Caught

2015
Written by Marcy Holland
Directed by Maggie Kiley

Two characters from True Blood kidnap a girl from the Jem movie as a prank, but soon one dumb thing snowballs into a bunch of bad choices and horrible consequences spiraling all over the place. It all adds up to a great little Lifetime flick that deserves a bigger audience. Really, films like this are one of the reasons why I subject myself to the constant stream of Lifetime movies, there is always nuggets of gold hidden in the mountains of madness.

Allie (Stefanie Scott) is a track star, but things aren’t going her way. She’ failing history, so she’s off the team. She’s a busy waitress who gets tips that just say “HOPELESS”. Her mom is also broke and taking up extra waitressing shifts as well. Allie has a boyfriend, who is much older than her and she rarely gets to seem him. Her mother disapproves because the guy is so old. But the end of a bad day becomes worse when she is kidnapped!

Sisters Sabrina (Anna Camp) and Paige (Amelia Rose Blaire) are the kidnappers, who tie her up, blindfold her, threaten her, and lock her in an attic. The pair are ecstatic and full of giggles once away from her. Sabrina is the more danger seeking, Paige a bit more reserved and level-headed, talking Sabrina down when she tries to get creative on how to torture Allie a bit more before letting her go. Sabrina is miffed that Allie is sleeping with her husband, and this is to warn her off. Suddenly said husband Justin (Sam Page) comes home. He was supposed to be away on a business trip, so uh-oh!


Sabrina tries to untie Allie, but Allie kicks and injures her, so Sabrina knocks her out. As Sabrina cleans up a cut she got when she was kicked, Allie’s blindfold comes off and she sees Paige. Paige and Sabrina then try to make a concoction to knock her out while Allie tries to get free, escapes from her bonds, and disappears inside the attic. By now Allie’s mom has noticed she’s disappeared, and sends a cop friend to go talk to Justin to see if he knows anything.

Justin finds Allie and thinks she’s stalking him while she accuses him of kidnapping her and being crazy, then Sabrina finds them and chases Allie down, Allie breaking her leg as she tries to escape. Justin sides with his wife, Allie is now in the tub screaming as they panic and try to think of what to do. Just then the cop friend arrives to look around, Sabrina almost gets him to go away before he hears Allie screaming, and one push down the stairs later he’s no longer a threat to arresting everyone here and now.

At this point Paige is freaking out and tries to let Sabrina go, but is interrupted by Sabrina (who is preparing to dig up the garden to hide the bodies), and Allie accidentally stabs Paige when Paige tries to help her. Things keep getting worse, Sabrina’s solutions as each problem comes up get more deadly and dangerous, while Allie’s attempts to escape just end up bringing more pain to her.

Caught started out with good pacing and kept on pumping the throttle, the ever-expanding problems came fast and each became deflected by Sabrina and her scheming. Allie turns out to be more of an innocent victim than it appears at first, but she runs the danger of repeating what her mom did (after seeing her older boyfriend, her mom warns her that one bad mistake could lead to consequences for the rest of her life, implying that she made a mistake with her choice of whatever boyfriend/husband was Allie’s father). Anna Camp is brilliant as ever, as proven time and again she can play a great villain who has become unhinged, throwing all the weight of her failing marriage and family planning on Allie, despite much of it being Justin’s fault at first and then Sabrina’s poor choices of “revenge”. As things collapse around her, she struggles harder to hold on to what she has, at the cost of anyone who gets in her way, even her own family.

Unlike some Lifetime films where I play the movie and my mind may wander, Caught caught my attention the whole time it ran (see what I did there?!?), and as things were going down, it began to get unclear on just what would be the final fates of the main characters. It really could have gone in any direction, the danger growing exponentially enough that any result wouldn’t seem out inconceivable. Caught is a great ride and worth tracking down, don’t wait for it to show up again on Lifetime if you can see it somewhere else!

Rated 8/10 (that logo again, featured player, the mom, the tip, the cheater, mixing up a potion, the random good guy, positive test)

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