—Gen Z’s 6 ft. 5 in. monolith of masculinity—who plays the groom in the third season of HBO’s erstwhile teen drama Euphoria, which ages up its high schoolers to early adulthood. Elordi’s Nate, a controlling alpha engaged to Sydney Sweeney’s hyperfemme Cassie, forbids his wife to work outside their retro suburban home, stranding her amid shag carpeting and yellow wallpaper. This grotesque ’50s fantasy dies at their gaudy wedding, which begins with Nate vomiting; talk of diarrhea and divorce, not joy, brings Cassie to tears walking down the aisle. A gangster creditor crashes the reception, leading her to realize Nate’s been lying about his finances and decide the marriage is over before it’s begun. Yet the show goes on, from their tacky dance number to the limo ride home. As he’s beaten in their living room later that night, she sobs operatically: “It was supposed to be the best day of my life!”
From left: Maude Apatow, Sydney Sweeney, Jack Topalian, Jacob Elordi, and Zak Steiner in Euphoria —Eddy Chen—HBO
Grace’s (Samara Weaving) initiation into high society is gorier in 2019’s Ready or Not, set on her wedding night, when her new husband’s family of Satan-worshiping aristocrats hunts her in a deadly game of hideand-seek. This year’s sequel climaxes with Grace hijacking her second wedding to a Satanic heir by killing him and banishing his oligarchical cabal to hell. Camila Morrone’s Rachel is about to save herself from an ancestral curse, in Netflix’s Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, by marrying her rich fiancé (Adam DiMarco), when he decides her damage isn’t worth his trouble. The rejection triggers a bloodbath at his parents’ massive vacation home.
Camila Morrone in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen —Netflix
A plush prison, violent death, or the minefield that is independence— you’re damned if you say “I do” and damned if you don’t. It’s a bleak vision of adulthood. But, as the cost of living soars, the economy further polarizes, and AI eats entry-level jobs, it’s not hysterical. Hence the constant reports that young people are anxious, lonely, stressed, hopeless. Last year, a Gallup–Walton Family Foundation study found that only 39% of Gen Z adults feel they’re “thriving” (versus 56% of Gen Z middle and high schoolers; what a difference paying your own bills makes). If a wedding is two people’s public expression of confidence in their shared future, then it makes sense that the most miserable fictional weddings are striking a chord.
A red wedding doesn’t have to herald a failed marriage, though. It can be a test for two people who love each other to pass together. The Drama ends not in eternal misery, but with Charlie and Emma reuniting, battered and dirty, at a diner. “Do you live around here?” she asks, still in her gown but pretending to be a stranger. It’s the best gift a person who has screwed up their wedding can receive: a second chance at making a future.
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