Grace Perkins (Katelyn McCulloch) has had a difficult life. An orphan, she says she went to a dark place before landing on her feet. Now, she has a stable job, a dependable roommate named May (Ericka Leobrera) and the man of her dreams, Rob Whitby (Connor McMahon).
This weekend is a big deal because Rob finally brings her to meet his parents, Stephen (Dmitry Chepovetsky) and Miriam (Kate Vernon). Mom is a rough one, continually bringing up how much she hated past girlfriends and how wrong they were, while Dad seems doting and even childlike.
Of course, this is entering Get Out territory, a reference to Jordan Peele’s 2017 film that explores racial and social issues. In this context, while everyone in the Whitby family is white, there is still the issue of class, and, well, the Whitbys are all certifiable. But have they met the wrong girlfriend?
Between every drink making Grace either drunk or sick and Penelope (Juno Rinaldi), the maid, confiding in her that numerous girlfriends who look just like her have come to the mansion and were never seen again, you can see the plot’s direction against our protagonist. But just when I thought that this was ripping off Jordan Peele, well, the movie flips the script — spoilers from here on out — because the family doesn’t want a slave or a body for old people to body swap with, but instead, they want Grace to become their dead daughter Jenny using mind control, psychic theater and a machine that can either change the color of your eyes or turn your face into gumbo. Those are the exact works in the movie.
Just when you think you’ve got that plot development figured out — and yes, that means that Rob has repeatedly had sex with many of his sisters or at least recreations of his dead sister that he probably — definitely — murdered in a pond — this movie is ready to throw another one at you.
Directed by Sam Coyle, who also made the Tubi original Deadly Estate, and written by Mike Rinaldi, this is one of the more enjoyable Tubi originals I have seen. It continues to lean hard into its premise, like an Italian remake remix rip-off, before finding its own way and closing with a completely outrageous final act that over-delivers on its promise.
You can watch this on Tubi.