Room for Murder (2018 Lifetime)
Stars: James Maslow, Lorynn York, Tanya Clarke, Adam Huber
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
When Kristen decides to take a break from college and return home, she finds Jake, a handsome stranger, living in her old room. Her mother, Moira, explains that she invited Jake to live as a tenant to help with the house expenses. Soon, Kristen discovers not only are Jake and Moira sleeping together, but Jake has a secret, dangerous past.
Thoughts
The movie starts with the police arriving on the scene and finding a sexy officer down. They withdraw their weapons and enter a house. We get the title card—Room for Murder.
Four days earlier, a college co-ed (Kristen) surprises her mother (Moira) with a visit home… her mother has a surprise for her as well. A handsome man named Jake is in her room and will be staying a while. Kristen is skeptical but happy that he is such a hunk. She brings him lemonade while he is painting a chair outside; he is surprisingly not shirtless. Jake complements Kristen and says she has a beautiful smile. Her smile is so beautiful that Jake watches her while she sleeps on the couch and then sneaks to Moira’s foom for some sexy time. He is definitely shirtless here. (Insert piano-laden, ass grabbing, sex scene.)
The next morning, Kristen walks in on Jake while he is getting out of the shower. While doing yoga, Moira comes clean about dating Jake. Moira says things like “he is a man in bed” and “are you jealous?” Kristen is mortified but reluctantly gives her approval. (Especially when she notices Jake checking out other women and deferring on the rent he owes.)
Instead of taking a job at her mother’s hair salon, Kristen works at a local cafe with her friend MJ. Kristen runs into her ex-boyfriend Ryan, who is now a cop. They rekindle a romance. Ryan is relentless in her pursuit of Kristen. They meet up at a bar, and she asks Jake to do a background check on Jake. After two beers, Kristen drives home and sees someone running through the woods. (It was Jake chasing a blonde lady.) Then she has a sex dream about Jake that turns into a nightmare when he starts choking her.
When police find a body in the woods, Kristen knows that it was Jake who killed the woman. Kristen tells Ryan that it has to be Jake, even if she doesn’t have proof. While Jake is out, she searches for evidence and finds prescription pills and bloody shoes in his room. Bingo! Kristen is almost caught but plays it off like she was looking for an old sweater. Jake tells her to mind her own business.
Moira sides with her man instead of her daughter. (I mean if I had Jake around shirtless all the time, I would side with him too!) Kristen sneaks into Jake’s room again this time to steal the evidence she found. While Jake takes a long hot shower, Kristen grabs the shoes and hides them in a box of trophies. Then she moves out of the house to stay with MJ.
Jake is in a laundry mat for some reason and gets into an altercation with a customer. Sherrie catches him popping off and then finds blood on his clothes. Jake realizes that he has been caught and offers to give Sherrie a ride back to the salon. When she refuses, he kills her in a parking lot by strangulation. Moira starts to have suspicious when she notices scratch marks on Jake’s face, and buttons popped off of his dress shirt when he comes home.
Realizing that his shoes were stolen, Jake breaks into MJ’s house and attempts to take them. MJ is a badass and beats the crap out of him. Nothing like robbery as an aphrodisiac. Ryan arrives on the scene to investigate but only frisk and searches Kristen. Another shower scene happens. (Look, I’m not complaining. I’m just letting you know!) While Ryan is in the shower, Kristen looks at his evidence and learns that Jake changed his name and was acquitted of killing his ex-girlfriend.
Kristen tries to warn Moira, who hangs up on her daughter. Shirtless Jake overhears the conversation and tells Moira that her daughter is telling lies about him. He admits to changing his name and says the murder was a misunderstanding! Moira catches him in a bunch of lies and knows that her daughter is telling the truth. When she attempts to break it off with Jake, he goes psycho. Jake accuses Moira of using him for sex and pulls a gun on his ex-lover. Then he ties her up and kicks her down a flight of stairs.
Leaving Ryan behind, for some reason, Kristen arrives home to find her mother is nowhere, and Jake has got a gun. Ryan follows Kristen inside and gets shot. (Oh, no! He is the sexy officer down!) Kristen tries to fight Jake herself and is almost strangled, but is saved by her mother with a rolling pin. (Moira beats his ass with a rolling pin, it is hysterical.) The police arrive.
Kristen leaves town for UCLA with not dead Ryan! Moira feels safe with Jake in prison but has to rent out the room. This time she will be sure to check those references.
Side Note
Minority Report: Sherrie, police officers, a customer at the laundromat
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Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2018 Lifetime
