Betray: Thirst (2025) Movie Review: A frustratingly dull and inept erotic drama 

Slated as a spiritual sequel to his 2023 film “Betray,” Jaron Lockridge’s “Betray: Thirst” revisits similar themes of infidelity, albeit from a mostly male-centred perspective. Mixing the theme with a legal backdrop and an underdeveloped and tame undercurrent of the frustration people feel when their needs are not met, the new film is dull and inept, with no idea what exactly it wants to be. 

The film follows Jamal Wiggins (Kenon Walker), a lawyer who is not so happy that his law firm co-owner and best friend, Darren Tate (Everett Anderson), is going through a rough patch in his marriage because of his inability to not get swooned away by any woman he comes across. Jamal and his wife Shavonne (Jai Johnson) have gotten so involved with trying to mend things between Darren and his wife Ebony (Sherika Woodard) – feeling guilty about the fact that they were the ones who brough the two of them together –  that they have slowly stopped having the urge to be intimate with each other. Of course, the familiarity of having loved someone for so long has made their relationship less about that. But being in a sexless marriage has started to bother Jamal, despite Shavonne not paying much heed to it. 

We are thus offered elaborate scenes where Jamal lies down next to his wife each day, but doesn’t get any. The repetitiveness of these sequences, just to accentuate the same point across is just the beginning of the failure of the film. We are also offered nonsensical scenarios of Darren trying to act all cool and suave, not to make his character feel concrete, but to establish the moral dilemma that Jamal might find himself in when he is the one who called Darren out for his flamboyant persona or the hints of infidelity that he exhibits.

So, as fate would befall on Jamal, his newest case brings him to a crossroads with Jada Campbell (Bre Hassan), who is trying to get benefits out of the state now as her husband, Xavier (Michael Gordon III) is in a wheelchair, unable to do basic tasks as moving on his own. Jamal is fortright about getting Jada what she rightfully owns, but working together on the case slowly develops a wiff of temptation between the two, and Jamal gives in. The two of them end up having sex, not once, but twice, before Jamal realizes that the relationship will not just jeopardize her career, but also his marriage to the love of his life, Shovonne. 

What follows the conflict is a pretty predictable and standard Fatal Attraction-esque scenario that is handled with such loosely bound execution that you’d want the film to say something, anything at all. It’s a fairly pulpy premise that could have been elevated with either an unhinged approach to the ‘bombshell’ director Lockridge plants in his narrative, or an erotica that is at least sexy. The final product here is so tired and uninteresting that even as a casual viewer, you can pinpoint flaws that rig the very centre of “Betray: Thirst.”

The acting is sloppy, and the writing so half-baked that an unapologetically funny approach would have made it more interesting. The characters are caricatuish with them either being horny or frustated with the vulnerable state they have trapped themselves in. There is no in-between. Sequences of characters sighing into the abyss keep berriting your mind, even though there are only 111 minutes to kill.

The dialogues are dull and are delivered with such a languid pace that you feel bad for the actors who have to say them. Director Lockridge, who also helms the camera here, fails to give any sort of visual grammar to his enterprise, and the score just forces you to feel a certain way when you don’t. Overall, even if you wish to consider watching the film to witness stories that feel grounded, drawing from real-life experiences, there are far better choices out there.  

Read More: 20 Great Psychosexual Movies That Are Worth Your Time

Betray: Thirst (2025) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Betray: Thirst (2025) Movie Cast: Kenon Walker, Everett Anderson, Kenneth Farmer, Jai Johnson, Bre Hassan, Sherika Woodard
Betray: Thirst (2025) Movie Release Date: 6th May, 2025 | Runtime: | Genre: 1h 51m,  Mystery & Thriller/Drama/Romance