I Almost Married a Serial Killer

The most telling aspect of last night's Lifetime "premiere" movie, "I Almost Married a Serial Killer," was that the production company that made it for Lifetime distribution had the spookily appropriate name "Formula Features," since the film hewed incredibly closely to the usual Lifetime formulae. At first I had thought the film would be about a woman who was courted by a serial killer and fell in love with him and agreed to marry him with no idea of what he did outside their relationship - I was even thinking of jokes like, "I thought everything was wonderful until I saw what he put on our wedding registry and it was all guns, knives and poisons" - but instead of that set of Lifetime clichés it turned out to be the set of Lifetime clichés in which the heroine, Camille (Krista Allen), barely escapes the clutches of the serial killer in the opening act (for someone who's supposed to be experienced in murder he's certainly bad enough at it the woman has an unbelievably easy time escaping!). She testifies against him at his trial and the judge announces she's going to impose eight consecutive life sentences on him, once for each victim the police have been able to identify and charge him with, with no possibility of parole. Then she receives word from the FBI that he's escaped from prison - like the real escapees from New York's Clinton Correctional Facility Lifetime previously dramatized in the film "New York Prison Break," he did so by sexually seducing a female guard and getting her to help him - and until he's re-arrested the FBI is going to insist that Camille and her daughter go into witness protection and relocate from their original home in Philadelphia to a decidedly fictional community in California.

In the meantime the serial killer Camille almost married, Rafael DuPont (Jeremy John Wells), visits a plastic surgeon and has his appearance so dramatically reconstructed that when he emerges he's played by an entirely different actor - and I found myself so resentful of the "cheat" Formula Features' casting people pulled by casting two separate actors as DuPont pre-op and post-op it was hard for me to enjoy the rest of the movie after absorbing such a preposterous gimmick. What they needed was an actor with the extraordinary talent of Lon Chaney, Sr. in being able to concoct so many makeups for himself he could appear as two dramatically different-looking people in the same movie - but Chaney, Sr. died in 1930 and there haven't been that many actors who've developed that skill since. Another option would have been what writer-director Delmer Daves did in the 1947 Bogart-Bacall vehicle "Dark Passage": show all the scenes of DuPont pre-op from his point of view so we never got to see, except in an insert close-up of a still photo, what he looked like. There isn't anything really wrong with "I Almost Married a Serial Killer" but there isn't much right about it, either. As I said as I started this review, the most remarkable thing about it is that the producers called their studio "Formula Features," thereby making it obvious and proclaiming to the world that they were just going to exploit Lifetime's usual formulae, not try to do anything creative with them!

Really enjoyed this movie . It was very real . All the actors were so good , even though it was a little confusing , 2 things I didn't like were that if I were her , I would recognize his voice , and another thing is the ending was not what I was expecting .... but it was pretty good over all . Kept me in front of the TV for the whole 2 hours , I didn't even want to move ... nail biting !!! I actually enjoyed it very much '

Right, well for a TV movie then I will say that the 2019 movie "I Almost Married a Serial Killer" wasn't actually all that bad. I must admit that I had expected it to be less interesting and less enjoyable. I mean, the title of the movie just wasn't the best of choices for a movie. Sort of made it sound like a bad drama love novel.

Anyway, I sat down to watch the 2019 thriller without having heard about it or even knowing what it was about.

And it turned out that writer Naomi L. Selfman actually managed to produce a storyline and script that was interesting enough for sustaining the movie. Granted, it wasn't the most riveting of stories, but it was adequate enough for a single viewing.

It should be said that writer Naomi L. Selfman does attempt to throw the audience off track a couple of times throughout the course of the movie, and it worked to some extend. I was left wondering whom people were as the movie progressed, so on that account it worked out. But on the other hand, it made the movie unnecessarily cluttered and it felt like director Nadeem Soumah was stumbling about trying to make sense of the script as it was translated to the screen.

The acting in the movie was adequate, and actress Krista Allen carried the movie well enough with her performance. It was nice, though, to see Louis Mandylor in the movie, because he just always brings that gruffy charm with him, so he was well-cast for the movie.

Once you get past the movie's laughable title, then I will say that "I Almost Married a Serial Killer" is adequate enough entertaining for a single viewing. It wasn't an outstanding movie, nor was it a particularly memorable one. And chances are equal to zero of me sitting down to watch "I Almost Married a Serial Killer" a second time. The movie's plot and storyline just doesn't have the material and contents for more than a single viewing,

My rating of "I Almost Married a Serial Killer" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Camile falls for a handsome charmer named Clement and her daughter dotes on him too. What could be wrong until Camile accidently walked into his secret room and discovered photos and news clippings of all the women he killed. There is one catch: Clement only kills women who are in love with him and willing to marry; it makes it that much more execiting (I guess). He lunged at her and missed and she escaped. The police nabbed Clement and he was sentenced to eight consec life sentences. Camile returned to her normal life but before long, news of Clement jail break forced Camile and daughter Violet to move - under witness protection. "They like to finish up their business , esp because you testified against him", the police tells Camile. Into a small town mother and daughter moved, under new identities. Here the plot makes a clever twist. Clement had plastic surgery to change his appearance and after surgery he finished off the doctor so no one knows. A chance encounter brough Camille new love interest in person of Bryan, who owns a ranch just outside of town. Bryan seems trust worthy and protective and is patient with Camille, who again is about to fall in love a second time. Will she repeat the diseaster consequence of the first love affair ? Well acted, there were genuine suspense and does hold me to my seat because thanks to good plot development and pacing, I care about what happens to Camille and Bryan. Overall 7 / 10.

This is like all others lifetime channel movies which are about love and crime. Story is very interesting, and good ideas. But ending is too typical, with typical twists and based on typical extreme lucky survival. In fact we did not even see whole end here. It finished about 1 minute before we could expect, almost suddenly. What is most annoying here is too predictable events. I say congratulations for good story and huge acting effort (police, court, plastic surgery...), but the predictability and typicality make this movie not so much better than others similar. Better beginning, worse ending a bit. I am bit disappointed, expected at least better ending.