Killer Caregiver (2018 Lifetime)

Killer Caregiver (2018 Lifetime)

Stars: Nicole Hayden, Camila Banus, Jaeden Bettencourt, George Stults

Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast here!

Synopsis (via Lifetime)

After a woman is wounded in an accident, a young and attractive live-in caregiver moves into her home where strange and dangerous events unfold until the woman discovers her caregiver is hell-bent on destroying her life.

Thoughts

Mariah is a systems analyst who works late hours. Her client Graham makes moves on her and tries to bond over their cheating spouses. Mariah leaves abruptly and apologizes for misleading him. He pulls her out of the car, and she accidentally puts it in neutral the car rolls down the driveway and crushes them both into the gate. Graham dies, and the police question Mariah about their relationship. The cops call his wife to tell her the bad news.

Three weeks later, Mariah is in a sling and working remotely. Her son Jacob is demanding of her time and make creepy drawings. (I think he may be Autistic. Sorry I called your art creepy, kid.) Greg, Mariah’s husband, wants to move back into the house. She doesn’t trust him and hires a physical therapist/live-in caregiver. Vicky, Mariah’s horny friend, wants her to hire a male nurse. A woman in the parking lot with a terrible hat overhears the conversation and applies for the position under a false name.

“Tess Harper” nails her interview, and Mariah invites her to move in. Tess creeps around the house at night and writes vague letters to her mother. This movie loves a flashback, and we see Tess (in another terrible hat) coming home to finding her mother hanging from a noose. I guess she was charged with the murder.

Tess is a hit with Jacob and Eugine, the gardener. Both are mentally disabled, and Mariah feels that it is vital for Jacob to have role models. A woman named Patty isn’t a Tess fan, so Tess has to strangle Patty in the car. Who was Patty? I’m not quite sure. Mariah almost catches Tess killing Patty but gets distracted by Jacob.

Greg still is having late-night meetings and receiving texts from someone named Kendra. He promises nothing is going on between him and Kendra. However, Tess has been texting Kendra from Greg’s phone.

Physical therapy begins, and Tess’s table looks like a sex torcher table. Mariah talks about Graham and the accident, Tess is a little too interested in the relationship and even asks about Greg. Then she rebreaks the injury but says she is stretching the muscles. Tess also laces Mariah’s smoothy with pain killers to keep her in a state of confusion and tiredness. It works, and Mariah can’t focus on the things she needs to. When she goes down for a nap, Tess tampers with files on Mariah’s work computer and changes the accounting numbers.

At dinner, Tess opens up about her mother and father dying. The story is interrupted when Phil calls furious over the mistakes that Mariah sent him. Mariah promises to fix it, but he won’t give her another chance. Greg is worried about his wife and wearing a shirt too often in this movie.

Detectives show up looking into Patty’s disappearance. Mariah thinks Tess knows more than she is letting on.

Tess takes Jacob to her father’s home with a noose in a bag. The house is the same house where the accident happened. Tess is Graham’s daughter, and she tells him to keep it a secret. As they leave home, Eugene sees them and tries to tell Mariah about it. Tess stages and electrical hazard and sends Jacob to almost die as a distraction. Mariah has to let Eugene go for his carelessness and considers trading out Tess for another physical therapist. Tess overhears and rigs the equipment to break while Mariah is using it. A bar falls on Mariah’s head, and she is injured and disoriented. Mariah is back at square one with her physical therapy.

The secrets start to eat up at Jacob. He draws a picture of the house, and Tess makes him hide it. Mariah begins to notice that her son is acting strange. Tess accuses Greg of trying to get Jacob to favor him over his mother. Mariah leaves the house and goes to visit her horny friend Vicky, who promises to open the wine.

While drinking said wine, Mariah and Vicky look into Tess’s background. Mariah notices a small lie, and then Tess’s story just starts unraveling. Mariah is determined to get Tess out of her house.

Tess has plans for her own as well; she seduces a finally shirtless Greg while he is sleeping. Thinking it is his wife Greg has sex with her, Mariah catches them, but Tess’s plan backfires. Mariah kicks Tess out of her house. The police pull up just as Mariah smacks Tess across the face. The police sympathize with Tess because she has tenant rights.

Greg, Jacob, and Mariah leave the house, and Tess uses Greg’s phone to lure Kendra over to the house. Then Tess stabs Kendra with a knife that Greg used earlier in the day—framing him for the murder.

The family returns to the house and finds Tess has left the house. They also find Kendra’s dead body. The police are called, and Greg is arrested his prints were on the murder weapon, and Kendra’s blood is on one of his dress shirts.

In jail, Greg claims his innocence. Mariah believes her husband and vows not to let Tess win. Mariah talks to Jacob, who opens up about the secrets that he has been keeping. He shows her the picture of the house, and Mariah realizes that Tess is Graham’s daughter. Text start coming in from Graham telling Mariah that “she will pay.” While Mariah is distracted with her phone, Tess lures Jacob away with a shiny light and a red kite.

At the house, Tess has set up the noose. (We need to stop using this symbol in pop culture, it is disturbing.) Tess writes a suicide note and plans to stage a suicide. Tess hits Mariah’s arm with a bat and tries to hang Mariah. Jacob grabs the bat and hits Tess with it, freeing his mother. Mariah chokes out Tess with her good arm. Mother and son hug, while Tess lays on the ground.

Tess views herself as a crusader and admits to killing Patty. She is taken into custody, and Greg is released.

Mariah and Greg get married? I thought they were already married. Whatever. The end.

Side Note

Minority Report: Phil, Tess, Crime Scene investigator, Preacher, corrections officers, and prisoners.

I’m not sure if people with mental disabilities were cast in the roles that portrayed them. If so that is very cool of Lifetime.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)