Blackmail, Lies and Murder (2024 Lifetime)
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Cast: Kelsey McKean, Lauren Pike, Nick Ritacco
Director: Dylan Vox
Writer: Bryan Dick
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
Candace and Kristen both have people in their lives that are making them miserable. When these two strangers meet at yoga class, they strike up a friendly conversation that leads to a lunch where they soon open up to each other about their tormentors. Having recently lost her husband, Candace gripes about her overbearing and manipulative mother-in-law Iris who constantly undercuts Candace’s relationship with her sixteen-year-old daughter Avery. Kristen shares that her husband Nathan is emotionally and physically abusive. As they lament their situations over cocktails, the conversation takes a dark turn when Kristen suggests that the two new friends swap murders! After the lunch, Candace believes their conversation was just talk, but when Iris turns up dead, Kristen shows up demanding Candace make good on her end of the bargain. When Kristen kidnaps Avery, Candace might just do the unthinkable to save her daughter. Starring Kelsey McKean, Lauren Pike, and Nick Ritacco (2024).
Recap/Wine Thoughts.
The movie begins in a restaurant where a lot of dishes are breaking. The chef and a female company appear to be arguing.
Cut to a spin class, and the instructor, Candace, is getting back into the swing of things since her husband, Luke, died and makes a friend in class. Kristen seems obsessed with Candace from the get-go and watches Candace help her daughter learn to drive in the parking lot.
Iris, Candace’s mother-in-law, buys her granddaughter, Avery, a new car for her birthday. Candace tells Iris that she is overstepping and is still angry because Iris filed for custody of Avery when Luke died. Iris thinks Candace is an unfit mother and drove her son to his grave by making him work too much. The whole scene is a lot of exposition stuffed into one conversation.
Kristen works at a restaurant with her angry chef husband, Nathan. They meet with investors, but things don’t go well because they are vegetarians, and he serves pork. (It seems like this could have been avoided easily.)
Candace and Kristen run into one another again at a car repair shop and go through reiterating the exposition.
Then they go to a bar and do the same thing again!
Kristen puts something in Candace’s drink. (Nothing comes of this.) Kristen talks about wanting to kill her husband and tries to convince Candace to kill her mother-in-law. Like, a kill trade. Candace thinks Kristen is joking and rushes back to the auto shop. Kristen follows her and pays the repair bill, perhaps as a bribe? (Is that one of the words in the title?)
It is time for Avery’s Sweet Sixteen party because why not? Iris is overbearing and judgmental. She was driving Candace to consider murder. They argue publically, and the altercation is caught on video and posted on social media.
Meanwhile, Kristen drugs her husband, Nathan, so that he can be her alibi. Then she sneaks into Iris’s house after the party ends and, suffocates her with a plastic bag and sends her careening down the stairs.
The following day, Candace brings over a thank-you gift and finds her mother-in-law dead. She calls the police, and they rule the death an accident.
Kristen kills a waitress in the restaurant with a cast iron skillet, for God knows why.
Nate walks about shirtless and hits Kristen randomly throughout the movie.
Back at spin class, Kristen and Candace meet up again. Some time has passed, maybe? Kristen wants to cash in on her favor, but Candace says she never agreed to anything. Then Kristen plays an incriminating recording.
Does something happen with Kristen hiding a joint? I think so, but it doesn’t matter.
Kristen walks Candace through the plot to murder Nathan—a simple gunshot to be made to look like a suicide. The ladies hug, and Candace agrees to go through with it.
Candace gets all dressed up and heads to the restaurant, posing as an investor named Sydney. She takes a while to muster up the courage but eventually lures Nathan to the freezer and maybe pulls the trigger.
Kristen dances around her house with an expensive bottle of wine. She is surprised to see Nathan return home. Then he rapes her?
Candace calls the police on a rotary phone. Then, she has a heart-to-heart with her daughter about Luke.
Speaking of her daughter, Avery has to take her driving test and goes by herself. Kristen pretends to be the driving proctor and brings Avery to the restaurant. Avery gets locked in the freezer and held for collateral to ensure Candace kills Nathan.
Candace goes to Nathan’s home and shoots him multiple times while recording it with her phone. Then she rushed to the bar to save her daughter. Kristen watches the video and is thankful her husband is dead.
The video was faked, and Nathan shows up at the restaurant, causing everyone to shout and fight over weapons. Kristen kills Nathan herself at the end of the day. Nathan was an abuser, loser, and embezzler.
Natalie serves time, but the judge might be lenient because she isn’t a crazy stalker like the movie depicted. Candace even goes to visit her in jail?! They are friends.
Side Note/Stray Thoughts
The tone of this movie was all over the place. It featured campy, over-the-top acting while attempting to tackle serious subjects.
Even though I had no clue what this movie was going for, I’m glad Nick Ritacco was shirtless the whole time.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪🔪🔪 (3 knives)
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷 (1 Glass of Wine)
Should you watch it?
Pour it up! (Give it a shot)
Put a Cork in It (Skip It)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media @LifetimeUncorked & @patrickmiguel
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