Marry F*** Kill

As I stumbled upon the 2023 TV horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. I do enjoy horror movies and have so for nearly 40 years. Sure, I had never heard about this TV movie from Tubi, nor do I necessarily think that what airs on Tubi is subpar contents.

Writers Ian Carpenter and Aaron Martin put together a fair enough script and storyline for the movie. It wasn't the most scary of stories, but it definitely was watchable for what it turned out to be.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble, but the actors and actresses carried the movie well enough with their performances.

Visually then this movie was actually adequate enough. It wasn't a movie that made a whole lot use of special effects, but whatever effects where present certainly were fair enough. So the movie is more of a narrative-driven horror movie than a jump scare driven one.

However, I have to say that for a long-time horror fan such as myself, then this 2023 TV movie was like a stroll in the park. The movie didn't come off as being overly scary, but it had the atmosphere working to its advantage.

Director Caroline Labrèche delivered a horror movie that proved to be adequate for a single viewing. There wasn't enough contents to the storyline or script to support multiple viewing though.

My rating of this 2023 TV movie lands on a five out of ten stars.

Gathering together at a friend's house, a group of friends shocked to learn of a friend's death decide to stay in the house until after the funeral, but the more they stay the more they find themselves drawn into a deadly supernatural reanimation mystery and must uncover the motivation to leave alive.

Overall, this was a rather fun if problematic effort. One of the better elements here is the solid setup that makes this quite enjoyable. The early setup involving their friend passing away means the group isn't aware of yet we are as we see the whole thing through the occult ritual she's performing at the same time is solid enough and their reopening of old wounds and grievances as a result of being there comes off nicely. These subplots move the film along pretty well introducing several brief supernatural bits and potentially intriguing ideas. This sets up some decent enough genre fare once this gets brought up/ the initial start to things comes with the typical sightings of ghostly figures before seeing the revelation turn up a solid slew of supernatural-tinged sightings due to the twist about what happened. The big reveal of the black magic rites that were being conducted and bringing about the dark reveals involving the nature of the house and their connection, how they're meant to be together and the various rituals that go on all manage to give this some good points. There are some big issues to be had here. The main drawback on display is an dull and dreary pace that just drains the life from the film before it has any chance to do anything. The first half of this is filled with random moments of the group partying at the house or exploring the legacy left behind which only highlights how irritating and unlikable they all are since there's barely anything going on. The lack of supernatural scenes becomes quite obvious as its focus on these increasingly irritating friends keeps interfering with the story. The other issue with this one is the series of rather inane and stupid decision-making going on here that continues their unlikable qualities as before. Numerous points throughout here should denote the group either left the house or at the worst alerted the authorities, and once the bodies start dropping that should be the case although nothing happens and the group remains at the house. It's quite frustrating, similar to an ending that goes on far too long and could've told its story in less time so it limps to a finish. These features are what hold it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a sex scene, and some drug use.

Seriously. Tubi, we need to talk. You need to stop with the whole "Tubi originals" thing. They're bad. Really bad. Laughably bad. Terror Train was an insult to the original, but it was better than this. This is what happens when a cheap as it gets production company makes a movie so bad Lifetime Movie Network doesn't want it. Noy one thing about this is adequate: the script is eyeroll inducingly poor, the acting is as wooden as the lumber section at Lowe's, and the director mails it in. Who could blame her, really? The first two acts are quite poor but the real craptactular is saved for act three, which features some of the mist hilariously inept makeup effects of all time. Avoid.

When a film is described as a TubiTV original...you know it's probably going to be bad.

So I fully expected this was going to be much worse than it actually was.

Especially considering the title, and introduction of the film.

Plotwise, we have a group of friends returning to a house, where their friend killed herself in a demonic ritual, after having a mental breakdown, when her boyfriend convinces her to participate in an orgy (when she wanted to wait to have sex when they were married).

With, whatever dark force she unleashed, on the prowl, to reap vengeance, in her name.

This demon proceeds to possess his female friends, bang him, and then kill them...as sacrifices meant to bring back his once beloved deceased lover.

It turns out, both individuals came from a family of witches...whom shared a connection as partners in a past life.

Whose union has been foretold to bring forth the antichrist.

The whole thing is rather simply shot.

Which, for a TubiTV original, works in it's favour, as opposed to detriment.

No doubt, it's still a pretty lame film.

But I, personally, expected it to be way worse.

So colour me pleasantly surprised.

Because, while the acting is rather mediocre.

The storyline is actually not too bad.

With a couple twists that actually work in the end.

Thus, as far as films that end up going straight to TubiTV...this is among one of the better films of the class.

3.5 out of 10.

Let us start with the bad and then move on to the good! This offering brings the usual need for suspension of disbelief; due more to stupid decisions being made by the characters rather than anything having to do with the subject matter.

Did it bring anything new to the screen? NO. Was the storyline anything amazing or even interesting? NO. It was definitely a small screen offering; lower budget, lower expectations. Absolutely nothing that would be greenlit for an actual theatrical run.

There really was no cool backstory to lead us into what was going on. It unfolds in a fairly chronological order, letting us in on what exactly is going on by the end.

Now for the good! After all that was stated above, I have to say, it was surprising well acted! Some were better than others, but all did a solid job with the material thay were given. Make of that what you will. Also, I found the directing, editing (for the most part), cinematography, and pace, to be fairly well done.

In short, it was a solid effort even if nothing new or noteworthy came out. I really expected to give up or start hitting fast forward within the first twenty minutes. I was surprised that It kept me interested enough to watch from start to finish.