Entertainment

'Psycho Wedding Crasher' Will Make You Reconsider That RSVP

by Kayla Hawkins

Wedding season may be coming to an end, but on Lifetime, there's still one last RSVP to send: Psycho Wedding Crasher, an original movie. And given the network's history of coming up with stories inspired by real events, you may be wondering if Psycho Wedding Crasher is based on a true story.

While no one involved with the movie has suggested that this plot is ripped from the headlines, the story of Jenna (Heather Morris), a young woman who forms an obsession with a young engaged man out of a desire to get married, actually does have a relatable side. While Psycho Wedding Crasher is obviously an extremely exaggerated portrait of millennial wedding anxiety, marriage and families are reportedly changing dramatically as this generation reaches adulthood, in the wake of a major global financial crisis and some shifts in the culture.

According to the CDC, marriage rates in the United States have shifted from a rate of 8.2 marriages per thousand people in 2000 to 6.9 per thousand people in 2014. The downward trend may be slight, but it does suggest that less people are getting married than in years before. And according to Pew Research, millennial marriage rates are far lower than older generations — as of 2014, 68 percent of millennials had never been married, and the average age of marriage has gone from 21 and 23 for women and men, respectively, to 27 and 29.

Of course, according to Lifetime's Psycho Wedding Crasher synopsis, Jenna has some more serious problems than putting off her own marriage for personal finance reasons. It reads:

"Since she started working as a dressmaker for her Aunt Daisy, Jenna has seen dozens of brides getting happily married in her gorgeous wedding gowns. Jenna longs to have a white wedding of her own and to find a handsome man who will take her away from her abusive Aunt. When Jenna meets bride-to-be Marci and boyfriend Glenn, she realizes Glenn is the man of her dreams and now she will stop at nothing to have him all to herself and to make her dreams come true... even if she has to kill the bride!"

So, in Psycho Wedding Crasher, an abusive relationship with an aunt pushes Morris' character to the extreme of kidnapping a man and forcing him to marry her instead of his real girlfriend. While certainly not as harrowing as enduring abuse, there's a seemingly innocuous modern convenience that most millennials love, which can contribute to feelings of loneliness. According NPR, social media makes people feel isolated, as they're constantly looking at images of other people living their lives. In other words, FOMO is real.

Strangely enough, after a summer filled with wedding invitations and looking at other people's curated social media lives, audiences may relate to Jenna's desire to take things into her own hands, if not her methods. With that campy premise, the Lifetime movie might be disconnected from reality, but it also looks incredibly fun — and Morris' performance on Glee proves that she can deliver a great comedic performance. Psycho Wedding Crasher won't fit into your true crime habit, but it could shape up to be very enjoyable — and over the top — Labor Day weekend viewing.