Amanda, however, is awaiting trial for animal cruelty: in a grisly show of mercy, she euthanised a horse and became a social pariah as a consequence. She confides to Lily that she is unable to feel any emotion. Her choice of confidante is a judicious one as Lily also holds little regard for society’s rules, frequently bending the truth and showing no remorse when she is caught out.
Lily lives with her mother and deeply unpleasant stepfather, Mark (Paul Sparks). Her relationship with him is one of low-key hostility and barely sustained tolerance. Mark has a short fuse, but is mostly smug and passive aggressive, never letting Lily forget whose house she lives in. Lily is more direct, drinking Mark’s expensive wine and sabotaging his beloved bike. Their repeated clashes prompt Lily and Amanda to conclude that the only logical course of action here is murder. So in the classic Hitchcock tradition, they plot a motive-free, alibi-reliant demise and recruit the services of local drug dealer Tim (Anton Yelchin) to help out.