A Party To Die For (2022)

Tubi's October event, "Terror on Tubi," ends with one final new movie, but after watching A Party to Die For, you may feel disappointed. Maybe even deceived. Tubi's Nanea Miyata-directed film is the farthest thing from a horror movie, mainly because it isn't one. The boundary between horror movies and thrillers is often hazy due to shared aesthetics, unclear guidelines, and filmmakers who want to include elements of both genres in their projects. A film classified as a thriller should be full of suspense and fear. However, the case of A Party to Die For fails to deliver on these points.

A person is tempted by the excitement and danger of a new place and social group, only to end up in a bad situation: we've all seen this story unfold. The person who's about to have a big problem is Sadie, a poor shopgirl working for her cousin in a fancy store. Sadie grew up without money, so she's obsessed with it. She is attracted to a wealthy man named Owen and gets involved with a socialite named Jessica.

Sadie is attracted to people with money, as it makes her feel closer to achieving her financial goals. However, she soon discovers that Jessica is more trouble than she's worth. A Party to Die For somewhat breaks the stereotype by not having Owen be something other than a nice, if not too dependable, romantic interest. He unknowingly provides the venue for the murder. Owen lets Sadie stay at his home while he's away for a business meeting, and around Halloween, Sadie invites Jessica and her friends over for an afterparty. Sadie gets drunk and doesn't realize that Jessica is a killer who ends up murdering someone in cold blood.

The movie has a darkly humorous side which is shown when Sadie wakes up and sees Jessica cooking breakfast so close to a corpse. However, this would have been it if there were ever a time when the movie could have shifted gears completely. The film could have been much more interesting if it had explored the main character's motivations for killing instead of just trying to hide the evidence. It would have been a more critical character study, showing her as a killer and an entitled socialite. There is a hint of that in the movie, but it gets overshadowed by the coverup aspect.

Although this isn't a horror film, there should still be some exciting moments. Cudgleing the victim with a tchotchke was about as thrilling as A Party to Die For manages to get, unfortunately. The film lacks tension and is poorly handled. The detective character is dull and uninteresting. The movie is not worth watching. The topic of guilt is mentioned, but the story doesn't explore it very deeply. This thriller is shallow in every aspect.

This movie feels so unenthused about itself that you'll likely forget it soon after watching it. Kara Royster is the only source of energy in this tedious thriller, and she keeps it moving. The exclusive offerings during this year's Terror on Tubi were lackluster, but they seem much better than this film.