Film
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
A Tyler Perry ensemble drama about two middle-aged women—one wealthy, one working-class—who escape their families' crises on a cross-country road trip. It's soapy, earnest, and relationship-focused, with Perry's trademark blend of melodrama and moral clarity. For viewers who want their drama emotional and unironic, without apology.
If you liked this
Steel Magnolias1989
Women of different ages and backgrounds supporting each other through life's upheavals, with genuine warmth and devastating moments. A template for ensemble female dramas that actually earned their emotional beats.
But The pacing is slow and the tragedy telegraphed; some find the sentimentality suffocating rather than moving.

Waiting to Exhale1995
Four Black women navigating love, careers, and friendship with humour and honesty. It captures the same spirit of female solidarity and refusal to apologize for wanting better.
But The tone shifts wildly between comedy and melodrama, and the male characters are often one-dimensional.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood2002
Generational female friendship, family secrets, and a cross-generational journey to repair what's broken. It understands that women's lives are full of contradictions and that love isn't simple.
But It's very much a product of early-2000s prestige drama—careful, tasteful, sometimes emotionally cautious.

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Fried Green Tomatoes1991
Both centre on older women reclaiming their lives and discovering that friendship between women can be redemptive in ways romantic love cannot; both use a journey as spiritual reckoning.
A woman over 50 discovering she has agency and worth outside of her marriage; two women whose friendship sustains them through decades. The road-trip-as-self-discovery is here too, but wrapped in mystery and feminist rage that Perry's film keeps more genteel.
But It's a Southern Gothic underneath the folksy charm, with violence and loss that the film doesn't always acknowledge as such. Some viewers find the tonal shifts jarring.

More like this (8)
Acrimony2018
Another Perry film that dives into marriage, betrayal, and the violence of unmet expectations. If you respond to his particular brand of domestic melodrama, this escalates the stakes considerably.
But Perry's dialogue can feel stilted, and the plot depends on coincidences that test credibility.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back1998
A woman reclaiming her life and sexuality after years of self-abnegation. It's lighter than *The Family That Preys* but shares the same investment in middle-aged women as protagonists of their own stories.
But The romance feels rushed, and the film doesn't wrestle with its own glossy surface-level treatment of serious themes.

Passion2013
Another Perry film about professional women, workplace betrayal, and the gaps between public success and private wreckage. His obsessions are consistent; this one leans harder into thriller mechanics.
But The melodrama tips into camp, and the resolution feels convenient rather than earned.

Dreamgirls2006
Ambition, friendship, and the cost of fame among Black women in entertainment. It has similar themes of loyalty tested by success and secret resentments bubbling to the surface.
But The narrative privileges men's choices over women's agency, and the film occasionally feels more invested in spectacle than character depth.

Why Did I Get Married?2007
Perry explores marriage, infidelity, and whether commitment can survive betrayal. It's blunt about the things couples don't say to each other until they're forced to.
But The solutions feel too tidy, and some of the character arcs depend on forgiveness that didn't feel fully earned.

Beloved1998
A difficult, ambitious adaptation about trauma, motherhood, and the bonds between women that survive impossible circumstances. It reaches toward something mythic that most dramas won't attempt.
But It's demanding and haunting in ways that can feel inaccessible; the fragmented structure and supernatural elements alienate viewers looking for straightforward narrative.

Krisha2016
Both are films made by their directors from personal conviction rather than market calculation, about family rupture and whether love can hold things together. Both insist on the spiritual dimensions of domestic failure.
A semi-autobiographical film about family, addiction, and the possibility of forgiveness and grace. It's rawer and more formally adventurous than Perry's work, but shares his belief that ordinary people's moral struggles matter and deserve art.
But It's austere and slow, shot in digital video without professional polish. The narrative is fragmented and can feel more like documentation than drama. Not at all entertaining in a traditional sense.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom2020
Both explore how family (biological or chosen) becomes the battleground where larger social failures get played out; both understand that betrayal within intimacy cuts deepest.
An adaptation of August Wilson's play about power, exploitation, and the moral cost of making art under racism. The stakes are different but the emotional register is similar—people in a room with deep knowledge of each other's failures, secrets, and desires.
But It's almost entirely dialogue-driven and set-bound. If you need plot momentum and visual spectacle, this will feel like a filmed stage play, because it is one. The ending is bleak and resolves nothing.

People
Cast
Alfre WoodardAlice Pratt
Sanaa LathanAndrea
Rockmond DunbarChris
KaDee StricklandJillian Cartwright
Cole HauserWilliam Cartwright
Robin GivensAbby
Tyler PerryBen
Kathy BatesCharlotte Cartwright
Sebastian SiegelNick- Santana PruittChristopher
Kaira AkitaRobin
Directing
- Tyler PerryDirector
- Roger M. BobbFirst Assistant Director
- Gail HunterScript Supervisor
- Angi BonesSecond Assistant Director
Writing
- Tyler PerryWriter
Production
- Shantell FancherAssistant Production Coordinator
- Joseph P. GenierCo-Producer
- Roger M. BobbCo-Producer
- Donna SloanExecutive In Charge Of Production
- Michael PaseornekExecutive Producer
- Kim RonstadtFirst Assistant Accountant
- Karen GorodetzkyLine Producer
- Lisa CollinsPayroll Accountant
- Emily RicePost Production Accountant
- Liam HearnePost Production Accountant
- Reuben CannonProducer
- Tyler PerryProducer
- Deborah EvansProduction Accountant
- Steve CubineProduction Coordinator
- Joseph P. GenierUnit Production Manager