A Murder in Oakland: Beauty Is Deadly 2025 (Touch the Heart Productions / Uncia Films) Review
A Murder in Oakland does get right to the point, opening up with a girl Mercedes getting strangled to death in a park in board daylight. The murder then gets pinned on the Seaside killer, a guy who strangled four other women. But something doesn’t sit right with Mercedes death as the Seaside killer is not taking credit for this one, and so it’s up Detective Williams and his new panther to find out the truth behind her death. Sounds great on paper, but the films execution is lacking in this “whodunnit’ mystery.
The tone of this movie is all over the place. At it’s heart, it’s trying to be serious but comedic undertones pop up due to the performances and writing. There are moments when the actors stumble on their lines and it feels like improv gone wrong. One moment had me almost laughing on the floor where someone has a long pause when saying “That is why she left the runway……………..life.” like she forgot the word. Another humorous moment comes with the Seaside killer describes how he kills his victims. “I don’t do it from the front, I only do it from the back.” At the end of the film, Marcus Spencer even miscounts how many murders the seaside killer did, saying he did three but then correcting himself moments later.
Just don’t mind the top of the set design there. Also, why is this guy called the Seaside killer, does he always kill by the sea?
Marcus D. Spencer directed, wrote and is the lead. A dangerous combo as if you are directing and acting, as you gotta have the skills to back it up. He also apparently has a deep passion for movies with Oakland in the title. (He made the Straight Outta Oakland series). His performance as the lead comes across as a nervous high school teacher who has anger issues. Marcus displays an uncomfortable lack of confidence and authority with almost every character he interacts with. It does make for some humorous moments, but it’s clear that wasn’t the films intention.
He gets assigned a new panther, Detective Adams, who he butts head with as he came from Fresno. Detective Williams must have had a bad vacation in Fresno or something because he has to keep reminding Adams that he is now in Oakland, not Fresno anymore. It’s in Oakland where the true crime is and he’s got to take things seriously.
This is Oakland son, where we must think deeply in thought.
There are also these weird side stories in the movie that turns the films focus from the murder mystery into a romance drama with the psychologist and her husband. You think it might play into the mystery or play into the story somehow, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the murder and has no pay off. It feels like a filler episode to pad the runtime.
There are some good ideas and performances here, but they are buried by the rough editing and sound design. I don’t know why the actor’s stumbling their words was left in, either due to a lack of coverage or a quick edit job. Some scenes are also eerily quiet, missing some background sound design to help immerse us in the scene. Some of the dialogue sound quality is a bit rough to. The cinematography by Benjamin Dennis is pretty decent and gets the job done, with some nice looking close ups. The location scouting was also solid, with a nice variety of set locations that help to keep things fresh.
Yo man, what’s stop focusing on these weird love stories and get back to the murder mystery man.
A Murder in Oakland: Beauty Is Deadly does finally end, but instead of landing on the runway, we are left landing in a forest of confusion. The true killer actually ends up being a bit predictable even though I’m not sure how our two detective finally cracked it, and then the film attempts a twist, before leading into a six minute credit sequence. Overall, this one is hard to recommend unless you are looking for a so bad it’s good kind of vibe. There are moments that made me laugh and entertain me, so it at least gets points for that.
