On a snowy night, Scott (Shane Johnson), CJ (Josh Hammond), and Robbie (Jason Dohring) cross into Wisconsin so that they can have a good time at a notorious roadhouse. After CJ starts a fight that gets them kicked out, the three of them start to drive back to Minnesota. They stop to pick up a deputy sheriff, Charlie (Randy Quaid), whose squad car has broken down. Charlie assures the young men that he’s off-duty and asks them a lot of questions about what they’ve been doing during the night. When a mysterious 1957 black Cadillac pulls up and challenges the Scott to a drag race, Charlie tells Scott to “go for it!”
It turns out that the Cadillac is interested in more than just a race. It tries to force Scott into crashing his car and, even after Scott seems to escape from the car, it keeps showing up wherever the friends are driving. Why is the other driver after them and how is Charlie involved?
Not a bad film. The black Cadillac and its driver are great villains that seems to be able to transport anywhere. No matter what the three young men do, they can’t escape from or even slow down the Cadillac’s pursuit. The three friends are all likable, even if the movie does get bogged down with all of their secrets. Randy Quaid shows why, before he apparently lost his mind and started talking about star whackers, he was one of the busiest character actors around. Black Cadillac is a good mix of horror and car chases.
The 2010 film, Freeway Killer, opens with a desperate woman named Ruth (Debbon Ayer) visiting a man named William Bonin (Scott Anthony Leef).
Bonin, who has a quick smile and a mustache that makes him look like a wannabe porn star, is an inmate on California’s Death Row. In just a few days, Bonin is scheduled to be the first man to be executed by lethal injection in the state of California. Ruth explains that she has done everything that she can to try to save Bonin’s life. She has written to the review board. She had written to the governor. She has asked that Bonin be spared and she’s even used the exact words that Bonin suggested that she use in her letters. However, she’s gotten no response. Still, she now wants Bonin to uphold his side of the bargain. She wants to know if her son was among the thirty-six men that Bonin is suspected of having murdered.
William Bonin merely smirks and points out that he never actually agreed to tell Ruth anything. He suggested that Ruth write the letters but never did he say that he would actually do anything in return. That was just something that he allowed Ruth to assume. Even while sitting on Death Row and facing an inevitable execution, Bonin enjoys the power that he gets from manipulating people. Instead of telling Ruth about her son, he tells the story of his life as a serial killer.
The film flashes back to 1980, when William Bonin has already started his career as a murderer. A Vietnam vet who has a war story for every occasion, he cruises the freeways of California and picks up young hitchhikers. Sometimes, he is accompanied by an accomplice. Vernon Butts (Dusty Sorg) is a self-styled occultist who wears a wizard hat at home and who knows more about Dungeons and Dragons than real life. When they’re not killing hitchhikers, Bonin and Vernon tend to bicker. Vernon constantly points out that Bonin was not the great war hero that he claims to have been. Bonin makes fun of Vernon’s hobbies. At times, they seem to genuinely despise each other but one of the few times that Bonin shows any emotion is when Vernon tries to kill himself in a pique of hurt feelings.
One night, Bonin sees a teenager named Kyle (Cole Williams) being yelled at by both his boss and his girlfriend. As he does with all of his victims, Bonin pulls up in his van and asks Kyle if he wants a ride. However, when Kyle gets in the van, it turns out that Bonin doesn’t want to kill him. Instead, he sees Kyle as a kindred spirit and soon, he’s recruited Kyle as his second accomplice. Unlike Vernon, Kyle believes all of Bonin’s stories. However, Kyle grows more confident with each murder and soon, he’s even suggesting that Bonin should kill Vernon. Frustrated with both Kyle and Vern, Bonin search for a third accomplice, an act that ultimately leads to his downfall.
Watching Bonin, Vern, and Kyle, I was reminded of a creepy group of older men who always seemed to be hanging out on campus when I was in college. Though none of them were enrolled in classes and all of them were notably older than the majority of the people on campus, they still spent all of their time hanging out around the student union, smoking cigarettes, and trying to impress people who were half their age. They approached me and my friend a few times, making awkward comments about whatever we happened to be talking about or studying at the moment. One thing that I quickly learned was that being rude would not get rid of them. Instead, you had to literally stand up and walk somewhere else to get away from them. (They had no problem approaching people but were too lazy to follow after them.) At the time, my friends and I used to joke that they were probably serial killers. Most realistically, they were probably just three losers who didn’t want to have to grow up. Still, they definitely gave off a bad vibe.
Based on a true story, Freeway Killer focuses on the relationship between Bonin, Vernon, and Kyle. Though he’s their self-declared leader, Bonin is incapable of doing anything without the help of Vernon and Kyle. At the same time, the film leaves us to wonder if Vernon and Kyle would have become killers if they hadn’t fallen under William Bonin’s influence. One gets the feeling that if Bonin and Vernon had never met each other, they both would have spent the rest of their lives as obscure losers, living alone and working a dead-end job. Certainly, if Bonin and Vernon had never met, Bonin would never have subsequently felt the need to recruit Kyle into their activities. But, because they did meet, at least 30 innocent people were murdered in California. The film is unsettling, not just because of the murders (of which only a few are discreetly portrayed) but because of the feeling that the murders themselves would never have happened if only William Bonin had not served an earlier prison sentence at the same time as Vernon Butts.
Scott Anthony Leet gives a good performance as William Bonin, playing him as man whose quick smile is just a cover for the raging feelings of inadequacy that are churning just below the surface. Dusty Sorg and Cole WIlliams are also well-cast as, respectively, Vernon and Kyle. Sorg, especially, makes Vernon into a monster who is frightening because it’s very easy to imagine running into him (or someone like him) in everyday life. Michael Rooker brings his quiet intensity to a small role as the detective who investigates the Freeway Killer murders.
The real-life William Bonin was executed in 1996. I’m against the death penalty because I don’t think we should normalize the idea of the government killing anyone but that still doesn’t mean that the world isn’t better off without William Bonin in it.
Well, these things happen. Especially if you’re a character in a Lifetime movie. I’ve always argued that Lifetime movies can best be viewed as wish fulfillment and, in this one, the fulfilled wish belongs to every mother who has ever hoped that their daughter would admit that they should have listened to them. In this film, Amy (Tanya Clarke) warns his adopted teenage daughter, Tara (Monica Rose Betz), about trying to track down her birthmother, Grace (Aria Pullman). And wow, is Amy ever proven right!
Of course, it’s understandable that Tara would want to track down her birthmother. First off, Tara has all sorts of weird allergies and it would really help her understand her medical history if she knew who her mother was. Secondly, Amy is kind of overprotective and won’t even let Tara date or buy a bikini, despite the fact that Tara is nearly 17 years old. I mean, that’s extreme! So, even though Amy is a loving mom and owns a big house and works for Habitat for Humanity, it’s understandable that Tara would want to see what else is out there. Amy shouldn’t have sheltered her daughter but then again, Tara should have listened to Amy about the whole “your birthmother could be dangerous” thing.
At first, Tara is overjoyed when she manages to track down Grace. Grace seems like the perfect birthmother. She teaches Tara how to drive. She buys Tara that forbidden bikini. She encourages Tara to live her own life. Yet, there are some strange things about Grace. For instance, Grace refuses to divulge too much information about her own background. Grace also insists that Tara not tell Amy about her.
Eventually, though, Amy tracks down Grace on her own and invites Grace to come over to the house and meet her daughter “for the first time.” However, when Grace arrives at the house, she’s no longer acting like the confident and unpredictable Grace that Tara met. Instead, Grace is now jumpy and nervous and suffers from terrible dizzy spells. Even more strangely, Grace acts as if she barely knows Tara. What’s happening?
You may be tempted to say that Grace is just unbalanced but actually, there’s more to it than that. There’s a neat little twist to this story and I won’t spoil it but I will say that it took me by surprise when it was revealed. A surprise twist is always a good thing and Birthmother’s Betrayal executes it well. Admittedly, the twist itself is a bit over-the-top but that’s what we love Lifetime movies for. Save the normal twists for movies on other networks. This is Lifetime we’re talking about!
Anyway, I enjoyed Birthmother’s Betrayal, largely because of the twist. Right when you think the movie is going to be one thing, it turns out to be something else. Aria Pullman does a good job playing Grace, as both a confident sociopath and a rather frail and neurotic woman who suffers from suddenly dizzy spells. Keep an eye out for Birthmother’s Betrayal and remember that, when it comes to sending your DNA off to a website, it’s sometimes best to listen to the people who raised you.
(I recorded Nightmare Best Friend off of Lifetime on December 29th.)
Everyone’s had that one best friend.
She was the one who gave you the courage to flirt with the hot ones and roll your eyes at the strange ones. She was the one who taught you how to shoplift without getting caught. She was there when you had your first drink and the first time you got high. She was the first one you went to for advice. She was the one that called when you needed to cry. She was your sister in almost every way and you swore that the two of you would be best friends forever.
Then you graduated high school and you two drifted apart. Sure, you’re Facebook friends and you follow each other on twitter and occasionally, you might exchange greetings and an inside joke but it’s not the same. Usually, it’s a case that one of you has grown up while the other hasn’t. One of you is busy adulting while the other is still living for the moment. Though neither one of you admit it, your friendship has now become consumed with a mix of jealousy and barely concealed malice. You want her life. She wants your life. It’s perhaps best that you live in separate states now.
And then one day, your former best friend shows up on your doorstep and all Hell breaks loose….
That’s the situation in which Katy (Rosslyn Luke) finds herself in Nightmare Best Friend. Katy has a nice house, a nice life, and a nice family. She’s living the ideal suburban lifestyle. And then, one day, her old friend Gina (Jackie Moore) shows up.
At first, Katy is excited to see Gina. They go back to their old high school and run through the hallways, screaming. They talk about how wild they used to be. Gina even tries to convince Katy to take part in a little shoplifting. It’s all wonderful, until Gina’s boyfriend, Ray (Brandon Howell) shows up. Katy takes an instant dislike to Ray. (It probably has something to do with the knife that he’s always waving around.) For his part, Ray doesn’t seem to care much for Katy either. However, he needs Katy. It turns out that Ray is a criminal and to pull off his latest scam, he’s going to require Katy to help him whether Katy wants to or not.
Nightmare Best Friend features two excellent lead performances from Rosslyn Luke and Jackie Moore and a convincingly menacing one from Brandon Howell. Howell played Ray with just the right combination of bad boy charm and psychotic posturing. You could understand why Gina fell for him, while at the same time also understanding why Gina would be too scared to defy him. Even more importantly, the friendship between Gina and Katy felt real. You could imagine that two of them actually being friends in high school but you could just as easily understand why they had eventually drifted apart. Elevated by a trio of strong performances, Nightmare Best Friend is an enjoyable Lifetime melodrama.
Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime movie premiere, Killer Caregiver!
Why Was I Watching It?
Why not?
What Was It About?
While visiting one of her clients, Mariah Wilson (Nicole Hayden) is shocked when an accident leads to not only his death but also to her breaking her arm. With months of physical therapy ahead of her, Mariah hires a home caregiver. Tara (Camila Banus) seems like she’s perfect. She gets along with Mariah’s estranged husband, Greg (George Stults). She helps Mariah exercise her arm. Most importantly, Mariah’s son, Jacob (Jaeden Bettencourt), loves her!
It all seems perfect, except … uh oh! It turns out that Tara is the daughter of Mariah’s dead client and she’s out for revenge!
What Worked?
Oh my God, the houses were to die for! Seriously, one of the things that I love about Lifetime films is that they always take place in these huge houses, the majority of which have a pool in the back yard. But, even by the standards of Lifetime, this film featured some nice houses. In fact, Greg and Mariah’s house was so nice that I was half expecting Greg to reveal that he worked as a money launderer for the mob. But no, Greg’s job had something to do with computers. Having seen this film, I’m now encouraging my boyfriend to get an IT-related job because I could have a lot of fun with a house that big.
However, it wasn’t just Greg and Mariah who had a nice house. Tara also had a really nice house, too. For that matter, when Greg, Mariah, and Jacob were forced to stay in a motel for a night, the motel looked really, really good.
From her first appearance, Tara established herself as being a classic Lifetime villain and Camila Banus really threw herself into the role. From the minute Tara showed up, she was like, “This is my film and now, everyone’s at my mercy!” A film like this is only as good as its villain and Tara was a great one.
What Did Not Work?
What happened to Eugene? The well-meaning but intellectually disabled groundskeeper (played by David Meyers) seemed like he was going to be an important character but then he just kinda disappeared. It was hard not to feel that the character deserved a resolution to his subplot, as minor as it may have been.
Other than that, it all worked! I mean, I could sit here and wonder if perhaps Tara could have come with a simpler revenge scheme (spoiler: she could have) but that would be kind of silly on my part. Melodrama is one of the reasons why I love Lifetime movies! Besides, how can you go wrong when you’ve got a great psycho and a big house?
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
While I personally would never plot anyone’s downfall, I still found myself admiring how organized Tara was about it. You could tell that she probably made out a To-Do List before she set about destroying Mariah’s life:
Become a caregiver
Get hired
Brainwash Jacob
Drug Mariah…
And so on and so forth. At least, that’s what I would do.
Lessons Learned
With enough planning and preparation, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.
Last night’s Lifetime premiere, Fatal Defense, opens with a nightmare scenario. Arden Walsh (Ashley Scott) is attacked in her home by a masked intruder. While her daughter, Emma (Sophie Guest), sleeps upstairs, Arden is bound and gagged in the living room. Fortunately, the intruder is scared off before he can do anything else but both Arden and her daughter are haunted by nightmares afterward.
What can Arden do to reclaim her safety?
Get a gun.
That was my immediate reaction. Just go out and buy a gun. The next time you think that you see someone wandering around in the back yard, fire a warning shot. If that doesn’t work, aim for the head. See, that’s one reason why I love my sister. I may be terrified of guns but she’s a great shot.
However, Arden doesn’t get a gun. Even though her totally kickass sister, Gwen (Laurie Fortier), suggests that Arden take advantage of her constitutional rights, Arden doesn’t want a gun in the house. Maybe she doesn’t trust Emma. Then again, she does live in the People’s Republic of California and it would probably be a lot more difficult for her to get a gun than it would be for me to get a gun here in Texas. Who knows?
So, since Jerry Brown won’t let her defend herself with a gun, what ever can Arden do?
She and Gwen do a google search for self-defense classes and they come across an old Geocities site for Logan Chase (David Cade). Logan not only knows how to break someone’s arm but he looks good without a shirt as well! Plus, he apparently teaches his self-defense class in a tiki bar. Gwen enrolls and, one montage later, she can now kick ass with the best of them!
(While I understand that you can learn how to do practically anything in a montage, I was still impressed. My knowledge of self-defense is basically either use mace or, if you can’t get to your mace, yell, “I don’t know you! That’s my purse!” and then kick like a Rockette.)
Unfortunately, Logan has some issues. He seems like a nice guy and a good teacher and it’s kind of sweet in a creepy way when he suddenly shows up at the Los Angeles Arboretum, where Arden is apparently one of two employees. However, Logan is soon talking about how his ex-girlfriend was murdered because she didn’t know to fight back. He also has a habit of suddenly yelling about how, if Arden doesn’t learn how to defend herself, she’ll never be able to fight off psychos like him. That may seem like a red flag but he is kind of cute and that GeoCities web site of his was pretty impressive. But then Logan suddenly puts handcuffs on Arden’s wrists and locks her in the trunk of his car. Things kind of go down hill after that…
My twitter friends and I had a lot of fun last night, watching and snarking on Fatal Defense. It was a fun and entertaining Lifetime film, one that mixed over the top melodrama with some real-world concerns. (I mean, let’s be honest. We all need to know how to defend ourselves. It’s a scary world.) This is one of those films where it’s best not to worry too much about whether or not the plot totally makes sense. Myself, I was amazed that Arden could afford such a nice and big house. I guess the Los Angeles Arboretum pays well. But, at the same time, that’s why we watch Lifetime movies! We don’t want to see the cramped apartments that most people live in. We want to see big beautiful houses and big beautiful melodrama. On both counts, Fatal Defense delivered.
That said, it’s still hard not to feel that Arden could have avoided a lot of trouble if she had just got a gun.
On a snowy night, Scott (Shane Johnson), CJ (Josh Hammond), and Robbie (Jason Dohring) cross into Wisconsin so that they can have a good time at a notorious roadhouse. After CJ starts a fight that gets them kicked out, the three of them start to drive back to Minnesota. They stop to pick up a deputy sheriff, Charlie (Randy Quaid), whose squad car has broken down. Charlie assures the young men that he’s off-duty and asks them a lot of questions about what they’ve been doing during the night. When a mysterious 1957 black Cadillac pulls up and challenges the Scott to a drag race, Charlie tells Scott to “go for it!”
Through the Shattered Lens 