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…


Most of the town is surprised that Angela is back, even the mysterious creepy guy in a utility truck hanging out at the mother’s funeral is surprised. We find out in a bit his name is Curt (Ty Olsson) and he has some sort of history with Angela. Bad history where he ended up in jail, but now he appears to have his life back on track.

Angela wants to finally bond with Shelley now that they are both adults and agrees to be a surrogate for her and her husband, David. David seems distracted, and he’s played by an actor (Steven Krueger) who could easily play a great douchebag character, the movie knows that and uses it to its advantage. This might be one of the best parts of the film that isn’t a spoiler, David’s whole arc that is largely seperate from Angela and Shelley for plot reasons and yet it all fits and even makes sense.

Angela has her own agenda and her own life, she obviously left for a reason and people like Curt who stuck around and seem to hope she’ll end up settling there don’t factor in her years of experience of doing and going where she wants. Curt seems to think he’s stuck in a Hallmark Channel movie where the lead lady returns to her hometown and falls in loves and stays, but he should have checked his TV Guide Channel (I almost wrote TV Guide referring to the magazine, which shows how old I am!) We all know the Curt thing isn’t going to go the way he hopes, especially with the secrets revealed about their past. He’s that special kind of guy who can’t take hints even when applied with giant hammers.

The topics of secrets is one that Angela grabs a hold of, while sticking around pregnant with Shelley’s baby she’s planning on writing a tell-all about all the secrets of their small town. Exactly the kind of thing that would make enemies if we were introduced to other characters who had dark secrets besides the ones we already know about. A Surrogate’s Nightmare decides to keep it simple, so things all end up pretty much the way you’d expect they go. If you are in a Lifetime mood, this will scratch your itch, but it isn’t one of their special movies that you need to track down right this instance.

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