Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime original film, Backstabbed!

Why Was I Watching It?

Well, the obvious answer is that I was watching it because it was on Lifetime and, as everyone knows, I love anything on Lifetime.  The other reason is that I haven’t done many entries in What Lisa Watched Last Night this year.  I wanted to correct that!

(And here we are…)

What Was It About?

It’s about lies, love, sex, murder, and the crazy world of real estate.  Whenever I watch a movie about real estate, I always wait for someone to yell, “You moved the headstones but you left the bodies, didn’t you!?  YOU LEFT THE BODIES!”  That didn’t happen in this movie but seriously, real estate is crazy!

Paulette Bolton (Josie Davis) is one of the top real estate people in California but the people who work for her have a tendency to end up dead.  That’s because Paulette kills them and a lot of other people.

Paulette has a new protegé: Shelby (Brittany Underwood).  Shelby has just received her real estate license and … oh no!  Is she thinking of going into competition against her psychotic mentor?

Well, that might not turn out for the best…

What Worked?

One of my favorite things about Lifetime movies is that everyone always lives in such a nice house.  Lifetime understands that its audience not only likes to see what people are wearing but where they live as well.  Backstabbed was pretty much all about houses.  Paulette had a great house.  She and Shelby were competing to sell an even better house.  Even Shelby’s house was nice and she was supposed to be poor!

In the role of Paulette, Josie Davis was totally and completely insane.  She delivered one of the greatest over-the-top performances in Lifetime history and the film was all the better for it!  Among the supporting cast, Kevin Spirtas was fun as a decadent home owner and, oddly enough, former Texas Congressman Henry Bonilla had a role as well.

What Did Not Work?

I have to admit that I struggled to follow the plot.  It may have been because it’s the Labor Day weekend and I was dividing my attention between the film and my niece and nephew but still, I had a hard time keeping track of why, exactly, Paulette kept killing people.  Fortunately, Josie Davis killed people with such panache that it wasn’t a major problem.

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

“That’s my dress!” I yelled when, at one point, Paulette showed up wearing a pretty red dress that looked identical to one that I have hanging in my closet.  Then Shelby showed up, also wearing a red dress that looked identical to another one that I have hanging in my closer and again, I yelled, “That’s my dress!”

At that point, my niece pointed at the TV and went, “That’s Lisa Marie’s dress!”  She’s so cute.

Lessons Learned

Real estate is murder!

And I look good in red…