I Watch Films: Homicidal

 

Homicidal

A woman offers the bellhop at the hotel $2000 to marry her that night, though she assures him the marriage will be annulled immediately. After the wedding she murders the judge who conducted the service and escapes.

She’s Emily, the companion and nurse for a mute disabled woman, Helga. Helga lives in the Webster family home, for whom she used to be the nanny and housekeeper. The elder Websters have died leaving Miriam, a florist, and her half-brother Warren, who will come into the family fortune in a few days when he turns twenty one. He’s away on business, but comes back.

Strange things occur, someone breaks into Miriam’s shop. Emily gave the name Miriam Webster so the police come to question her. All this puzzles Miriam’s beau, the local pharmacist, and the family doctor.

There’s a lot of twists and turns and old secrets. Also a ridiculous gimmick, in the guise of a “Fright Break” where a clock offers you 45 seconds to leave before Miriam enters the house for the denouement.

Watch This: A dark, tense and gender-bending thriller
Don’t Watch This: It’s all rather silly, with both Emily and Warren behaving inexplicably (the reveal does not help), the film’s occasional musing on homicidal nature clarifying nothing