Daniel Ringey | Through the Shattered Lens

Ah, Hollywood!

Hollywood is where people to go to become a star. It’s also where people go to marry a star or, depending on which movie you’re watching, maybe get murdered by a star. And, of course, it’s also where every unbalanced stalker goes so that they can …. well, stalk a star!

Sam Austin (Jon Prescott) is a star. He’s a star of the magnitude that merely speaking to him can cause TMZ to suddenly materialize outside of your house. Sam Austin’s living the dream and if you have any doubt, you should just see his house. I mean, this is a Lifetime film and it’s pretty much established that everyone in the world of Lifetime lives in a mansion but, even by the standards of the typical Lifetime home, Sam has got one impressive house! I especially liked his pool, which small but stylish.

Still, even with the nice house and the movie stardom, Sam’s life is not perfect. The dream is occasionally a nightmare. For instance, his wife was mysterious murdered about a year ago and the perpetrator has never been caught! It’s assumed that his wife was murdered by someone who may have developed an obsession with Sam….

Someone like Lynette (Hannah Barefoot)! Lynette lives with her mom and never seem to be happy, unless she’s watching Sam Austin on TV or following Sam around California. When Lynette approaches Sam’s son, Jack (Brady Bond), and tries to convince him to go off with her, the only thing that keeps her from pulling off the perfect kidnapping is a teacher named Casey (Sarah Roemer). After Casey chases off Lynette, Sam is so thankful that he hires her to be his son’s home school teacher!

Suddenly, Casey’s a celebrity and she even gets her own “5 Things You Need To Know About” profile. The paparazzi are asking her questions. Everyone wants to know if Casey and Sam are now a couple and it doesn’t take long before they are.

Uh-oh. Lynette’s not going to be happy about that….

Deadly Hollywood Obsession was a lot of fun. There’s a neat little twist about two-third through the film, one that reveals that none of the characters are quite who we originally assumed them to be. Jon Prescott and Sarah Roemer are both well-cast as Sam and Casey but the film is truly stolen by Hannah Barefoot, who really tears into the role of the unstable yet not totally unsympathetic Lynette. Barefoot has been in quite a few Lifetime films and she plays Lynette with the right combination of anger and sadness. You get the feeling that, even if she wont admit it, Lynette secretly knows that her obsession has pretty much ruined her life but she’s now in so deep that she really has no other option but to continue down her self-destructive path.

And, it bears repeating, Sam’s home is absolutely gorgeous!

Seriously, don’t discount the power of a nice house.

(Hi there! So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR. Seriously, I currently have 166 things recorded! I’ve decided that, on February 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not. So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR! Will I make it? Keep checking this site to find out! I recorded Fatherly Obsession off of the Lifetime Movie Network on December 26th, 2017!)

Alyssa Haroldosn (Molly McCook) is a stand-up comedian who has recently moved from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Los Angeles.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, I’ve never been to Wyoming, though I did once live in Colorado and I imagine that’s kind of like being in Wyoming. Still, I imagine that there’s probably more opportunities for a comedian in L.A. than in Jackson Hole. Then again, it also seems like there would be considerably less competition in Wyoming than in California. Actually, if Alyssa really wanted to go some place with no competition, she should have moved to Colorado. Nobody’s funny in Colorado…

But, to get back to the movie, it turns out that Alyssa didn’t just move for her career. She also moved because 1) her family was way too clingy and 2) she had a stalker. When we first meet her, she’s living in a cheap motel room and calling 911 nearly every night. But then she’s lucky enough to meet a handsome realtor named Oliver (Jack Turner). Oliver not only appreciates a good fish taco but he also knows of a good, empty apartment!

There’s only three issues with the apartment:

It’s in Oliver’s building and, if you live near Oliver, that means that you’re somehow obligated to share a fish taco with him. Seriously, Oliver never shuts up about his love for fish tacos.
The apartment is empty because the previous tenant — who looked just like Alyssa — was found dead in her bathtub.
The landlord, Robert (Ted McGinley), is a mentally unbalanced stalker who is desperately looking for someone to take the place of his daughter!

You can probably already guess what happens but Fatherly Obsession does add a few new elements to the typical Lifetime stalking formula. When Robert — like all Lifetime stalkers — spies on Alyssa’s apartment, he doesn’t just watch her on his computer. No, Robert uses virtual reality glasses! What that means is that, at random moments, Robert materializes in Alyssa’s apartment and watches her go about her day. It’s a nicely creepy twist to the usual Lifetime formula.

The biggest problem with Fatherly Obsession is that Alyssa’s a comedian and, as a result, the dialogue is often excessively quippy. I spent the first half of the movie worried that Alyssa was going to spend the whole movie almost exclusively speaking in one liners. Then Oliver started talking about fish tacos and I was just like, “Oh my God! MAKE IT STOP!”

But the film got better as it went along. Though her character sometimes drove me crazy, Molly McCook did a good job of capturing both the pain of being a stalked and the difficult of recovery. Ted McGinley was also incredibly creepy as Robert. Fatherly Obsession was a typical Lifetime stalking film but it had enough interesting moments to make it worthwhile for fans of the genre.