Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: The Other Mother (dir by Sean Olson)

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Once again, I am attempting to clean out my DVR! I recorded The Other Mother off of Lifetime on April 22nd, 2017.)

Divorce is never easy. This is something that we all know. A once loving couple splits up and suddenly, they are forced to figure out what type of relationship, if any, they will now have. It’s even more difficult for the children, who often find themselves torn between two households, all the while wondering if they’re somehow responsible. Believe me, speaking as a child of divorce, it’s never easy even if it’s often for the best.

That said, you know what I bet would make a divorce even more difficult? When your ex-husband impulsively marries a woman who is young enough to be his daughter and then sits by while his new wife not only turns your daughter against you but also frames you so that everyone thinks you’re a totally irresponsible, abusive alcoholic.

That, of course, is exactly what happens in The Other Mother. The title character is Tiffany (Kimberly Crossman), who is pretty, confident, fun, and a little bit psycho. When she marries Mitch (Tyler Christopher), she immediately sets about to manipulate his teenager daughter, Brooke (Kennedy Tucker), into rejecting her biological mother, and Mitch’s ex-wife, Jackie (Annie Wersching).

It’s really not that hard because 1) Tiffany is close to Brooke’s own age and 2) Jackie is massively overprotective and strict. Of course, Brooke has struggled to deal with the divorce. Jackie worries that Brooke might act out or that she might even hurt herself. Last year, Jackie caught Brooke drinking and she still hasn’t let it go.

Tiffany, at least at first, appears to take a much more laissez faire approach to life. At dinner, she asks Brooke if she wants anything to drink. At Brooke’s birthday party, Tiffany gives her a car and Jackie throws a fit. When Tiffany picks up Brooke from school, they go to the mall and Tiffany shows Brooke how to pick up boys. Brooke would much rather hang out with her stepmom and who can blame her? Tiffany’s fun and lets her do almost anything.

Of course, Tiffany also has a long and sordid history, one that is only Google search away. And Tiffany is willing to do anything to get Jackie out of the picture. If that means getting Jackie drunk and then pretending that Jackie attacked her, so be it. If that means telling lies and hacking phones in order to make it appear as if Jackie has rejected her daughter, well, that’s what you have to do.

The Other Mother is a good example of a Lifetime film designed to tap into a fear that’s probably a pretty common one among middle-aged divorcees, the fear of no longer being the fun parent but instead being viewed as the enemy. This film provides comfort by suggesting that the new fun mom is actually not that much fun and that she’s probably crazy as well. Beyond bitter divorcees, anyone who has ever been made to feel inadequate by an ex’s new girlfriend will be able to relate to this film.

If you’re into Lifetime films, you’ll probably enjoy The Other Mother. If nothing else, Kimberly Crossman does a really good job playing the cheerfully psychotic Tiffany. The movie may not hold many surprises but I definitely had fun watching it.

Lisa Cleans Out Her DVR: The Wrong Student (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Y’all know that I usually avoid politics like the plague but this is just something that needs to be said:

The U.S. Government could stand to learn a little from a good Lifetime film. A good Lifetime movie is not expensive (and usually can be viewed for free). A good Lifetime movie does not demand that the audience watch it but instead, provides a good reason for you to sacrifice 90 minutes of your time. A good Lifetime movie does not attempt to rob you of your individual freedoms and, in fact, it celebrates your right to talk back to the screen. A good Lifetime movie delivers exactly what it promises. A good Lifetime movie does not talk down to its audience. A good Lifetime movie goes out of its way to keep its audience entertained. If the U.S. government was more like a Lifetime movie, we wouldn’t have spent the past 17 years dealing with one tedious situation after another. If the U.S. government was more like a Lifetime movie, life would be a lot more fun and twitter far less annoying.

I found myself thinking about this as I continued to clean out my DVR by watching The Wrong Student. I recorded The Wrong Student off of Lifetime on March 11th. I’m glad I did because The Wrong Student epitomizes everything that I love about Lifetime.

Add to that, it’s a film that proves something that I’ve always suspected — soccer is the source of all evil.

Maddie (Evanne Friedmann) is a teenager who loves two things: soccer and the new soccer coach. The new coach is Dominic (Jason-Shane Scott), who has amazing pecs and abs. How in love with Dominic is Maddie? Well, she’s so in love with him that she’s willing to do almost anything to keep him around. Does that mean that Maddie is willing to poison the old soccer coach? It sure does. Does that mean that Maddie is willing to fake an injury so she’ll have an excuse to get naked in the locker room while a mortified Dominic hides his eyes? Of course! What about pretending to get drunk at a party and then begging Dominic to give her a ride home? Hey, who hasn’t done that? In fact, Maddie is so obsessed with Dominic that she’s even willing to murder her ex-boyfriend.

Maddie’s pretty, intelligent, and apparently her family has some money but she sure does have some issues. Personally, I blame the soccer.

Amber (Kennedy Tucker) is also on the soccer team. Amber is living with her Aunt Kelly (Jessica Morris). Obviously, Amber knows that Dominic is too old for her but he’s exactly the right age for Kelly! When Maddie realizes that Kelly and the coach are getting close, can you guess what happens?

Anyway, The Wrong Student is a lot of fun. David DeCoteau has directed a lot of “wrong” films for Lifetime, including The Wrong Roommate and The Wrong Child. He knows exactly how to make one of these films entertaining and The Wrong Student is an enjoyably self-aware melodrama. Evanne Friedmann is wonderfully unhinged as crazy Maddie and Jason-Shane Scott looks great without a shirt on. The Wrong Child is a wonderfully entertaining example of just how much fun a Lifetime movie can be.

Everything should be more like a Lifetime movie.

Horror Film Review: Shadows of the Dead (dir by John Ross)

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

You know what?

If you’re in high school and you’re planning on skipping prom so that you can go hang out at the “anti-prom” (which is being held in a creepy old cabin) and drink beer and smoke pot and maybe have unprotected sex … well, then you’re probably guaranteeing yourself a lot of great memories. But, even with that in mind, don’t do it at Shadow Creek.

Seriously, just the fact that it’s called Shadow Creek should be enough of a clue that you need to avoid the place. It’s always possible that Shadow Creek was named after the famed explorer, Jean LeShadow, but it’s even more likely that Shadow Creek is in some way haunted.

And if you arrive at Shadow Creek and everyone is sitting around a campfire and telling a story about a murder that happened at Shadow Creek many, many years ago, that’s probably an indication that you should have just gone to the regular prom. I mean, you might not have as much as fun at the regular prom as you would at the anti-prom but at least you would be hanging out with the rich kids and you wouldn’t run the risk of getting brutally murdered.

However, if you stay at Shadow Creek even after the campfire ghost story, one thing that you must NOT do is get offended over something and then run off by yourself. And if you come across another cabin — especially if that cabin has a corpse in front of it, don’t go inside. Don’t go anywhere near it.

That’s the main lesson to be learned from Shadows of the Dead, which, last Saturday, became the latest film to premiere as a part of SyFy’s 31 Days of Halloween. Shadows of the Dead was an occasionally atmospheric, occasionally effective, and often rather silly horror film.

Shadows of the Dead opens up with the anti-prom at Shadow Creek and then goes on to follow several teenagers as their stalked by a shadowy monster. I have to admit that I was never quite sure what the shadow monster was exactly. (A lot of people on twitter speculated that it was Lost‘s smoke monster.) The movie established that it could only attack people when they were alone and when they were in the dark. Apparently, after attacking, the monster would enter its victim’s body and stay there until it eventually decided to burst back out. As a result, we got a lot of scenes of people literally exploding. It got messy after a while.

But oddly, the Shadow Monster’s powers tended to change from scene to scene. Essentially, the monster could do whatever was needed to move a scene along. As well, the monster was pretty much invulnerable until the film needed to end, at which point it suddenly became vulnerable. There was no real consistency to this shadow monster but then again, Shadows of the Dead is not the type of film that demands consistency. The monster had its frightening moments and its ever-shifting powers led to some nicely surreal moments. Ultimately, your enjoyment of this film will depend on how seriously you take it. (Needless to say, taking it seriously in any way would be a mistake.)

That said, the most interesting thing about Shadows of the Dead was how much of it appeared to have been lifted from It Follows. Considering that the same can be said about The Crooked Man, it appears that It Follows has emerged as the new template for low-budget horror movies.