The Ex

It's not particularly original, but has some high level thrills, largely owing to Yancy Butler's contributions.

The Ex ticks a lot of entertainment boxes. The storyline we've seen before but there is a real commitment here to bring us an enjoyably fast paced thriller. Butler is the psycho, creepy, sinister ex of a husband whom she is obsessed with and can't let go of. Certainly she is out of control mentally, and a violent killer, but it's hard to dislike her. I felt I could relate with her character in some ways and her unpredictable and often times surprising actions are convincingly portrayed. Reminded me of Mia Goth and her unhinged character in Pearl and like Goth, Butler is excellent at showing different personas in quick transition.

The support cast is a bit ordinary but they do ok. I think they tried to make Butler's ex husband like Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction, which doesn't quite work that great but enough is done to carry the story along. His new wife is pretty much a simple, goody-two-shoes type so she's a bit boring and by the numbers, but their young son is just creepy as. His eyes and expression look really spooky and I could see his mother's genealogy being passed on like she's feeding him through a drip.

Quite a decent little thriller, with plenty of gnarly kills albeit the script at times erring on the side of the old cliches, The Ex will probably entertain and please most viewers who enjoy simple but effective, target-hitting movies.

"I must say that this film somewhat surprised me and that after a short while I found myself still attached to the tube (at 12:30) a.m. in the morning (something which I didn't expect when the film began). The main reason for me staying up late to see this through, was the sometimes great acting by Yancy Butler (Deirdre). I mean she makes for one hell of a psycho in the end, although I must admit that her 'act' was a bit overdone at one or two times and didn't come off believable anymore. Since the story and the other characters were OK to good as well, I enjoyed the movie up until the end, when finally the bummer came. What a simple and lame ending this film has. It ruined it all for me and I felt as if I was in 'Child's Play 4'or something. Too bad, but because of the ending (ONLY)...

5 out of 10

"David Kenyon" (Nick Mancuso) is a successful architect who has remarried after divorcing his first wife "Deidre Kenyon" (Yancy Butler) seven years earlier. His second wife "Molly" (Suzy Amis) is not aware that he had been married previously. Neither does she know that Deidre had been committed to a mental institution and has recently arrived back in New York with the desire to get her husband back--regardless of what it takes. Now, while other films like "Fatal Attraction" have already covered the "psychotic girlfriend/wife scenario" what makes this particular movie interesting is the performance of Yancy Butler. She was both hot and crazy. On the flip side though, there were a couple of scenes that simply went beyond the boundaries of realism and had me shaking my head in disbelief a couple of times. Only in Hollywood. That being the case I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

Ok, it's not a big budget film and the cast isn't exactly up to par, but there's one awesome reason to love this movie - Yancy Butler. Her performance is fierce, and so is the character she plays. If you love bad guys, they don't get any badder than this.

She may not be a great actress, but Yancy Butler has an unmistakable name, face and voice. Her striking eyes and brows make me think she'd be perfect as the lead in a remake of 'The Wasp Woman.' And that throaty gurgle of a voice is positively un-natural. It's unfortunate that she's had alcohol issues that threw her out of the acting game for a while. But that does make me think how she's appeared so uncomfortable on-camera in most of her roles over the years... even this one. Perhaps it's just this film's sledgehammer of a script making her uneasy here, even as a villain. It's obvious that this thing is riding the same track trodded down previously by 'Fatal Attraction' (although 'Attraction' itself is a variation on an even older film: Clint Eastwood's 'Play Misty For Me'). Yancy gets the juicy role of the crazed ex-wife who terrorizes ex-hubby Mancuso and his second wife Amis. It all leads to an achingly predictable conclusion. Sure, you don't know what will do ol' Yance in, but you know it's coming (and you can figure it won't involve a tub since that would be way too close to 'Fatal Attraction'-- although this film does rely on tubs for Yancy's killing spree). I agree with a fellow commentator who was annoyed with the child actor: indeed, the young boy is truly terrible. They could have used a dog in place of the kid and gotten a better performance. The only interesting facet was having Mancuso be into rough sex. From that, I think a more startling conclusion would have been having Mancuso and Yancy re-uniting---because they're obsessed with each other and play this sick game of rough love that extends to even killing Yancy's sister and Mancuso's new wife. As it is, this is just a b-grade thriller/time-killer.