“The Game of Death Has Arrived.”
Of all the potential franchises that Hallmark has started in the last couple of years, the last one I expected to get a second movie was Mystery Island. As much as I enjoyed the first movie, I couldn’t see how they could keep the story going. But they booked us a return visit with Killer Takes All, our second visit to the island.
If you missed the first movie, it revolves around a murder mystery island resort. The murders are supposed to be fictional as the guests come together to solve a murder that’s been created especially for them.
As this movie opens, the current team running the island consist of police psychologist Emilia Priestly (Elizabeth Henstridge), local detective Jason Trent (Charlie Weber), and Jane Alcott (Kezia Burrows). Things are on shaky ground, so they’ve come up with a promotion to help out the island. They’ve gotten a couple of contest winners and a best-selling mystery author to come for the latest game. But just as they weekend has reached the point where the fictional murder was supposed to take place, an explosion happens outside. Yep, someone has been murdered for real. Can our characters figure out which of their guests is an actual killer?
This is a movie you need to pay close attention to. We’ve got the real murder, but the fictional murder stays as a subplot. I was glad because I’ve always been curious to see how one of these is supposed to play out. Honestly, I’m still a little confused about that. But it’s the subplot, so that’s okay.
While the fictional victim in the game was easy to spot, I was surprised at who the real murder victim was. There are some good twists early on, and I was very curious to see how everything was going to play out. Sadly, I felt like they made the solution more complicated than it needed to be. It works, but they threw a lot of info at us at the end instead of feeding it to us a little at a time giving us a huge exposition dump. As a result, it wasn’t the strongest mystery movie we’ve gotten.
Having said that, the writing and acting were mostly good. I had no real complaints in that department. I got a kick out of seeing Kristin Booth, one of the stars of Hallmark’s long running Signed, Sealed, Delivered franchise, playing a very different character here.
It was fun to see the main characters again. Their relationships are great. And the island setting is magnificent.
In the end, Mystery Island: Killer Takes All is not the best that Hallmark has to offer when it comes to their mystery movies. Still, those who enjoy the channel’s movies will want to watch it.
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