Movie Review ::: LMN’s Secrets to Kill For

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Lifetime Movie Network’s newest ‘Sizzling Summer Nights’ thriller sets up a mystery that is easily solved but throws in a major twist that may leave your jaw on the floor.

Secrets to Kill For begins in the middle of the story with a young woman fleeing for her life through the woods, begging the person chasing her to spare her life, offering to turn over her diary which is the only place she has ever kept all of her secrets. The ploy doesn’t work and a gunshot rings out. The story then shifts slightly to the past as the same woman, June (Aria Celeste Castillo), surprises her friend Shanice (Courtney Grace) with a call that she’s in town and needs a place to stay. Turns out she has left her allegedly abusive boyfriend, but as the friends catch up during a walk in town the boyfriend, Lee (Brashaad Mayweather), shows up out of nowhere and attempts to bring June back home. Shanice intervenes and the women go back to Shanice’s house, but it isn’t long before Lee shows up there as well and by the next morning June and Lee have reconciled and return back home to their small town. It’s not more than a day or two before Shanice gets a call from their friend Haven (LaKeta Booker) telling Shanice that June has gone missing. The three women have been besties for years but there is now some obvious tension between them as Haven insists that Shanice does not have to bother herself to come bak to town, but Shanice is not going to stay in the big city while her friend is missing.

Returning home, Shanice reconnects with her father Stan (Terry Woodberry) and step-mother Pauline (Malena Cunningham Anderson), who are happy to have Shanice home but everyone seems to be really upset with her for moving away to live her life as a successful self-help blogger. It really is never clearly explained why there is such animosity and distance between Shanice and her friends and family. Later, Shanice catches up with Haven but their reunion is frosty at best. Back at her parents house a police officer shows up, Glen (Riley Hough), who is also a longtime friend, and he informs Shanice that they are forming a search party as they found June’s phone in the woods. Lee is also a suspect but they have nothing yet to pin June’s disappearance on him. Haven is surprised that Shanice bothered to show up for the search, but Shanice snaps that Haven didn’t bother to mention it to her. As they begin to spread out in the woods, it’s not long before Haven discovers June’s body (in the film’s truly emotional moment thanks to the performance of Booker). Shocked that their friend is dead, Shanice and Haven begin to work together to try to pin the crime on Lee, despite Officer Glen insisting they let the police do their job, and begin to uncover some shocking information that suggests June may have been having an affair with Shanice’s father Stan, that June added Lee’s name to the deed of her house, and that stepmom Pauline had been pregnant and given birth at the same time Shanice, June and Haven were born. June had previously revealed to Shanice that she had been adopted, which came as a huge surprise to Haven when Shanice told her. After someone placed June’s diary into the mailbox at Shanice’s parents, and Shanice discovered several pages had been torn out, but there was a strong enough impression on one page that suggested Shanice would be shocked when she found out … something, Shanice has to begin wondering if her father did, in fact, kill June and if Pauline is June’s mother. Shanice and Haven uncover some more information that seems to support what Shanice believes, but she soon learns that all is not as it seems when the truth finally comes out.

Secrets to Kill For, written by Lauren Greenwood, is for the most part a typical TV movie mystery-thriller where the set-up with the murder is filmed in such a way that it’s pretty easy to determine who the killer is just by paying attention to the clothing. In this case you can’t always trust your eyes, and that’s a good thing. It isn’t until some more secrets are revealed that you can say ‘oh, that’s the killer’, and it actually makes sense. At that point, you’d be right but there is still one more massive bomb drop that is a total surprise and actually elevates the story above the norm. Director Dave Thomas does a nice job of playing all the mysteries close to the vest, and the cast also does a pretty good job of not being too overly suspicious, never relaying to the audience if they are or are not the killer. Everyone but Shanice, Haven and Glen are suspects. The production is also very good with night shots actually filmed at night instead of using the cheaper day-for-night filters that do nothing to disguise the fact that a night scene was shot in the middle of the afternoon. This is a world that feels real, feels lived in, and the only real issue the story has is never really coming clean with why Shanice and her friends have such a chilly relationship.

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The cast all do some good work. Courtney Grace really has to carry the film as Shanice, a confident woman who has forged her path in life without realizing her actions may have hurt the people she loves (including Stan and Pauline who welcome her home but still feel a bit distant because Shanice doesn’t seem to keep in touch as much as she should). She also makes her investigation into June’s murder feel real as she just happens to find more clues that she needs to look into, even if she really should be bringing the information to the police. Her shock at uncovering the truth at the film’s climax also feels authentic as the audience can certainly relate to her as things hit her like a ton of bricks. Aria Celeste Castillo is okay as June in her scenes with Shanice and Lee, but she really portrays June’s fear and terror as she begs for her life. LaKeta Booker really pours on the resentment Haven feels toward Shanice which begins to thaw as they try to find out who killed June, but that moment when she finds June’s body is absolutely heart-wrenching, Booker pouring every ounce of emotion into her performance that may make your eyes well up. It really is a key moment in the movie.

Brashaad Mayweather is a bit one-note as Lee, but he isn’t given a whole lot to work with. He’s always on the defense, always aggressive so as he is always the prime suspect. Perhaps it’s a bit over-played to the point that we have to assume he isn’t the suspect. The character is a bit frustrating because he has enough evidence to support his claims but he’s written badly and Mayweather has to do what he can to make it work. Terry Woodberry’s Stan seems like a blank slate, which never allows the viewer to decide if he is or isn’t the killer, or if he was or wasn’t having an affair with June. There is just something about his performance that makes it hard to connect with. Riley Hough is also fine a Glen, but I couldn’t help but think of Officer Dewey from the Scream movies every time he was in a scene. Malena Cunningham Anderson is very good as Pauline, a character that does have some layers to play with, from the secret pregnancy to her knowledge of the relationship between Stan and June, playing off the suggestion of an affair but not convincingly enough to make anyone believe her which keeps you guessing about her innocent or guilt.

Overall, Secrets to Kill For has a decent premise with a good mystery and enough red herrings that don’t feel like red herrings that will keep you guessing until the end. There may be a few unanswered questions (like did Lee really shoot an arrow at Shanice?!?!), but the bombshell at the end is a great payoff that makes the film ultimately satisfying.

Secrets to Kill For has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.