I rented You’re Killing Me since it gave me a Ready or Not vibe from the cover art and description… and that was pretty accurate, though at a much lower budget and far more scattered a tone and themes.

The flick is about a high school girl who wants to get a letter of recommendation from a local senator so she cozies up with her son at his house party (plot very similar to the recent rom-com Prom Pact). But when she finds some incriminating evidence, she has barricade herself in a room as the rich kids try to break down the door.

This film surprised me. Sometimes it feels like a run-of-the-mill low budget thriller and sometimes it gets campy and other times very serious, including an ethical dilemma and rich vs. poor theme. Thing is, I was never quite sure if its camp factor was intentional or just over-acting. But it was fun and funny.. . and sometimes cheesy… and then unironically engaging. I cared for these somewhat dimwitted characters.

And then a surprise appearance from Dermot Mulroney and Anne Heche, both out-acting the rest of the cast. They are both having a lot of fun with their roles… probably easy to go all crazy-eyes when ain’t nobody gonna see the movie.

The flick has some some low budget flaws and short cuts but it also has some neat shots and camera work, especially for its low-fi film feel.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend this to everyone… if you want a good thriller, it has some some of that. If you want to laugh, you can do that too (perhaps even intentionally). If you want a consistent narrative tone and characters who don’t act stupid, maybe not your film. I was engaged though, the movie got me… not consistently, but enough of the time to admire it.

Score: 81