Starring Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson. Rated 14A. Now playing

Timing is everything, and in the case of No Good Deed, it couldn’t be worse. Much is being made of its story of an African-American man who commits violent acts against women as being uncomfortably close to the NFL’s Ray Rice crisis.

But on its own terms, No Good Deed brings little new to a genre that’s felt tired since Panic Room. About the only new spin on the home-invasion thriller here is that Terri (Taraji P. Henson) has small children, leading to some unintentionally silly scenes of her escape lugging one of those stupidly unwieldy child-seat carriers.

She does her best with the implausible plot, as does Idris Elba, playing an escaped convict and “malignant narcissist” on the run. His Colin has a long, ugly history of beating on girlfriends, but the guy is so damn charming he talks his way into Terri’s house when her husband’s away on the weekend.

The setup, here, is we know he’s a psychopath but Terri is clueless—all the more ludicrous when she’s supposed to be an ex-DA who tried cases of domestic violence. (The effects of mommy brain?) He gives her a story about his car breaking down, and the next thing you know, they’re cracking open a bottle of Cab with her gal pal (a flirtatious Leslie Bibb) and Terri is confessing to him her marital woes.

What makes the whole thing so distasteful is how sexually charged it all is—the way Terri reacts to him taking off his rain-soaked shirt or to catching him watching her undress in her room. Coupled with a few brutal killing scenes, the film might leave you feeling like you need a shower, while watching Terri’s Better Homes and Gardens sanctuary turned into place of terror eventually gets boring.

Alas, there are no insights on domestic abuse or anything else here. Suffice with the message that no good deed goes unpunished. Or just don’t crack a bottle of Cab with a guy until you at least know if he’s a serial killer.