F*** Marry Kill Review: Uneven, Forgettable Comedy
Streaming Movie Review - Comedy/Horror/Mystery
The rise of the murder podcast has led to a significant increase in media coverage of it. The latest film to examine this phenomenon is Laura Murphy's F*** Marry Kill, which is now available on VOD. Sadly, it’s not quite as interesting as your average serial killer broadcast.
Eva (Lucy Hale) is getting out of a long-term relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Jake (RJ Fetherstonhaugh). As she is able to celebrate her thirtieth birthday, she goes out with her sister, Valerie (Brooke Nevin), her best friend and co-worker, Kelly (Virginia Gardner), and friends Anthony (JayR) and Robin (Bethany Brown). They encourage her to check out the dating apps and find a new romance.
At the same time that Eva is reentering the dating scene, a serial killer dubbed the “Swipe Right Killer” is also out using the apps. As Eva meets hunky Mitch (Brendan Morgan), successful Kyle (Jedidiah Goodacre), and sensitive Norman (Samer Salem), she begins to worry that one of them is the murderer. The adolescent game of f, marry, kill starts to take on new meaning when Eva is afraid for her life.
F*** Marry Kill bills itself as a horror comedy, but don’t go in expecting much of a horror. What exists is definitely undercut by the humor. Instead, this is more of a murder mystery with some comedic elements as we try to discover who the “Swipe Right Killer” is.
The comedy in this movie is pretty hit or miss. The scenes with Goodacre are generally the funniest bits, with his physical comedy providing some of the best laughs in the film. The writers included jokes meant to be funny, but that largely fell flat. On the plus side, there wasn’t anything that felt egregiously unfunny. It was a lot more about how the comedy landed, and for the most part, it didn’t succeed.
The performances throughout are fine. As mentioned above, Goodacre is easily the best of the love interests, providing the bulk of the humor in the movie. As the best friend and “ultra-married” girl, Gardner is a lot of fun. Hale is remarkably charming, and casting her as the lead makes F*** Marry Kill a lot more fun than it would be otherwise.
The film would have been better if it had leaned into the mystery element harder. The reveal at the end about who the killer is works pretty well, but if there had been more time with the murder podcast, it could have been even better. The little rabbit trails that Eva goes down trying to determine who the killer is were clever, and it would have made sense to weave that into the story in a much deeper way.
Ultimately, this felt like a movie that wasn’t quite sure what it was. A couple of tweaks could have made it a lot more fun. But as it is, F*** Marry Kill is an average movie that will entertain and then be forgotten.
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on March 7, 2025.
Thanks. Sounds like my "meh sure on a weekend sometime" vibe is about right.