Homekilling Queen (2019 Lifetime)

Homekilling Queen (2019 Lifetime)

Cast: Ashley Jones, Kaitlyn Bernard, Kayleigh Shikanai

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Whitney Manning, gorgeous, entitled and deranged daughter of wealthy equally disturbed Connie, is determined to become Homecoming Queen…and nothing, absolutely nothing will stand in her way. When Natasha Hart decides to run also, despite problems in her past, she has no inkling of the war Whitney and her mother will wage to stop her from pursuing the title

Thoughts

Highschool, great… oh, wait, not normal highschool, murder highschool! Whitney saw her classmate running in the woods suffering from an asthma attack. Instead of helping her, Whitney watches her die. One less girl to compete with for homecoming queen. Whitney bullies her classmates by sending snapchats about them. She even makes fun of one girl for overdosing on oxycontin, which is rude. (Have some compassion, Whitney!)

You can’t just blame Whitney for being terrible. She comes from a lineage of terrible women who value being homecoming queen more than anything. They go through a rack of dresses while her mother and grandma say how amazing they were.

Natasha, the oxycontin girl, decides she has had enough and wants to stand up to the popular girls. She decides to run for homecoming queen. She comes to school the next day with a makeover looking straight out of Clueless and walks right up to Whitney. “May the best Bitch win.” (I loved this.)

If you were expecting a high school murder dark comedy, like Heathers or Jawbreaker, you’d be sorely mistaken. Things take a turn when Whitney goes home and weighs herself, takes her body fat percentage, and then sees an online poll putting Natasha as the front runner. Whitney binges and purges then tells herself she is perfect in the mirror. It is a shockingly casual depiction of an eating disorder and a bit irresponsible. Whitney starts spiraling pretty quickly here and plots a catfish scheme pretending to be the cute boy at school Garrett. (He looks straight out of Clueless too.) When Natasha doesn’t take the bait, Whitney photoshops her face on a nude body.

Whitney’s grandma confesses to seducing the richest man in town and killing her two husbands by making it look like car accidents. Then she brags about being the 1% richest in America, but they still send Whitney to public school? Hmmmm, they aren’t as snobby as they think! Whitney’s mom gets called into the principal’s office for buying votes by giving students, instead of apologizing, she seduces the married man. (Just like Grandmama!)

Natasha confronts Garrett, and he denies posting the photo. When she asks him about the messages, he shows her his real account, and Natasha realizes that someone is out to get her. He offers to run a reverse image photo and trace the original photo. (Which would prove nothing… except that Garrett likes porn… but okay!)

Quick recap break to note that this movie is exceptionally campy. Probably one of the most, I’ve seen all year. With over the top acting and very dramatic direction and writing. Almost, telenovela campy.

Whitney’s mom sets up a nanny cam in a hotel room and invites the principal over for some makeup sex. She then emails him the video as blackmail. In exchange for dropping his investigation into Whitney, the mom promises to send the video to his wife. When she tells Whitney and Grandma, they are both proud of her. (This family is sooooo weird.) Grandmother tells Whitney to go after what she wants no matter what it takes.

Garrett finds the photo posts the original photo and Natasha’s photo so everyone can see that it was photoshopped… even though it was VERY obvious.

Whitney thinks of Natasha’s weakness(Oxy) and meets up with a drug dealer, Jason. She tells him that she needs 150 Oxycontin. It is going to cost $1000, so Whitney asks her grandmother for the money. The grandmother gives her money and tells her not to get caught or have anything come back on her. When the dealer realizes she is rich, he extorts her for $5000. BIG MISTAKE. Whitney also orders some fentanyl and plays dumb to get him to show her how to use it. She gives him a fatal dose, and he struggles to stop her but dies in his car. Whitney stages it to look like an overdose.

Next, in her very complicated plan. Whitney breaks into Natasha’s family restaurant, makes an imprint of Natasha’s car key, plants the drugs in her car, waits till she is done with work, and calls the police to report a “drunk driver.”

Natasha posts bail and goes to her detective friend, who gives her file footage of the cop car footage. When reviewing the footage with her mom, Natalie recognizes a highschool sticker. They track the car, and it belongs to the maid of Whitney. Having seen enough, Natasha and her mother go to Whitney’s house to confront them. Grandma, the mom, and Whitney listen but debunk their theory claiming to be one another’s alibi.

While Whitney practices her homecoming queen wave and tries on crowns, Natasha is piecing things together. She works her old contacts to figure out what happened to Jason, the drug dealer. She learns that he ODs on fentanyl and that Whitney was one of his clients who ordered the drug. Natasha gets Detective Matteo to look into the case. She also recruits Whitney’s friend Kelsey to help them show the world who Whitney really is. They steal some of her lip gloss for a DNA test to prove that she killed the drug dealer.

The results come in, and the DNA is a match. Natasha’s mom realizes that her daughter is in real danger. Natasha shows up at Whitney’s party for the homecoming court. Natasha tells Whitney that she is a Homekilling Queen (The title of the movie!) she also tells the mom and grandma that they are just as bad. Whitney sees that her world is falling apart and chants, “Take charge of your destiny.” over and over again. Detective Matteo shows up and takes Whitney away in handcuffs.

Whitney gets put on house arrest because her 1% family bails her out. Natasha won homecoming queen and is popular now. She drinks lemonade with her mom and friends.

Side Note

Minority Report: Natasha and her mother. Kelsey, Whitney’s friend.

All this for just homecoming queen? We all know the prom queen is where it is at.

Written by two women writers.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives, I added an extra knife for commitment to camp.)

🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required)