Lifetime Review: '10 Year Reunion'

Can we all agree that slasher films are the best? There's no better way to get me in a good mood than to put me in front of a Friday the 13th marathon. The action is thrilling, the final girls/boys are badass, and the characters (no matter how thinly written or annoying they are) are usually bound to provide good banter until they end up on the killer's chopping block.

Lifetime seemed to be trying to appeal to a slasher film's audience with 10 Year Reunion. The film opens with five teenage best friends: Carly Newman (Kacey Clarke), Patty Garner (Kayla Ewell), Rose Crenshaw (Jillian Nelson), Erica Campbell (Anya Engel-Adams), and Abby Edwards (Abigail Klein). Over a slumber party, the five girls place their written secrets into a box, promising to bury the box and not open it until their class reunion.

But in a cruel twist of fate, Abby mysteriously dies at a pre-graduation party, leading the surviving friends to grow apart. Ten years later, the friends reunite at their school reunion, and Carly (who never quite got over Abby's death) decides to follow the clues Abby left before her death to find their years-old time capsule. But along the way, strange things befall the friends, and Carly begins to realize that there's a dark secret in the time capsule that someone doesn't want to be found....

Drama is what most Lifetime fans come to the channel for, and 10 Year Reunion delivers this and how. Like the best horror films, 10 Year Reunion builds up its' drama properly, constructing enough suspense and intrigue to keep viewers on their toes and keep them watching until all is revealed. And unlike some horror and Lifetime movies alike, the payout is well worth the wait.

The actors also bring the movie together, as everyone plays their role to their best. Kacey Clarke is authentically sympathetic as Carly, a woman haunted by her best friend's death who appears to view Abby's time capsule as her only means of closure. Clarke's co-stars, refreshingly, are able to provide depth to their characters and allow them to rise above simply being a group of attractive women waiting to get butchered or accused of being the masked maniac. Special mention goes out to Jillian Nelson, who manages to take Rose's character from snobby alpha bitch to an emphatic and likable woman who genuinely cares about her friends, as well as Anya Engel-Adams, whose character is achingly sincere and sympathetic for someone who gets the least amount of significant screen time.

SPOILERS BELOW

Even the film's villain has more subtle depth than the casual viewer typically expects of Lifetime's pedigree. Abby's killer is revealed to be Patty, as she had done so when she learned that Abby was to graduate as valedictorian, which she had wanted to do in order to receive a scholarship and escape her poor upbringing. Upon learning the truth via Abby's time capsule confession, tears form in the murderess's eyes, potentially showing that she felt remorse for the murder she'd committed years prior—with hints of this being present in her villainous breakdown.

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, 10 Year Reunion is MarVista Entertainment's finest work. The plot is well-written and knows how to maneuver itself properly, the actors are at their best, and the set pieces (like most Lifetime movies) are beautiful and provide for visually tasteful environments to the movie's drama and mayhem. Sadly, it doesn't appear that Lifetime airs this movie often on its sister network, so be sure to DVR it when you can!

Score: 10 out of 10 gardening shears.