Tag Archives: Erin Cahill

Holidays on the Lens: Random Acts of Christmas (dir by Marita Grabiak)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2019’s Random Acts of Christmas, journalist and single mom Sidney Larkin (Erin Cahill) is assigned to discover who has been committing random acts of Christmas kindness throughout the city.  At first, Sidney doesn’t want to investigate the identity of “Secret Santa,” but then she meets another journalist named Cole (Kevin McGarry), who is also looking into the story.  It’s a love that springs from rivalry except …. have you ever noticed that you never see Cole and Secret Santa in the same place at the same time?

Oh, come on.  We would all love to live in a city with a Secret Santa!

Lifetime Christmas Movie Review: Hometown Christmas (dir by Emily Moss Wilson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

If there’s any lesson to be learned from Lifetime (and, for that matter, Hallmark) Christmas movies, it’s that no one should leave their hometown.

Seriously, everything’s always better in your hometown.  You might find success in the big city.  You might own a nice car.  You might find a huge apartment.  You might even have a well-paying job.  But you’ll never have what you had when you’re living in a small town with good, honest people, some of whom were related to you.

Admittedly, it’s easy for snarky critics like me to poke fun at this idea and the way that it shows up in every single Lifetime Christmas film.  But you know what?  These films have a point.  Every Christmas, my sisters and I get together and we pretty much stay together until the new year.  That’s our Christmas tradition and it’s one that I look forward to every year.  I always know that no matter what’s going on in our own individual lives, we’re all going to be together with the holidays and everything is going to be right with the world.

That’s certainly what I was thinking about as I watched Hometown Christmas, a Lifetime film in which Noelle (Beverly Mitchell) returns to her hometown in Louisiana for the holidays.  There’s not a lot of conflict to be found in Hometown Christmas, but that’s okay.  This is a film in which the nicest people in the world gather in the nicest town in the world and proceed to have the nicest holiday in the world and that’s why the film works.  Save the horror for Halloween.  Save the conflict for …. well, whenever the next election is.  This is a Christmas movie and Christmas movies should make you feel good and happy.

When your name is Noelle, it’s perhaps to be expected that your life is going to revolve around Christmas.  That certainly seems to be the case with the character that Beverly Mitchell plays in this film. One of the nice things about Hometown Christmas is that it never suggests that Noelle had to return to her hometown because she was miserable outside of it.  Instead, Noelle returns because she wants to return.  To be specific, Noelle has returned to stage the live Nativity, a town tradition that was started by her late mother.  Of course, as soon as Noelle returns home, she runs into her old high school boyfriend, Nick (Stephen Colletti).  Nick was going to be a star baseball player but injuries put an end to that.  Things are a little bit awkward between Nick and Noelle at first but it’s not long before they’re working on the Nativity and Nick is proving that he’s grown up a lot since he and Noelle last saw each other.  It’s a sweet relationship.

(Actually, there’s more than just one love story that unfolds over the course of Hometown Christmas.  While Nick and Noelle are getting reacquainted, Noelle’s father (Brian McNamara) is falling for Nick’s mother (Melissa Gilbert).  Meanwhile, Noelle’s brother is newly engaged.)

It was a pleasant Christmas love story and I enjoyed it.  Hometown Christmas is full of the holiday spirit, as any hometown Christmas should be.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Nanny Nightmare (directed by Brian Herzlinger)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Along with everything else that she’s trying to get done this month, Lisa is also trying to make some progress in getting her DVR cleaned out!  She has currently got over 170 things recorded and they’re all going to be erased on January 1st, regardless of whether she’s watched all of them or not.  That’s just the way things work in the Bowman household.  Will she manage to watch everything before the year ends?  Keep checking here to find out!  Anyway, she recorded 2017’s Nightmare Nanny off of the Lifetime Movie Network on June 16th.)

If there’s anything that I’ve learned from watching Lifetime movies, it’s that anyone who actually wants to spend time with children (especially babies) is a fucking psycho.

Seriously, I’ve lost track of the number of Lifetime films that have dealt with a crazy babysitter, nanny, teacher, step-parent, foster child, or an obsessed neighbor.  They all tend to start out the same way, with a large and tastefully decorated house.  Inside the house, a woman thinks that she can have it all: a career, a family, and an outspoken, take-no-bullshit best friend who likes to drink wine.  Sometimes, the woman is a single mother.  If she’s divorced or separated, her husband is still not quite out of the picture.  If she’s widowed, then she still has to deal with a pushy in-law who doesn’t think that she’s spending enough time at home.  If she’s still married, her husband is a jerk who spends all of his time at the office with his attractive administrative assistant.

Married, divorced, or widowed, she has at least two children to take care of.  It’s not easy trying to balance it all.  But then suddenly, someone shows up.  Sometimes, it’s a neighbor who is just a little too friendly.  Sometimes, it’s a nanny who has been hired because of “impeccable” (and forged) credentials.  Whoever it is, they always say that they love children.  They imagine it probably has something to do with their own dysfunctional childhood.  They just want to find a place to belong.  And so, this stranger is hired and entrusted with the safety of the household.

It’s always a mistake.  No one is every truly helpful in a Lifetime movie and the more perfect someone seems to be, the more likely that person is going to turn out to be a raving psycho.  Unfortunately, the characters in Lifetime movies appear to have never watched television.  If they had, they would know better than to trust anyone who claims to love children.

Seriously, children are the worst.

Take Nanny Nightmare, for instance.  Nanny Nightmare follows the formula without deviation and it’s hard not to feel that, if only Lauren (Erin Cahill) had watched a Lifetime movie or two, she could have avoided a lot of drama.  She would have known that her husband (Brady Smith) was being framed when she found pictures of his half-naked assistant on his phone.  She also would have known better than to trust her neighbor, Owen (Jake Manley), when he said that he loved children.

But she did trust him and, before you know it, Owen is installing spy cameras all over the house and trying to trick Lauren into falling in love with him.  Owen has finally found a family and he’s determined to never let them go!  (Hell. he’s even get a candle-lit altar that’s decorated with pictures of Lauren.  That’s determination.)

As I said, it’s pretty much a standard Lifetime movie but I did like Jake Manley’s performance as Owen.  I liked the fact that Owen was obviously psychotic and yet, no one seemed to notice.  Even when he attacks the neighbor’s lawn mower with a baseball bat, no one seems to be particularly perturbed.  Then again, isn’t that the way things usually work in real life?  If you have to choose between asking someone if they’re crazy or just trying to ignore the weirdness all around you, most people will go for the latter option.

That’s one reason to keep an eye out for evidence of a psychotic disposition before you invite someone to come live in your house.  Seriously, if anyone says that they enjoy being around children, get out of there.

Thank you, Lifetime, for reminding us to stay vigilant.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: Nanny Seduction (dir by Emily Moss Wilson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Hi, everyone!  I’ve been cleaning out my DVR over the past week and, today, I’ve been sharing reviews of the film’s that I watched!  I recorded Nanny Seduction off of the Lifetime Movie Network on February 26th!)

Before I talk too much about Nanny Seduction, I want to engage in a little speculation.

First off, looking at the credits, I noticed that several crew members of Nanny Seduction have also been involved with some of the shark films that usually show up on SyFy in the week before the premiere of the latest Sharknado.  That wasn’t a shock.  SyFy and Lifetime movies often tend to be produced by the same companies.  But what I loved about Nanny Seduction is that, in the very first scene, a child is seen receiving a book about sharks for her birthday!  I’m assuming that was an inside joke and I absolutely loved it.

Secondly, I’m going to guess that Nanny Seduction and A Deadly Affair were both filmed at roughly the same time.  Not only do the two films share several actors in common but I’m also pretty sure that the main house in A Deadly Affair was also the main house in Nanny Seduction.  And again, I found that to be very charming.  One of the fun things about watching both Lifetime and SyFy movies is making the connections between them.  It’s actually rather fun to see a familiar face pop up and wonder what their role is going to be this time.  It’s kind of like when Dick Miller shows up in a Roger Corman film or Giovanni Lombardo Radice pops up in one of Michele Soavi’s movies.

As for the film itself, Nanny Seduction pretty much takes the standard Lifetime nanny film to its logical extreme.  Lifetime has a long history of nanny paranoia.  It makes sense, of course.  By hiring a nanny, you’re not only trusting your child with a stranger but, in a way, you’re also admitting that you can’t be two places at once.  You’re admitting that your powers are limited.  Of course, by hiring a nanny — who is inevitably always younger, prettier and more exciting than boring old mommy — you’re running the risk that the nanny will either try to run off with your child or your husband.  Nanny Seduction is one of the first films to suggest that the nanny might do both.

Of course, that’s not all that Kara (Austin Highsmith) has to worry about.  She also has to worry about the fact that her daughter, Erin (Lauren Gobuzzi), is adopted and that Erin’s birth mother (Erin Cahill) is apparently stalking her.  And then there’s the fact that Kara’s husband, Ben (Wes Brown), has a history of cheating.  Even more than the typical Lifetime protagonist, Kara has good reason to be worried when the new nanny, Alyssa (Valerie Azlynn), keeps hitting on her husband.

Speaking of Alyssa, she’s one of my favorite Lifetime nannies.  It’s not that she’s any more evil than the typical Lifetime nanny.  Instead, it’s just that she’s so unapologetic about it.  Most evil nannies at least try to be subtle but Alyssa never even pretends to be Kara’s friend.  She pretty much steps into the house and announces, “I’m going to kidnap your child and run off with your husband.  Deal with it!”  Alyssa is so joyfully and unapologetically evil and Valeria Azlynn is clearly having such a blast playing her that she elevates the entire film.

Nanny Seduction is a lot of fun.  It embraces the melodrama and thank goodness for that!

 

Cleaning Out The DVR Yet Again #4: The Watcher (dir by Ryan Rothmaier)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Lisa recently discovered that she only has about 8 hours of space left on her DVR!  It turns out that she’s been recording movies from July and she just hasn’t gotten around to watching and reviewing them yet.  So, once again, Lisa is cleaning out her DVR!  She is going to try to watch and review 52 movies by Thanksgiving, November 24th!  Will she make it?  Keep checking the site to find out!)

the-watcher-new-movie-lifetime-television-670x363

Check out the couple in the picture above.

Wow, they sure do look happy, don’t they?  That’s Emma (Erin Cahill) and Noah (Ed Gathegi) and they have every reason to happy!  They’ve just bought a new home!  It’s a nice big, house and it’s in what appears to be a perfect neighborhood.  Sure, the neighbors are a little quiet and some of them occasionally appear to be giving the new couple a strange look but that’s probably nothing, right?  And sure, the house was a little bit cheaper than expected because, a few years ago, there was a death.  People have died in the house.

But you know what?  People die every day.  And a lot of them do so in a house.  If you refused to live in a house just because someone died in it, you’d probably never be able to live anywhere…

Of course, this house was apparently the scene of a murder but again, these things happen.

The screenshot above is from a movie called The Watcher, which I recorded off of the Lifetime Movie Network on October 9th.  Since The Watcher premiered in the Halloween month, you can probably guess what happens once Emma and Noah move into their new house.  There are strange deliveries.  There are strange noises.  Strange notes, some delivered via a dead animal, start to show up.  The notes inform the couple that they are being watched.

Who is watching them?

The Raven.

Who is the Raven?  And does it have anything to do with a huge black raven that the local neighborhood boy, Mickey (Riley Baron), claims to have seen near the house?  You’ll have to watch the movie to find out…

(Interestingly enough, this was all loosely based on a true story.)

Usually, I’m a bit skeptical of Lifetime horror films.  You can read my review of Amish Witches to find out why but, to put it simply, the Lifetime format doesn’t always lend itself to horror.  But The Watcher actually works surprisingly well.  As directed by Ryan Rothmaier, The Watcher is an atmospheric and well-acted portrait of housebound horror.  The film ends with a twist that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and yet it works because it is just so odd and totally out there.  The implausibility of the twist actually adds to The Watcher‘s dream-like atmosphere.

I recommend watching The Watcher.