Allison (Kate Watson) sure knows how to pick’em. In the new Lifetime Original movie HER DEADLY GROOM we see what happens when a divorcee and entrepreneurial woman allows her best friend Brenna (Kelly Erin Decker) to set up a profile for her on a dating app. Of course, this is Lifetime and we know what that means. Some stuff is gonna go down. While one can relish the cheesy joy and predictability derived from the perils of modern dating, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of wit or the absence of surprise in what was aiming to be a thriller. Writers Jared Cohn and Naomi L. Selfman throw us a few curveballs here and there, but for the most part, we have seen this before.

Vincent Black (Michael DeVorzon) is the evil man and titular character that, on a chance of bad timing, notices Allison’s new dating profile and sees in her his next victim. An interloper of the highest order, Vincent first “bumps” into Allison and helps her with putting some boxes into her car. Then all of a sudden Vincent is flirting with her online. Allison’s ex (a scene-stealing Eric Roberts) pops into the picture every so often and notices that something is a bit off. Allison is too into her new man and he is too perfect. Even Allison’s daughter Nickey (Elyse Cantor) and her boyfriend Jake (Jacob Michael) can smell a rat and they go about trying to uncover Vincent’s many dark secrets. Well, not many really, just that he likes to kill people.

Let’s be clear here. There is nothing wrong with creating a movie that is predictable comfort food. But at least when doing so, co-writer and director Cohn could have given the audience just a little bit more credit. The film opens with Vincent luring his latest victim to a high cliff and all but urging her to stand closer to the edge before giving her a nice shove over the precipice. Wit and a sense of suspense would have allowed a bit more fun with the idea, maybe toying with the inevitable idea that this lady was doomed to plunge to her death. About the only scene that reaches levels of absurd deliciousness involve a realtor who discovers that Vincent has been squatting in one of her properties with his new lady friend. Now that scene was great.

A Lifetime movie doesn’t have to be bad, nor does it have to be a parody of itself. There is a market and a place for these rote thrillers that paint men in a bad light while portraying women as naive to service the plot. This is all melodrama and silliness that appeals to our most basic of entertainment needs and it never really aims to be anything but that. Not good, and not everyone’s cup of tea, I would say there is a place for guilty pleasures like HER DEADLY GROOM. 

4 out of 10

Premieres July 26^th, 2020 at 8pm ET/PT on Lifetime