Spoilers are an odd beast for most Lifetime films. Few, if any, titles actually try to surprise audience with a killer reveal. More often than not there are twists, but the joy of watching these made-for-TV films is the journey to the big showdown.
It’s frustrating then, that Stepmom from Hell fully spoils its own ending with a completely on the nose title. As written by Hamish Briggs, Daniel Kautz, Nathanael Lirio and Elizabeth Snoderly, the embezzling-turned-murder mystery film definitely features a number of red herrings and twists en route to its climax, so the dead obvious title betrays the writers’ intentions (my screener featured a different title, Shattered Ties, which is bland and non-specific, but at least it doesn’t spoil anything).
As directed by Corbin Timbrook, the film follows Izzy Thompson (Lexi Giovagnoli), a hyper competent businesswoman struggling to launch a dog-related app in the shadow of her famous businessman. Jack Thompson (Lorenzo Lamas) has a thirty year legacy and he would much prefer that Izzy inherit his realty business rather than his harried step-daughter Dana (Bri Ana Wagner) or financial officer Terry (Milli M).
Dana is the daughter of Catherine (Shelby Janes), Jack’s second wife, who insists on monitoring Jack’s health with a near-religious devotion. But his memory appears to be slipping, a fact that starts rather innocuously at a company party before getting so severe that Jack struggles to remember when his first wife died or what school Izzy went to.
This health scare occurs at the same time that Izzy discovers a damning document in the Archive room: a receipt confirming that $700K has been moved from the company’s account to a credence account. That’s information worth killing for, as evidenced by the fact that nearly everyone who sees or knows about the receipt is attacked or killed by an intruder in black.
Much like When Mom Becomes A Murderer, the film clearly intends to surprise the audience with the details of the mystery. Dana is abrasive to Izzy, but is she responsible for moving the money? Perhaps she’s just a compulsive workaholic trying to modernize the company. Or what about Terry, the woman who spends her Sunday shredding documents (a significant red flag)? And considering the alarming decline in Jack’s facilities, shouldn’t he be seeing someone other than family doctor Jeffrey Nichols (Boz Wells), who doesn’t seem overly worried?
Ordinarily audiences would be well within their rights to ask these questions, but the identity behind the culprit is quite literally in the title. By the time Catherine’s nefarious intentions are revealed in the last act, Stepmom from Hell feels overly drawn out, though in hindsight it’s only because we know she’s the villain from the jump.
Thankfully by this time the writers and performers have begun to lean into the silly. It’s unclear if certain lines and narrative developments are intentionally comedic, but it’s hard not to chuckle when Izzy and Catherine share an outrageous verbal exchange at the hospital after Izzy is served a restraining order. When Catherine insists she can’t be there, Izzy angrily retorts “Just shut up! I doubt that restraining order carries any weight” to which Catherine coldly clarifies that she has power of attorney because “Wife trumps daughter.”
It’s a great line and as soon as she’s unmasked Janes really bites into Catherine’s villainy. The climax, set at the Thompson’s palatial house, is a surprisingly sustained chase/fight sequence involving knives and multiple punches (several people get dropped and one even flops over a couch in delightful fashion).
Giovagnoli is the MVP here. Izzy is incredibly resourceful and, in true Lifetime fashion, forced to do most of the investigative grunt work because the police are completely ineffectual. Giovagnoli is especially watchable when Izzy is cut out of her father’s life; one scene of her screaming/crying in the car is surprisingly affecting.
Giovagnoli also has really solid chemistry with childhood friend-turned-Detective, Brian Roman (Andrew Fultz) – although Fultz is a much more believable as a romantic lead than as an officer of the law. At one point he reminds Izzy that her accusations are baseless without evidence, encouraging her to obtain a recorded confession, when that a) should be his job and b) ignores that doing so requires her to break the restraining order.
Good thing Detective Roman has a great smile and makes a mean pancake because otherwise he’d be useless!
Technically Stepmom from Hell also benefits from several well shot, tense sequences. In addition to the action-heavy climax, there’s a startling moment when a lightning strike illuminates an intruder waiting for Izzy at home. Later, while planting a recording device in Catherine’s house, Izzy is forced to hide in a closet and Timbrook shoots her in profile in the dark with only a sliver of light shining across her terrified eyes.
Alas there are other areas where the polish isn’t quite there. Several key conversations in the Thompson house have a distracting audio echo, the lighting and/or make-up on Janes in the climax makes her face look a garish mustard yellow, and – in true cheap Lifetime fashion – several of the locations have a bland, undecorated visual aesthetic (where is all of the art?!).
Overall, however, there are some surprisingly emotional beats (courtesy of Giovagnoli), at least two tense sequences, and a touch of comedy (intended or not) that make Stepmom from Hell a pleasant distraction.
If only someone had paused to rethink that title!
Stepmom from Hell premieres Thursday, August 8 at 8/7c on Lifetime.
