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…