Killer Under the Bed (2018 Lifetime)
Stars: Kristy Swanson, Brec Bassinger, Madison Lawlor
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
After her husband dies, Sarah moves her daughters Chrissy and Kilee to a new city. Kilee hates the move, feeling that they’re running away from her dad’s memory. When she’s bullied at school and is endlessly fighting with her sister, it feels like the world is against her, until she discovers a doll, riddled with pins, in her backyard shed. She soon comes to believe that the doll holds supernatural powers, but when it starts acting on its own, Kilee becomes concerned about what she might have unleashed on the people in her life.
Thoughts
A woman screams to be left alone while hiding in a shed. She is definitely not left alone and is murdered.
One year later. Recently widowed, Sarah and her daughters Kilee (the one who wears a jean jacket) and Chrissy (the one who has an attitude problem.) move into a new home. The sisters bicker about who gets what room like they are children. Sarah is at her wit’s end and misses her husband terribly. Kilee (the jean jacket girl.) goes into the shed and finds a creepy voodoo doll and brings it to her room. She removes the pins and then researches what a voodoo doll is online. She puts the doll under her bed.
At their new school, Kilee is blackmailed by a popular girl named Trina. She asks for $100 to post on social media endorsing Kailee. If Kailee doesn’t pay up, Tina will start a rumor about her. Tina delivers and makes fun of Kilee for having a crush on Mr. McCabe. (He IS a hot teacher. Who wouldn’t have a crush.) Tina decides she wants the jean jacket instead of the money.
Sarah starts her new job as a dentist at her friend, Dr. Abbott’s practice. The other female dentist, Dr. Ryder, is jealous of Sarah and thinks she is trying to steal the practice out from under her. She is a bully, also.
After getting in a fight with Chrissy, who refuses to stick up for her sister at school, Kilee resorts to the voodoo doll. The next morning Chrissy’s leg huts in the very spot that Kilee suck the voodoo doll. She realizes the power she has. (This reminds me of a b-plot in Teen Witch, if you have never seen it. Check it out here.) At school, Tina tries to rip the jacket off Kilee’s body but ends up ripping the coat and laughing at her. Tina tells Kilee to watch her back, but Tina should be careful! Kilee gets out her voodoo doll and uses it against Tina and pokes the doll in the face. The results are immediate, and Tina has an allergic reaction making her lips swell up,
Kilee puts a love spell with the voodoo doll on her teacher Mr. McCabe, and things get weird. He starts hitting on her and asking her out on dates. Later, she uses the doll on Dr. Ryder to be kind to her mother.
Chrissy learns about the doll and thinks her sister is crazy. She grabs the doll and throws it in the trash. The next morning the spells intensify on everyone. (Mr. McCabe crops Kilee face and put it on a wedding photo, Dr. Ryder has a meltdown in the office.) The doll also puts itself in Kilee’s backpack. Kilee knows she messed up and checks out an “Occult” book. Tina is back to normal and bullies Kailee finding the doll in the bag and stealing it.
Tina throws the doll in her trunk and pricks her arm with the needle. The doll comes to life and stabs Tina in the face with a nail file, over and over. The paramedics are called, and Tina is wheeled away talking about Karma.
After school, Mr. McCabe tries to kidnap Kilee because he is obsessed with her. He even says, “I’m just a boy with a girl, telling her I love her.” (Eye roll.) Kilee tells him that she doesn’t love him or want to be with him. She tries to tell the voodoo doll to make it stop, but it only makes things worse. He chases her through the woods. Kilee gets away and buries the doll. She thinks it is all over and tells her sister and mother. Of course, it isn’t, and the doll’s hand pops out from the shallow grave like a zombie movie. (WTF!)
Mr. McCabe attacks Kilee in the library the next morning, and she knows that the voodoo doll is back. Kilee tries to warn Chrissy about her leg and her mother to be careful of Dr. Ryder. It is too late, Dr. Ryder ties up Sarah to the dentist chair and has truly lost her mind, going all psycho dentist planning to remove all of Sarah’s teeth. Sarah frees herself and tases Dr. Ryder and gets away.
Kilee visits the girl from the beginning of the movie named Mandy. Mandy is in a mental institution and talks about how the voodoo doll killed her mother. Mandy tells Kilee how to put the voodoo doll to sleep. Then she goes into a seizure.
Kilee gathers all her things to put the voodoo to sleep and gets to work. Mr. McCabe attacks her in the house, but she is saved by the voodoo doll who kills him. Sarah and Chrissy come home and are very confused about the killer doll. Then they see the doll by the fireplace. (LOL!)
The Voodoo doll hurts Chrissy’s leg, and Kilee hits the doll into the fireplace. The doll rises from the ashes and crawls out of the fireplace and is angry. It possesses Chrissy, and she chases Sarah and Kilee around the house. Sarah defends herself with a lacrosse stick and fights the voodoo doll and ties him up. They hang the doll and put pins in it, putting it to sleep. (Seeing this poor actress acting their hearts out for something so stupid was sad. This is what has become of Kristy Swanson‘s career?)
The family hug and are happy; it is all over. Mr. McCabe wakes up and is not dead or is obsessed with Kilee again. They move out of the house and leave the doll behind. Mandy from the mental institution breaks in and wakes it up again.
Side Note
Minority Report: Dr. Abbott, Barbie, Nurse Allison, Paramedic,
I’m not sure what was going on over at LMN during 2018, but these horror movies of the week are not doing it for me.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 🍷 ((5 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2018 Lifetime
It’s actually Tina, the bully, who breaks in and wakes the doll up, not Mandy.
Thank you for the correction! Pour it up for you!