[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
I have long been a fan of what I affectionately refer to as “cheesy Lifetime movies.” In recent years, the mothership network has favored Ripped from the Headlines fare while the stalwart women in peril thrillers have shifted to LMN (formerly Lifetime Movie Network). They’re usually fun escapist fare that follow a familiar formula, plus I’ve always loved them for the Canadian repertory company that cycle through. Friday night, LMN is treating us to a tasty fromage entry called What Would You Kill For? (when, on LMN, the more apt title is probably What Wouldn’t You…)
Written by Grace Knight and directed by Sean Cisterna, the film stars Rayisa Kondracki (Wynonna Earp) as Min, a divorced single mom and restaurateur on the eve of selling her restaurant to developer Ben (Steve Byers), against the wishes of her toolbox ex-husband, Rick (Moonshine‘s James Gilbert). As soon as the contract is signed, Rick pitches a hissy in full view of the entire restaurant and then turns up dead in its freezer the next morning. Good thing that contract was already signed because dead bodies in the freezer totally tank a property value (I’ve heard).
Min is of course the first to find him, followed immediately afterward by Rick’s wife, Emma (Tara Yelland, who was delightfully unhinged in Season 2 of SurrealEstate as the monster of the week trying to snack on the tasty Luke Roman). Then Min finds out Ben was less than forthcoming about fudging some of the parameters of the sale. I know!
Just prior to this, we learn that Min’s 15 year-old daughter Rosie (Laura Provenzano), who Min adopted when she married Rick, has decided her 16th birthday is a great time to look for her birth mother. She puts a pin that when her dad dies, until she receives her annual birthday card (no return address, obvi) from her mom that’s a 180 turn from the tone of the previous cards she’s received every year. Rude!
And as if there weren’t enough potential suspects in the mix, we also have Min’s bestie and Rosie’s “aunt,” Becky (Amanda Martinez), who just so happens to be the attorney who signed off on Ben’s paperwork. Well, isn’t that convenient?
So many possibilities, y’all! I was pretty sure I knew the who but not the why, and, nope, I didn’t guess it. You might need the smoking statistics guy GIF by the end of it after a few curveball reveals that flip our loyalties more than once. The drama! There are also a couple of legitimate jump scares.
As you know, Steve Byers is one of mine, so I was going to watch this anyway, and I’m happy to say it’s an excellent way to rest your brain on a Friday night. We haven’t seen Byers on Lifetime since last year’s equally twisty-turny, wait, what? Daddy’s Deadly Secret (also directed by Cisterna) which, yes, is still on the DVR next to Pocket Dial Murder, Amish Abduction, which starred Sara Canning and was Ali Liebert’s directorial debut, and my fave, A Deadly Secret by the Lake, which wanders back to LMN now and again.
Set your Swatches for some Friday escapist fare. What Would You Kill For? premieres Friday, March 14th, at 8 pm/7c on LMN, repeating at midnight/11c and then streaming on LMN the next day.
Photos courtesy of Reel Entertainment and LMN.
