
Although, I am not ready to say we have renewed the subgenre lately in cinema of Serial Killer hunting from the dating pool story, but we do have plenty to choose from. “Heart Eyes” 2025, (reviewed) “The Dead Thing” 2025 (reviewed) “Somebody” a series on Netflix 2022, Strange Darling (2024), and Woman of the Hour (2024). There is also “Promising Young Woman” that even flipped the subgenre on its head and won an Oscar for the screenplay. In addition, there are many documentaries on serial killers solely after people who are dating. I say renew because it isn’t a new subject in cinema, classics like Audition 1999, Sea of Love 1989, My Bloody Valentine ‘1981, as well as “The Prowler 1981 show that it has been around for a while. What F MARRY KILL brings is a strong emphasis on comedy, and (unintentional?) silliness.
Directed by Laura Murphy, this film was supposed to be released in December, but got pushed to March. It stars Lucy Hale, Virginia Gardner and Brooke Nevin. The plot is simple, Eva is now single after a long eight year relationship with someone and now out looking for love with guidance, whether she wants it or not, with her sister and friends. She puts herself out there while there is a famous serial killer out there killing daters. Eventually this leads to Eva thinking of the three men she is seeing, one of them is the serial killer.
What works in this is the presentation that dating is a frustrating nightmare. No one acts like themselves and profiles are never genuine. At times the film can be funny, just not all-out hilarious. There is a candy-store style approach to the film that I admire for such a dark subject, an interesting contrast. To try to keep it light on the surface while investigating dark deeper themes is very daring, and risky to try to pull off. I would applaud the challenge. Instead, the story is more concerned with making you laugh which leads to the most silly conclusions ever in the subgenre. It’s tough, the film had a chance to be meaningful by examining topics like, nice guy syndrome, independent woman not needing a man to feel whole, bucking the patriarchal society, or even adulting in gen z with a comedic lens. Instead it went for the corny. The chance of rewatchability is for sure at zero for me, to the point of referring to it watching only once and that its for men, can be referred to as a one-night-stand.





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