Horror comes in many forms and is inarguably incomparable to the horror of losing a loved one at an early age. They say the stages of mourning descend upon you in multiple phases…the toughest one, in my personal opinion, is grief.    

While this is certainly NOT your typical definition of a horror film, The Wonderbar is both haunting and enchantingly beautiful, centering on Devon, a shattered former 90’s musician (exquisitely depicted by Richard Grieco) who is clearly in deep emotional turmoil after losing his beloved wife to cancer a year ago. With his anniversary arriving on a dreary evening inclusive of revitalizing the night he proposed to his beautiful partner, Devon has exclusively bought out The Wonderbar…a lovely, fine-dining restaurant where this life-changing moment occurred 4 years ago.    

Devon’s trepidation floats to the surface as a spectacle for the servers and staff to mock and laugh over in secret, while he continues to move forward with the charade by ordering expensive meals for two, speaking to an empty chair and even kneeling in front of the would-be invisible figure of his bride to help heal his wounded heart and soul.  It’s not only poignant, but almost uncomfortably evocative as ghostly visions and voices entangle within him until he succumbs to the abyss of despair.    

The ridiculing employees who are dead set on serving Devon quickly, to selfishly seek shelter from an impending storm, slowly roundabout into his misery and bond over the intensity of “loss causing lost” by regaining the goodness that comes from grief. Devon’s bleak world is overshadowed by the shared sadness of strangers who form an ad hoc support group and create a mission of impossibility: paying it forward to others in similar turbulence.

However, during the critical point of diminishing Devon’s darkness, he becomes faced with his achilles heel and the sore spot he has continuously avoided since his wife’s passing: music. As the others tackle their painful demons that plague them, Devon retreats from the brief glimpse of a guilt-free existence, teetering with another downward spiral into alcoholism and self-sabotage. Once again, we are all reminded of the hard cold truth that we are not ok. But through a deconstruction of dealing with death and sharing of struggles, hopefully in time…we will be.