Cleaning Out The DVR: The Serial Killer Seduced Me (dir by Dylan Vox)


The Lifetime film, The Serial Killer Seduced Me, tells the story of Chloe (Tess Cline).

Chloe is currently working as a nurse at an assisted living facility but what she truly wants is to be recognized as an artist.  One of her patients, Lillian (Kris Ann Russell), is always encouraging Chloe to pursue her artistic dreams.  In fact, Lillian has quite a collection of art herself.  She gives Chloe the key to her house so that Chloe can get some of her paintings.  When Chloe goes to the house, she finds a painting of a young woman.  What we know but what Chloe doesn’t know is that someone murdered the woman after she posed for the painting.

Speaking of murder, someone smothers Lillian in her sleep.  Chloe is so upset over Lillian’s death that she barely pays attention when her agent, Chase (Allen Williamson), tells her that he needs some of her paintings.  Chloe signs a contract that Chase pushes in front of her.  Later, while Chloe is still in shock over Lillian’s death, she gets a call from Chase informing her that he’s set up a show for her at a local gallery.

Excited, Chloe goes to the gallery and discovers that not only has Chase hung several of her paintings in the gallery but that everyone also seems to like them.  However, the painting that everyone loves appears to be the painting of the woman that Chloe found at Lillian’s house.  Chloe is stunned, especially after a man approaches her and claims to be the husband of the woman in the painting.  The man shouts that the woman was murdered and then he goes outside and promptly gets run over by a car that ignores a stop sign.

Chloe doesn’t know what to do.  She doesn’t want to take credit for the painting but she signed a contract with Chase and Chase, when he finds out that Chloe didn’t actually paint the painting, proceeds to blackmail her.  Chase says that he needs more paintings and that they need to be like the one that everyone liked, the one that Chloe didn’t actually paint.  A trip back to Lillian’s place leads to the discovery of the paintings of several women.  Chloe notices that the paintings are numbered and she deduces that all the women in the paintings have been murdered.

Chase doesn’t care.  He’s got paintings to sell and he want Chloe to sit down for an interview with a journalist named Ariadne (Kristi Murdock).  Chloe, however, is now more concerned with Luke (Ali Zahiri), who is Lillian’s son and who is quite a fan of her art.  Chloe knows that there’s a good chance that Luke might be the murderer but she’s also feeling attracted to him.

Uh-oh!

I enjoyed the Lifetime film, largely because it thoroughly embraced the melodrama in the way that the best Lifetime films often do.  I enjoyed the film’s satiric look at the art world and, even more importantly, Chloe’s outfits were all to die for.  From the minute she showed up with her thigh high boots and her portfolio of pretentious paintings, I knew Chloe was going to be a character to whom I could relate.  The solution to the film’s mystery didn’t really make much sense but …. eh.  I wasn’t expecting it to make any sense so it didn’t really matter.

This film was originally entitled Picture Her Dead, which personally I think was a better and more appropriate title than The Serial Killer Seduced Me.

 

What Lisa Watched Last Night #209: Revenge For Daddy (dir by Tom Shell)


Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime premiere, Revenge for Daddy!

Why Was I Watching It?

Well, first off, you may not have heard but the entire world is kind of shut down right now so basically, watching TV is about as wild as my Thursday night is going to get….

Then again, I would have watched it even if we weren’t on lockdown.  It’s a new Lifetime movie and you know that I love those!  I especially love Lifetime movies that have words like “Fatal,” “Wrong,” or “Revenge” in the title.  Those are usually the best.

What Was It About?

It’s been a tough year for Lisa (Sarah Butler).  Her father died under mysterious circumstances.  Her boyfriend, Bobby (Charlie Gorilla), got drunk and slept with one her co-workers, Bethany (Eva Hamilton), leaving Lisa suddenly single.  Her mother (Joely Fisher) keeps pressuring her to start dating again.  Finally, just to keep her mom happy, Lisa photoshops herself into a picture with a handsome man on a dating site.  All she wants to do is send it to her mom so her mom will get off her back.  Instead, it leads to the man in the picture, Michael (Clayton James), tracking her down.  Soon, Lisa and Michael are dating for real!

But can Michael be trusted?  It turns out that Michael has a somewhat shady past which includes at least one mysterious death.  Michael says he’s innocent but when one of Lisa’s co-workers shows up dead (and, even worse, when it appears that someone is trying to frame Lisa for the murder), Lisa starts to have her doubts….

What Worked?

This one was fun.  I mean, let’s be honest.  When it comes to most Lifetime melodramas, you’re not exactly looking for a realistic examination of all the world’s troubles.  You’re looking for twists and turns and melodrama, preferably taking place in a nice house where everyone is either handsome or pretty and everyone wears nice clothes.  Revenge For Daddy delivered all of that with the style.

The cast was uniformly good and the film actually did a pretty good job of keeping you guessing as to whether or not Michael was who he said he was.  The film even managed to work in a few moments of intentional humor in the middle of all the drama and the mystery.  All in all, this was one an enjoyable and entertaining Lifetime film.

I really liked the office where Lisa and her friends worked.  It was nicely designed and, even more importantly, it didn’t seem like anyone really had to do much work.  It seems like it would be a fun place from which to collect a paycheck.

What Didn’t Work?

It all worked!  To repeat, this was an enjoyable and entertaining Lifetime film.

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

The main character was named Lisa!  You don’t get much more like me than that.

Lessons Learned

There were definitely lessons learned but I can’t really share them without spoiling the film’s ending.  So, you’ll have to watch and learn for yourself!