The Stalker Club (Review)
The Stalker Club
2017
Written by Barbara Kymlicka
Directed by Doug Campbell
Lifetime does slashers! Throw in a dash of The Internet Will Murder You, toss in a pile of stalking, and pour in a bunch of actual person in a mask killing teens with a knife, then blend it together and top it with a “Lifetime” cherry, and you got The Stalker Club, which proves that Lifetime movies can be any genre they want. For those of you thinking an actual slasher movie would be out of place on Lifetime, this network consistently puts out films with high body counts and crazed obsessives following around innocent teens, this is the natural progression!
The Stalker Club opens with a riff on the opening of Scream except the masked stalker doesn’t speak and the 80s girl dies by falling down the stairs while hinting she sort of knows whats going on. But it’s too late for her and too late for us because the rest of the film takes place 30 years later! Modern day opens with a montage of the five main teen characters doing a slow-motion cool walk complete with a name title cards for each one, a handy thing to do to get you up to speed with the characters quickly so the stalking and the clubbing can begin. We got Ashley (Kelcie Stranahan), our heroine; Darren (JT Neal), Ashley’s handsome boyfriend; Chloe (Alex Frnka), the bad girl who channels Denise Richards; Mark (Paul Karmiryan), the jock who likes to joke; and Sadie (Lora McHugh), the sensitive goth. The clique is sort of weird because Chloe and Mark are the popular kids, while Darren is new to school and befriended Mark, while Sadie is presented as Chloe’s best friend but doesn’t seem to fit at all. Ashley is the newest one of the group, Chloe doesn’t seem to like her and Ashley has basically abandoned all her former friends to hang out with this cool crowd. Ashley also is mad at her mom (Maeve Quinlan) for daring to have a boyfriend when it’s only been two years since her dad died in a car accident. Seriously, Ashley takes some warming up to before we don’t wish she gets stalked to death.
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Alex Frnka, Barbara Kymlicka, Doug Campbell, Kelcie Stranahan, Lifetime, Maeve Quinlan
A Surrogate’s Nightmare (Review)
A Surrogate’s Nightmare
2017
Written by Darcy Meyers
Directed by Vic Sarin
A Surrogate’s Nightmare tries, but it can’t escape the fact that it is just pedestrian fare for Lifetime Channel. If you’ve spent decades watching the Lifetime Original Movies and the various twists and turns, you’ll be ahead of the curve here. There are lots of secrets that characters keep alluding too even though some of them seem pretty obvious, most of them don’t get explained until we are near the end of the movie.
Still, the film isn’t bad, there are good performances from the leads, it’s still a serviceable Lifetime movie. I think I’ve just been spoiled by all the exceptional Lifetime films that come out maybe 3-4 a year, and just need to return to the joy of fun drama movies that aren’t the kind you tell people about later and they don’t believe you. You got murder, mystery, someone carrying their sister’s child, a stalker, and drama drama drama.
Shelley’s mother killed by a mysterious stranger while screaming that she’s sorry the second the credits end. As this mother was earlier buying clothes for a grandbaby that Shelley (Emily Tennant) is unable to carry, this mom seemed like trouble from the beginning. To further continue that thread, Shelley has a much older estranged sister named Angela (Poppy Montgomery) who the mother rarely mentions. Angela is much more worldly than Shelley, she left their small town to be a writer in New York City and travel the world. There is obvious tension with the memories of their mother, and Angela is 15 years older than Shelley. Hmmm…
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Darcy Meyers, Emily Tennant, Lifetime, Poppy Montgomery, Steven Krueger, Ty Olsson, Vic Sarin
Stalked by My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (Review)
Stalked by My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge
2018
Written and directed by Doug Campbell
When you are stalked by yourself but yourself is also a doctor
After waiting far too long, Dr. Albert Beck is back again as the doctor who just loved love so much he would kill anyone who got in the way of his demented fantasies. Stalked by My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge not only brings back Dr. Beck, it also brings back the Green family from the first movie. Sophie Green (Brianna Joy Chomer) and her mother Adrienne (Deborah Zoe) are back, along with the ever-useless father, Jim (Jon Briddell). Sophie has returned in Goth Form, dark hair, full of nightmares about her time with Beck. But Beck is a free man (thanks to seducing a juror!) and has even gotten a teaching job at a university in Arizona. Sophie decides that it is time to be proactive and enrolls in the school as well with the express goal of forcing Beck out.
Driving while goth
It’s a revenge movie, but this time the victim is someone who is actually bad. But in Lifetime fashion, Beck has some tricks of his own for getting revenge on the revenger. And he may have just found the young lady love of his life! Lifetime really went all out here, hats off to Eric Roberts and Doug Campbell for this amazing gift of a movie. Not only is Dr. Beck still having his obsessions and fantasies, but the fantasies have spilled into his reality. Beck spends part of the film arguing with a more sensible version of himself, who in true Dr. Beck style is always drinking and dressed like he’s on a tropical vacation. The fun in the film is so much is fantasy mixed with reality it’s often a guessing game as to whether things are real or going off the rails in Beck’s fantasy mind. Not knowing makes it so much more fun and more crazy as they can get away with goofy stuff, you’ll just think it’s fantasy until it isn’t, or isn’t until it is. Patient’s Revenge is not above trying to quadruple mindfreak you.
Perfectly sane, this happens all the time
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Anna Marie Dobbins, Brianna Joy Chomer, Deborah Zoe, Doug Campbell, Eric Roberts, Lifetime
Stalked by My Doctor: The Return (Review)
Stalked by My Doctor: The Return
2016
Written and directed by Doug Campbell
When last we left Dr. Beck, he was fleeing from unjust prosecution just because he kidnapped and faked the death of a teenager in order to rape her as part of an obsessed stalking spree. A simple misunderstanding, for sure, but for now he’s hiding out in Acapulco, Mexico under the name Dr. Victor Slauson and getting rejected by the visiting ladies his own age, as his lame pickup lines don’t work on them. Fate intervenes again and Dr. Beck is on the beach when an young girl almost drowns, and due to his doctor skills he is able to save her life. He also begins a new obsession, and we’re back on the Lifetime train!
Stalked By My Doctor was great lifetime fun that was full of twists and turns, punctuated by the amazing Eric Roberts bringing to life a character with obvious issues that becomes deadly obsessed with younger women. The fact that Roberts can make such a reprehensible character charismatic to the point where you feel sorry for him is a testament to the man’s acting chops and to the writing and directing from Doug Campbell.
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Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: Doug Campbell, Eric Roberts, Lifetime
Lifetime hopes you don’t get Murdered at 17!
Murder at 17 was the case at 17 and the case at 17 was me at 17!
Don’t you hate it when you have violent rage fits and then a charismatic stranger becomes an obsessed stalker and you may or may not be murdering people, which will totally get in the way of cheerleading? We’ve all been there, which is why Lifetime’s latest flick Murdered at 17 speaks to all of us! It’s part of the ____ at 17 universe, which means it is written by Lifetime’s #1 awesome story-teller, Christine Conradt! That alone guarantees this will be a rocking good time, and that’s before we deal with what actually happens in the movie! Be there for great Lifetime fun!
Pretty and popular, seventeen-year-old Brooke Emerson is the envy of her classmates–and even some of her closest friends. But while she seems to have it all, Brooke has never felt so lost. Ever since she sustained a head injury during a cheerleading stunt the previous year, she’s suffered from a disorder that causes her to fly into uncontrollable, sometimes violent rages. As hard as she tries to keep it together, she finds herself in danger of jeopardizing her seemingly perfect life. It isn’t until Brooke meets Jake, a handsome and charismatic stranger, that she feels like she’s found someone who not only understands her, but accepts her for who she is. As tempting as it is to get swept up in the romance, she can’t help but feel like something in their relationship isn’t quite right. When her best friend is brutally murdered, Brooke has no choice but to depend on her new love…especially because she’s worried that she might be the killer.
Murdered at 17 stars Cristine Prosperi (Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack), Blake Burt (Pitch Perfect 2), Susan Walters (Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son), and Emily Galley (Killing Mommy)
story by Lifetime Queen Christine Conradt (who also wrote the screenplay), Gemma Holdway (I Didn’t Kill My Sister), and Cyndi Pass (The Stepdaughter). It’s directed by Curtis Crawford (Killing Mommy)
Murdered at 17 premieres Sunday, July 8th on Lifetime!
via Lifetime
Categories: Movie News Tags: Christine Conradt, Lifetime
A sperm donor comes collecting on Lifetime’s Killer Single Dad!
Me after watching 24 hours of Lifetime movies!
Of all the upcoming Lifetime movies this summer, Killer Single Dad has the most awesomely insane premise to explain to other people. A guy who donated sperm is now collecting all the children he sired and will kill anyone who gets in his way! It’s like reverse spermjacking…wombjacking if you will! This plot is amazing and promises a creepy, suspenseful Lifetime gold star movie that will pull out all the stops and then keep going!
Newly single Jennifer meets single dad Garrett at her daughter’s preschool. She’s swayed by his charm but in the dark about his goals. Garrett is really a serial sperm donor, now determined to kidnap all of the children he’s sired and unite them all to one big happy family.
Killer Single Dad stars Caitlyn Black (Wyatt Earp’s Revenge), Cameron Jebo (Power Rangers Megaforce), Lily Rains, and Victoria Barabas. It’s story is by Ken Sanders (Teenage Bank Heist), with a screenplay by Daniel West (Psycho Wedding Crasher), and directed by Robert Malenfant (California Schemin)
Killer Single Dad premieres Sunday, July 1st on Lifetime!
via Lifetime
Categories: Movie News Tags: Lifetime
