The Maid cleans up Lifetime!

The Maid Lifetime

I can’t take a movie about maids seriously unless they wear stereotypical French maid outfits…


If you ever thought Lifetime would eventually run out of people to be obsessed with other people and then everything comes up murder, you can’t be more wrong. There is an endless supply of jobs for people to get obsessed with other people, hence The Maid bringing out someone who is close to the family but not part of the family. Hey, at least it isn’t the internet this time!

When 19-year-old Laura receives disturbing messages and threats, she believes she’s being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. But when the pranks follow her 3,000 miles home, she quickly finds out it is someone she’s never even met who has a bizarre reason for wanting her dead.

The Maid stars Kathryn Newton, Fay Masterson, Kenton Duty, Doug Haley, Castille Landon, and Lee Broda. It’s directed by Darin Scott (Megachurch Murder) and written by Christine Conradt (So much Lifetime it’s crazy!) Christine Conradt as the writer is pretty much a guarantee that this will be awesome, even if you didn’t think the topic of a maid becoming obsessed with a high school student and then going all murder spree on her wasn’t already awesome. Though I’d sort of question your interest in Lifetime movies if that was the case! Until I actually watch the film I won’t know how the power dynamic is going to play out, because situations where a rich family has a maid will usually cause me to sympathize with the maid, sometimes even if she tries to kill people.

The Maid premieres Saturday, May 28th on Lifetime!

via Lifetime!

Megachurch Murder (Review)

Megachurch Murder

Megachurch Murder
2015
Written by Kendall Clark
Directed by Darin Scott

Megachurch Murder
Megachurch Murder is a pretty keen take on Hamlet played in the world of church politics, complete with a ton of Shakespeare references tossed in. Hannah Spears (Shanica Knowles) is our Hamlet, her father, Hamilton Spears (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), winds up mysteriously dead, and the new church leader both announces a massive expansion of the church and also moves in on Hamilton’s widow, Martha Spears (Tamala Jones).

It’s important to note that Shaker Point, the church, is not a megachurch. The megachurch is the concept that new church leader Clay King (Michael Beach) proposes after his ascent to power. He’s supported by his son Marcus King (Corbin Bleu), while black sheep son Oliver King (Romeo Miller) is assigned to look after Hannah. Hannah has not taken her father’s death well, as highlighted by her showing up drunk to the church service that announces the expansion and ranting at the audience about disrespecting her father’s memory. No one takes Hannah seriously due to her constant drunken state (even Hannah), until she discovers a flash drive with a video message from Hamilton Spears to her detailing the shady goings on in the church leadership, and how he fears he’s in danger. But that drunk Hannah spills her wine all over the flash drive, meaning she has to enlist her computer-savy friend Harlow Gillman (Santana Dempsey ) to recover the message, which will take most of the film.
Megachurch Murder
While that waits, Hannah tips her hand a few times with her suspicions, leading Clay to target her for elimination. Marcus’s scheme to drug her fails (Hannah has decided to remain sober during her investigation, but only pretend to be drunk so no one suspects her, thus she doesn’t ingest anything), and his attempts to grab her in church in front of her mother causes Hannah to fight back and Marcus to fall to his death off the balcony. At this point Hannah’s mom Martha suspects Clay knows more than he’s letting on about Hamilton’s death, and soon all the Spears and King family members are confronting each other on a bridge, and they all won’t get out alive (Though the body count is a bit lower than in actual Hamlet!)
Megachurch Murder
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Megachurch Murder brings the unholy spirit to Lifetime!

Megachurch Murder Lifetime

And the Lord sayth: “Don’t ask me about the Bill Cosby allegations!”


Murder, church, and megas, the three things that combine to make a brand new Lifetime Channel film! Megachurch Murder is the first “Mega-” movie I’ve seen that’s not a monster movie nor a movie about a blue supervillain. What it does cover is megachurches. Now, I went to several churches growing up, usually black churches. Most of them were small churches with maybe 200 worshipers at most. The whole “megachurch” thing just seems so weird to me. Why would you want to be part of thousands of people, going to a church where it’s highly unlikely that you would even know the pastor, and so big you just get lost in the crowd? It seems like the opposite of what I’d consider church, but that’s just me. Everyone worships differently, and if you like megachurches, more power to you. Now with that out of the way, let’s bring on the murder!

After popular and charismatic megachurch leader Hamilton Spears commits suicide, his teenage daughter Hannah’s life goes off the rails. The only thing keeping her together is her new boyfriend, Oliver. When she finds evidence pointing to a church conspiracy and threats toward her father, she is determined to prove that Hamilton’s death was murder not suicide. As she gets closer to the truth, she realizes her own mother may be involved in her father’s murder…and that the boy she is falling in love with is the son of his killer.

You got to love crazy murder stories, this one will probably be completely nuts. It sounds great, and the premise allows them to do some really dramatic stuff. Here’s hoping for a solid winner! Megachurch Murder stars Tamala Jones, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Michael Beach, Shanica Knowles, Romeo Miller, Corbin Bleu, and Dawnn Lewis.

Megachurch Murder is directed by Darin Scott (House Party: Tonight’s the Night) and written by Kendall Clark (their only credit). Megachurch Murder premieres February 7th on Lifetime Channel!

via Lifetime/Toni Scott

From yearbook ban to SyFy to the slammer

It’s just one of those years for Sydney Spies. First she explodes across the internet when her racy yearbook photo is banned from her high school yearbook, a shot that featured her not wearing much clothing. This lead to lots of media attention. And as she’s an aspiring actress/model, it also lead to a role in the upcoming SyFy channel original feature American Horror House, airing on Halloween! It’s sure to be a smash hit with a title that doesn’t even have a monster name.

But don’t think this story is all happiness and roses and unicorn poo, because Sydney Spies and her mom Denise “Miki” Spies were arrested! There was a party at the Spies place filled with alleged underage drinkers, and when the cops came to break it up, Miki Spies tried to herd some of the underage kids inside the house (other kids ran and jumped over fences!) Then Miki Spies refused to give identification and tried to run from the cops. As providing a place for underage kids to drink is a crime, she got arrested after a brief scuffle. Sydney Spies allegedly tried to block the police from entering the home, and then resisted arrest when they handcuffed her! And she tried to escape from a police car! So she gets thrown in the slammer as well.

Now, we all do dumb things as a kid, but this is an increasingly media-centric world, hiding from dumb things you did as a kid is going to get harder. And the reality tv lifestyle also doesn’t encourage good behavior, because that doesn’t make headlines. Whether Sydney Spies succeeds or fails in her attempt to become a legitimate actress will probably not be affected by her having drinks at 18, but fighting with cops is the sort of thing that might hint you aren’t easy to work with. I hope Sydney Spies does do better, and this is just the last bump on the road of her life’s adventures. But she’ll probably just be on some terrible reality show next year.

Sooo…. be sure to watch American Horror House on SyFy! Where the horror is underage drinking.

via The Durango Herald
Facebook gallery of Sydney Spies photoshoot heresci

Sydney Spies
Sydney Spies Arrested

American Horror House plot:

Sigma Delta Phi is one of the most prestigious sororities located on the East Coast. Home to an international collective of artistic students from the Stendhal University of the Creative and Performing Arts, it’s a sorority steeped in a rich, untainted history. Nonetheless, dark secrets dwell beneath the cracks of Sigma Delta Phi. Some are spoken – rumors of ghosts and other supernatural occurrences. Others are ignored (the mysterious cries residents hear every third Sunday, the odd spectral indentations at the end of the bed and the seemingly ageless sorority house mother). When Joanna, a new student dies under mysterious circumstances, the police rule it as an accident (others blame the ghost). One year later though, the sorority is still reeling from this ghastly blemish on their impeccable record. When freshman Daria arrives at the school and joins the sorority, she’s heard all the rumors of ghosts and wants to prove that it’s all a hoax. What she discovers is that Joanna’s death was actually the result of a Hazing gone wrong (not ghosts – it was a cover-up). The problem is, Joanna is now haunting the sorority and she’s out for revenge on the sorority on the eve of her death on Halloween night one year ago. With the sorority’s annual Halloween bash in full swing, the sister begin to die horrible deaths one after another – it’s up to Daria and her fellow “sister” Sarah to figure out how to put Joanna’s spirit at rest before they end up her final victims. That is, if the grueling hazing ritual they’ve been sucked into doesn’t kill them first.

Darin Scott directs, and Morgan Fairchild also stars!