Vicious Murder (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Drew Sidora, Tremayne Norris, Stephen Barrington
Director: Chris Stokes
Writer(s): Chris Stokes, Marques Houston
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
With his crypto empire on the brink, a businessman conspires to murder his wife and steal her fortune, but uncovers a web of deception in the process. Drew Sidora, Tremayne Norris, Arica Adams, Andre Chetverikoff, and Stephen Barrington star. (2025)
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie aptly starts with a murder!
Next, we meet retired model Riley and Jesse, who are having an affair. It seems like Riley has it all: a fan home, chauffeur service, and a hot crypto husband named Nathan. The spark is gone. Riley likes Jesse because he is creative and passionate about photography. (Jesse is also a mama’s boy, which is a green flag for me, okay!)
At Jesse’s art show, Nate and Riley are in attendance as guests. Jesse and Riley pretend not to know one another, although their chemistry is undeniable. They laugh about it later while drinking wine, and Jesse presses Riley to tell the truth. It could be bad if Nate finds out. Well, for Jesse. Riley isn’t worried because she has family money to fall back on.
The following day at work, Nate is hit with a devastating blow. His company has suffered a staggering loss of $50 million, the crypto stock has plummeted by 400%, and his savings have been wiped out. He’s left with nothing, unable to even sell his assets because most of them are leased. Nate reaches out to a woman named Kate for help, but the situation looks dire.
Riley is determined to break it off with Nate, but her martini-chugging best friend, Chrissy, thinks it is a bad idea and suggests that Riley pray more. (I loved this scene. Some comedy in Lifetime movies is MUCH needed.) Riley is really dragging her feet, though, and needs to stop stringing both men along.
Nate and Jesse are actually cousins, and they are plotting to kill Riley. Jesse isn’t even named Jesse! He is an ex-con named Frank. They plan to work over Riley’s family’s money. Nate escalates the plan to more drastic measures, murder. Nate stands to inherit 250 million and will give Frank 50 million. Nate blackmails his cousin into being the one to pull the trigger, and Frank reluctantly goes along with the plan. (They explain this plan multiple times throughout the movie, because Crypto is confusing.)
Riley brags to her sister about her affair and is just generally living in la-la land. It’s like, Riley, YOU IN DANGER, GURL! She finally takes to Nate, and they get into an argument. Nate tries to break things off with her, since she will be dead anyway. Nate pushing Riley away makes her want him more. Riley doubles down, starts seducing her husband, and tries to talk him out of the divorce. Riley knows about his money problem and offers him half of her money if they stay married. She also knows about the murder plot against her and asks Nate and Jesse to kill someone named Kevin, who has her money? All you need to know is that there is a lot of talk about killing and money, but we have yet to see either.
Frank doesn’t get the memo about the killing being off and breaks into their home to kill Riley. Nate stops the intruder, and Riley calls the police. The robber isn’t Frank; it is Kevin, and Riley is setting her husband up for murder. Frank watches from the bushes because he was about to go in.
Riley talks to the police and says that she and Kevin were going to have a sexy date, but Nate interrupted and was having an affair of his own with a co-worker. The detective laughs and thanks God he isn’t married. Riley just lies, lies, lies. Detectives don’t buy it.
Nate is taken into custody and lawyers up.
Meanwhile, Riley cozies up with Frank and dreams of going to Paris. She tells him she has to act like a grieving widow for a few days until they can escape. They were working together to frame Nate.
Riley spends time with her sister and best friend, who aren’t aware how two-faced Riley actually is.
The charges against Nate are dropped, and he tries to get his brother to kill Riley. (This has to stop!)
The movie starts jumping around the timeline, and Frank has been lying the whole time, too. He told Riley who he really was and that Nate was trying to kill her. It is so many twists I have completely lost track of what is what.
Frank and Nate are back to working together, like they were at the beginning, and Riley is betrayed. Then, Nate shoots Frank in cold blood. Riley begs for Nate not to shoot her, but Frank comes back to life, and the cousins fight it out.
Eventually, Riley is shot to death, and Frank survives. It was all staged.
STRAY Thoughts
As a Lifetime movie, this doesn’t really work. The pacing was off, and there was an excessive amount of deception and recapping rather than action to move the plot forward.
Riley’s manipulation and continuous emotional blackmail made her an untrustworthy protagonist.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪🔪(2 knives)
Lifetime Tropes: Tubi Acquisition
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 at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
This was one of those movies where you couldn’t root for any of the characters. They were all terrible in their own way.
Yes! Totally!
I want to know who I need to sue, to get these two hours of my life back.