Title: Something Wicked
Arc Entertainment
Director: Darin Scott
Writer: Joe Colleran
Cast: Shantel Vansanten, John Robinson, Julian Morris and Brittany Murphy
Running time: 91 min, Rated R (Language, Violence, Sexuality)
Special Features: None
Available on DVD March 17th

Christine (Shantel VanSanten) and her boyfriend James (John Robinson) are having dinner with her parents, and James decides to bring up the subject of marriage. Her parents immediately thrash the idea stating that Christine needs to focus on her studies at the university before settling down and starting a family, plus the two lovebirds are too young and James has a menial job with no education.  Sounds like a total catch. They leave the restaurant all tips from wine, except for James whom is the designated driver.  Christine immediately falls asleep in the front seat while her parents are arguing in the back. Something happens with the car and they get obliterated by an oncoming train; James and Christine are the only survivors.  A year later Christine has moved in with her older brother Bill (James Patrick Stuart) and his wife Susan (Brittany Murphy “in her final role”).  Christine is finally showing progress of getting through the trauma of losing her parents. She and James are still going strong and engaged. Christine starts to notice some weird guy following her. She goes swimming at the university pool and gets her clothes stolen, someone pushes her into the pool and chases her. James gets run off the road on his motorcycle by an unknown guy driving a big-rig. James’ boss gets run over by a truck that belonged to his son. James’ boss’s son is obsessed with Christine and has sex fantasies about her.  Susan witnesses the murder of James’ boss and goes nutso.  With all this going on, Christine and James decide to get married anyway. James’ boss’s last gift to them was a honeymoon at his cabin in the woods.  It’s there where we see who is behind it all and that it was all an elaborate ruse for revenge.

The Good: Fans of Lifetime movies about “true story” murders will dig this because it was made for them.

The Bad: Brittany Murphy’s last movie is splashed all over the dvd case and it’s a damn shame.  This is her legacy; a low budget cookie cutter suspense thriller.  I hate that they used her character to spin the story into making the audience believe that it could possibly be paranormal activity causing all the death and bad luck. I figured it out within the first 5 minutes after the parents shot down James’ plans. It was all his idea…but wait, Christine is in on it too, but not with James.

There’s no way this was a true story. The fact that Christine didn’t get caught and her brother got blamed for it was just too bizarre to be believable…then they kill off the only good people at the end in a lame Final Destination meets Scary Movie accident. Ugh, snooze.

Acting:C
Story: F
Technical: D
Total Rating: D-
Reviewed by: JM Willis