I Have to Kill My Neighbor (2026 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Sarah Luby, Lauren Cochrane
Director: Tyson Caron
Writer(s): Matt Sweeney
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
In this Lifetime thriller, Lauren’s perfect suburban life is shattered when kidnappers take her husband hostage. As she fights back to uncover his whereabouts, the kidnappers tell her that the only way to get him back alive is to do what they request, kill her next-door neighbor, Madeline.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie begins with a man peacefully sleeping on the ground. Or maybe he is dead. Oh yeah, someone is shoveling dirt on him. The dead man’s name is Wade. Someone hasn’t forgotten about Wade and has a serial killer wall. YIKES!
Cut to a sunny suburb where people mow their lawns and jog down the street. We meet Tom and Lauren, typical blonde suburbanites who love gardening and cocktails. They don’t love their eccentric neighbor, Madeline. Madeline is all about HOA guidelines, rules, and being type A. Madeline’s husband is Wade, who is a missing person. (But we know he is DEAD.)
Tom’s mother is overbearing and has many opinions about how Lauren isn’t standing up to Madeline. Lauren feels inadequate and feels bad for antagonizing Madeline, but gets over it with some sexy time with Tom.
The next day, Lauren brings over some cookies for Madeline after getting into an argument. Madeline denies thhttps://ko-fi.com/patrickserranoe cookies and threatens to sue Lauren for her rotting fence. Then someone breaks into Lauren and Tom’s house and trashes the place. Tom is kidnapped, and a voice calls telling Lauren not to go to the police, or they will kill her husband. The hostages want Lauren to kill Madeline to save her husband. They also want photo evidence.
Lauren pours herself a drink and gets to work planning a murder. She works through all the options on a whiteboard and makes a To Do list. Lauren tries out different weapons in the mirror and lands on the classic kitchen knife. She tapes over all the neighborhood security cameras before shopping for cleaning supplies. A podcaster neighbor almost catches her, but Lauren just suggests being a guest on the show. (Which is the best way to distract a podcaster?)
Madeline is suspicious when Lauren shows up on her doorstep with tomatoes from the garden. Madeline is weirded out when Lauren starts poking around the house and tells Lauren to leave. Lauren is just casing the joint for her break-in later.
In the middle of the night, Madeline sleeps with a metronome, which is psychotic. Somehow, she hears a noise and comes downstairs to find Lauren in the living room. Lauren tells Madeline that they are going to have to fake her death and look into who is blackmailing Lauren and wants Madeline dead.
Lauren and Madeline put up Madeline’s OOO so work won’t wonder where she is, stage a death scene, and do a photoshoot in the bathroom. The whole thing is played for comedy, and it mostly works. They send the photo and wait until there is a knock at the door. It is the podcaster, Robin, who is about to ruin the whole thing.
The neighbors manage to get out of the house with a suitcase and hide Madeline in Lauren’s basement. They drink margaritas and laugh about the awkward situation they are in. Madeline can’t think of anyone who might want to kill her other than her brother-in-law, Jay. He wants her house. Madeline shares about her husband going missing after a fight.
Police detectives follow up on a report of a scream at Madeline’s house. He is suspicious because the out-of-office memo was too friendly. Tom’s mother, Estelle, also shows up looking for her son and tells the detective that something is going on. Lauen gets a call from Madeline pretending to be Tom.
The brother-in-law turns out to be the one who is keeping the serial killer wall. He doesn’t believe the photo is real and wants to see the body buried in the woods. They stage another photo shoot. Then Lauren goes to the brother-in-law’s house to look for her husband. Lauren goes into the shed and finds the serial killer wall. The brother-in-law explains that Wade never left the house, and Madeline killed her husband.
Lauren comes clean with the detective about everything and shows him Madeline in the basement, but Madeline isn’t there. She is gone without a trace. Lauren realizes that Madeline was setting her up. She handcuffs the detective and rushes to save her husband from her neighbor or neighbors?
Robin, the podcaster, is the next person Lauren confesses everything to. Robin helps Lauren look through the HOA camera footage. As Lauren scrolls through the video, she pieces things together. Lauren sees Wade get hit by a car, and Tom was the driver. Then Robin kidnaps Lauren and locks her in the recording studio.
Tom and Robin were working together and sleeping together. Lauren and Madeline are both tied up and feeling betrayed. Tom sucks! Wade’s body is buried under the fence that Madeline wanted to tear down, and if they did, the car accident cover-up would be revealed. Madeline calls Tom’s mother while they are confessing, and the whole plan is exposed.
Madeline and Lauren knock Robin out by kicking her in the face, and then they split up and ultimately take Tom out with a podcast mic.
Madeline gets a job on film sets doing makeup for dead people, which was her unknown dream. Lauren is so proud of her BFF. (and definitely not lesbian lover, but maybe?)
STRAY Thought
“I’m not dying on the toilet, I’m not Elvis.”
The music in this one was really going for it.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪 ( 1 knife)
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 Glasses of Wine)
Lifetime Tropes: Dead Parent, Poisoned, Bad Boyfriend, Sisters, Nosey Neighbor,
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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