Le frisson du crime

Warning to those with epilepsy: don't watch the first five minutes.

Crime author Graydon Jennings narrates the first scenes of this movie, which take place in a dance club with strobe lighting. I say crime author because his books are like "Columbo" movies. You know who did it, but the idea is to watch the investigation.

A year after the murder of her sister Alison, bartender Kelly of Manchester, Vermont, sees Jennings being interviewed and buys one of his books. Amazed by the similarities to her sister's case, Kelly goes to a book signing in Burlington and persuades Jennings to investigate the murder. He agrees.

Weird things start happening. Hank, a frequent customer at Clyde's Bar where Kelly works, liked Alison a lot and continues stalker-like behavior. The prime suspect in Alison's murder, though, seems to be Senator Hartford, one of many men she spent time with. At least he is believed to be "Cicero" from Alison's diary.

Kelly confronts Hartford, but there's no real evidence, and Hartford wants Kelly silenced.

Despite this being a TV-movie, certain words to describe Alison's promiscuous behavior are used. In flashbacks, we see Alison behaving badly. But the most sexy scene is the one where Kelly's friend Linda stays over (because Kelly is afraid) and takes a shower after running.

During the second half, there are some scary moments, but this is an ordinary thriller at best.

There's nothing that special here. Matt Cooke is pretty good as the senator. Chris Potter's narration at the beginning raises expectations, and he has some good moments later, but this is nothing more than a Lifetime-type movie, and not one of the better ones. But it is entertaining enough, and not too violent.

If you like mystery/thrillers, this is a good one & keeps you guessing almost to the end. The acting was very good by all and each had a clear identity that gave one pause to wonder, "was it him?" Very enjoyable and held my interest from beginning to end and a good job of a movie made for television by all. Definitely entertaining which is WHY some of us STILL DO watch such movies that give us a thrill and chill at the same time.

Dumbest female protags I've ever seen in a movie. Unbelievably so. Cheesy horror movie dumb. I didn't realize this movie was so old as I'd caught it during first weekend of lockdown on either NF or AMZPrime. I only watched it bc of Shiri and Chris Potter. Two faces I recognized. This chick is DUMB and it just got worse as the movie progressed. I found myself getting mad at her throughout the film and wanted to turn it off, but past a certain minute mark, I felt compelled to finish.

I won't spoil anything because the movie is not worth rehashing in that way. What would have been a surprise is if the villain turned out to not be the villain, but Kelly was such an idiot that it had to be on purpose and would have made no sense for her to not be playing right into the villain's hands. The parts with the politician were cringe and it was like she was in denial over not knowing what her sister was involved in. But as I said, she does a lot of things that irked me. There were so many signs practically hitting her over head that the only thing more obvious would be a cartoon DANGER sign flashing in her face.

This was a disappointing movie, and I think I napped afterwards. That's how bored I was. I will give the movie kudos for some of the creep factor. No matter how bad the movie, a person home alone and unknowingly at the mercy of the villain always gets to me. But Kelly was hard to root for because she lacked all common sense.

It's not your high budget movie but it's a good paced and good movie which has some interesting twists and turns. Worth a watch. And definitely beats some high end Hollywood flops.

as made for TV movies go,this one is not bad.not great,but not bad.to be honest,i don't mind most TV movies.true,they are very predictable,and most so called plot twists can be figured out by a 3 year old.having said,they can be entertaining.that pretty much describes "Thrill of the Kill".here's the basic plot outline.Kelly Holden(Shiri Appleby-Swim Fan,The TV series Roswel)can not let go of her sister's murder,which happened a year ago.She believes she can find out who the killer is.She enlists the help of murder mystery novelist Graydon Jennings(Chris Pottter-Kung Fu:the Legend Continues,Silk Stalkings(10 episodes)who happens to be in her town for a book signing.Because all of his novels are written from the point of view of the killer,she believes he may have some valuable insight.Naturally,there are more than a few suspects,but it is pretty easy to figure out the killer,way before the movie ends.Both Appleby and Potter are decent actors who do well with what they have.the movie is an entertaining 88 min diversion,which is probably all it sets out to be.Many people are critical of TV movies,sometimes referred to as the "movie of the weak".they are criticized for having basically the same plot,just different actors.this is true,but it is also true of much of the crap that is churned out for the big screen by Hollywood.there is certainly very little creativity there.the only difference may be bigger budget,big name actors and sometimes special effects,all designed to woo the viewer into thinking they're seeing something new.in other words,disguising the fact that they are watching the same old thing each time(yes,there are exceptions).add to that the fact that these big screen movies are actually trying to be creative or at least think they are.now,with the so called movies of the week,the filmmakers and actors know what their product is and don't try to make it anything more than it is.so,the above criticisms of TV movies are not valid.generally a movie of this sort deserves a 6/10 unless it is woefully worse than any other movie. since Thrill of the Kill is no worse than other TV movie and as good as some of the drivel that the big Machine spews out,this one also gets a 6/10