Psycho Brother-In-Law (2017 Lifetime)
Stars: Brittany Falardeau, Zack Gold, Mike Duff
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Kate is so thankful to have her brother-in-law David back in her family’s life as he’s been a blessing around the house while her husband spends long days at the office. But when his behavior starts getting out of line, Kate realizes that David wants to be the new head of the family, and will do anything to make that happen.
Thoughts
Teenagers are making out under the bleachers until the girl’s boyfriend shows up and punches Eric a lot. Eric’s little brother, David, hits the man with a bat, a lot too. He kills him. Yikes!
Flash to 23 years later, a grown-up and overworked Eric is married to a woman named Kay, and they have a nerdy teenage daughter named Laura. Kay has a friend name Liz who has a drinking problem. (She calls Kay for a wine date at 10 am.)
Kay is home alone often because Eric works very late nights. Liz thinks her best friend’s husband is having an affair, but she is so boozed up who can take her seriously. While Kay is watching scary movies, she hears the doorbell ring. It is David; he is stopping by from a crabbing gig in Alaska. Kay and Laura are thrilled to see him and invite him to stay the night. Eric is less than excited to see his little brother back and promptly hides all the bats in the house. The brothers talk, and David promises to have turned a new leaf.
It seems like Eric might be the psycho brother. He is distant and cold with his wife, and he even rejects Kay’s sexual advances. Kay replaces her absentee husband with cutie David. David fixes things around the house with his shirt off, runs errands with Kay, and sings her praises to Laura. Laura is unimpressed, and so is her boyfriend, Rob. Rob calls David a “cock?” Wait, did I hear this, right? David even steps in on “date night” when Eric cancels last minute.
When the two come home from the date, Eric is waiting for them, and he seems pissed. He attempts to sleep with his wife, but she rejects him because he is drunk. Eric must have been out at a bar instead of working.
After school, Laura helps herself to a pre-made sandwich in the fridge. She hears a loud banging and walks into David’s room and finds him punching the walls and mirrors. Laura calls her mom, who comes to talk David down. He is upset because he got fired from crabbing. They drink wine and talk about their feelings. (Seems like this movie has a drinking problem.) After a few more drinks, David says he wants to be Kay’s housewife, and Kay is into it.
Laura goes on a date with Rob, where they mostly make out in the car. When Rob gets a little too aggressive, David is there to beat the shit out of him. He also pushes Kay roughly. The cops show up and question the family. Rob’s father doesn’t press charges. David’s past is coming back to haunt him. Kay doesn’t know about David murdering someone, and when Eric tells her about, she immediately wants David out of the house. (She later admits it is because she was starting to have feelings for David and vows to re-commit herself to Eric. Eric cries and tells his wife he loves her. I guess he isn’t a bad guy anymore.)
David kills someone in an alley. I’m not sure why. Then he goes fishing with his brother. Eric breaks the news to David that he needs to move on. David freaks out and waves a knife around, but then the blade magically becomes a gun! Eric is shot in the stomach and overboard
David picks up Laura from school. She wonders where her dad is, but gets in the car anyway. The drunk friend sees the whole thing go down and tells Kay. Kay knows something is wrong and rushes home. She finds her daughter sedated and confused. David jumps out and holds them at gunpoint while he goes into his villain monologue. He says that he filled the void that Eric left in the family, and Eric isn’t good enough for them. The thing is HE ISN’T WRONG. Kay pretends to understand David’s points and says she loves him. Laura follows suit, and they get him to put down the gun. He kisses Kay and is very happy they came around. Then the women fight for their lives. Detectives arrive and shoot David. They take him into custody,
Eric isn’t dead and is saved by a man in a bucket had. (Good costuming right there.) Eric makes the family dinner, and all his indiscretions are forgiven. Kay deserves better.
Side Note
Minority Report: Detectives who are barely in the movie.
Also Known as Blood Brothers
Based on actual events???
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Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives, added an extra knife for Zach Gold, who was very good.)
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2017 Lifetime
I actually really enjoyed this movie, it dives right into the storyline, rather than dragging on like some films do. I did want to offer a few small corrections though, although you did a great job describing this one overall because there’s much to tell. #1-Laura (daughter of Eric/Kay) has a boyfriend named *Ron* ehem…because you had referred to him as “Rob” so small mistake on his name. #2-Laura’s bf Ron did not call David a c0ck, but did call him a “cuck”. #3-You failed to mention anything about the family photo that Kay found twice throughout the film, which was an important piece. #4-You also forgot to include anything about the medical paper that Kay found in David’s bedroom, where she learns more about him (and so don’t we) that concerns her. #5-You said that David killed a man without any reason. That’s not exactly the case. That same man was seen earlier in the film in the bar scene, where he shoved Eric & David almost beat his a$s then, but Eric told him it wasn’t worth it. Then when he sees the same drunk man (while he himself is drunk, David) he witnessed him bullying an older gentleman & it really set him off, because of his bullying mannerisms (remember their childhood “incident”?) & because he had previously bullied his brother earlier in the movie. Otherwise you did tell it well. Oh & not an inaccurate description, but you said bucket had(?) not hat…regarding the fishing scene near the end, where Eric gets shot & the fisherman comes to his aid. You also joked about how David’s knife turned into a gun. Obviously that wasn’t true, but it was kind of bizarre how one minute he’s using his knife to cut an apple & then suddenly shoots his brother, before we even see his weapon. Realistically Eric would’ve bled out most likely & the fisherman would have been too late to save him. I thought maybe Eric had died after being shot by David. Good ending. You described Kay’s friend as an alcoholic, yet this seems like an exaggeration. We don’t ever witness her drinking or being drunk & the only way we even know that she drinks is because she mentioned drinking to Kay over the phone one morning & Kay responds that it’s too early for alcohol. We don’t assume this woman is an alcoholic just for a comment like that. Unless I’m forgetting something? I think the man who played (brother in law) David was a perfect psycho! I found Laura’s character (teen daughter) to be boring. Kay (wife) throwing herself at David & drooling over his abs is kind of a misogynistic & seemingly desperate view of women. As if a married woman is going to go after her brother in law, just because her husband isn’t paying enough attention to her. We never do learn either whether Eric (husband) is having an affair, but it certainly seems possible. Working late constantly, no interest in spending time with his wife or daughter, ignores his wife & turns her down in the bedroom, cancels date night, doesn’t care much that his wife instead went out with his brother, comes home drunk & only wanting intimacy to make up for his distant behavior toward his wife. Doesn’t deny an affair either & gets upset/defensive when accused of such a thing! Worth a watch. Definitely not kid friendly.
Excellent assessment!
Hey Patrick, we finally got the “Psycho Brother In Law” pages up over at the Lifetime Movies Wiki. Of course, they both have links back here, as well as lots of other info. The most interesting thing I found was the locations of the restaurants in the movie. One was in the Czech Republic, the other in Egypt. The wonders of B-roll! If anyone knows what movie Kay was watching when David arrives, please let me know (its some zombie or other type of paranormal movie) https://lifetimemovies.fandom.com/wiki/Psycho_Brother_In_Law https://lifetimemovies.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Brothers (they are basically the same, just w diff posters)