Home Invasion (2012 Lifetime)

Home Invasion

Stars: Haylie Duff, Lisa Sheridan, Jason Brooks and Barbara Nevin

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
After a woman kills a home invasion robber in self-defense, his vengeful girlfriend befriends her at a crime victim support group and sets about trying to destroy her life.

Thoughts

The movie starts off with happy family playing frisbee on the beach. (They have an adopted daughter who is afraid of swimming. It will come back, I promise.)

Haylie Duff (Jade) is rolling with some sketchy dudes with neck tattoos. (Will, her boyfriend and Ray.) She has brown hair are is their getaway driver, I guess. They burgle houses and on this particular day, they pick the house of the happy family. The mother and adopted daughter are on their way home (The husband had to go to meet with his AA sponsor.) and arrive mid burglary. The men are in masks and wielding weapons. The creepy neck tattoo guy holds a knife to the little girls neck and the boyfriend takes mom to find valuables in the house. Haylie Duff’s boyfriend starts kissing the mom and telling her they will have a good time later. He tells her to come with him to the bank and withdraw money and then forces her to open a safe… which has a gun inside. The mom slowly takes out one item at a time and the finally get the gun and shoots the boyfriend dead. The daughter calls 911, because she is clearly very calm under pressure.

Haylie Duff is the worst look out/get away driver. She doesn’t warn them when the owner of the home pull in the driveway, and then, she asks a million questions instead of driving away… her one job! She is really upset that her boyfriend is dead. (Which is understandable) What is not understandable is that she wants to go back to the crime scene. Ray, the neck tattoo guy, tells her they will never go back.

To update on names: Nicole is the mother, Abby is the daughter, and Eric is the (maybe) husband. Nicole is worried that the other burglar will come back, but don’t worry because that NEVER happens. (According to the snide cop.) I guess they never met Haylie Duff because on her way to Reno with the other burglar, she stops to pee in the woods. (AKA knockout Ray with a rock and steal his car. We see that Ray is not dead, but banged up and stranded in the woods.) Hailey returns to the home, parks the car, and waits outside while chewing gum.

Nicole is very suspicious and is constantly looking over her shoulder. She should be traumatized, she killed a man in her home and his blood is still all over the carpet. (The police didn’t want that for evidence or somethings?) Nicole goes to work (she is followed by Haylie Duff who is trailing her.) She is opening a restaurant and her gay restaurant manager tells her to join a support group and also the lunch specials, just kidding.

Haylie Duff continues to be Nicole’s shadow and chew knock off Big Red. She even fantasizes about hitting Nicole with a crowbar. At this time, we also check in on Ray who is walking back to town from the middle of nowhere woods. He is pissed and still has a neck tattoo.

Nicole sleeps with a knife by her bed now and almost stabs her daughter who she thinks in a home invader. Abby tells Nicole that she is scared and they promise not to let anything happen to one another. I’m wondering where the husband is but maybe he is just a boyfriend? Need some clarification, Lifetime. Nicole realizes she almost stabbed her daughter and that she needs help and goes to that support group. Who is in group with her… Haylie Duff!!! (Who also shares about her grief over her “husband” but really boyfriend, who Nicole killed.)

Over coffee, Haylie Duff pretends to be a woman called Megan. She almost blows her own cover when she calls Will her boyfriend instead of her husband. This must be her first crime. Nicole invites her to check out her new restaurant. They are becoming fast friends.

Ray is VERY determined to get back to LA and breaks into a cabin in the woods and eats dog food. Haha, okay?!?! This plot line is getting really strange.

Barbara Nevin makes her appearance as the child therapist. She is handling the adoption and is worried with all the things that have gone wrong it wouldn’t look good for the adoption agency. Eric isn’t Nicole’s husband, they in fact, aren’t even dating. She wants him to get sober and get his life together and if they hadn’t broken up when they did she would have never found Abby to adopt. Nicole promises to think about getting back with Eric after Abby is legally her child. (Which seems fair.)

Haylie Duff is learning about Nicole too. She watches videos of them (they are clips from previously in the movie that she stole from a videocamera?) and she has printed out pictures of them that she shuffles through menacingly.

At the restaurant’s grand opening, Haylie Duff shows up and is all deck out. She is set on sabotage and pours something in the salad dressing. Nicole almost catches her, but then just invites her to join their table. Nicole then promptly encourages her to try the salad dressing. (It is an old family recipe, with a little extra ingredient that Nicole wasn’t planning on.) Conveniently enough, Haylie Duff is a private swim instructor and can help Abby with her swimming. (Remember, Abby can’t swim!?) Everyone eats the salad except for Haylie Duff who is allergic to nuts. (It is a pine-nut salad dressing.)

Nicole goes to the hospital after she gets really sick. Turns out a lot of people who ate at the restaurant got sick too and now the restaurant’s reputation is ruined. The restaurant is shut down and gay cook is REALLY mad about it and quits. (He is being called the poison chef and has no show of getting on the next Queer Eye Remake.)

Haylie Duff comes over and helps Abby with her swimming while really just restraining herself from pushing the kids head under water. Abby, I gotta say is doing really good for someone who is afraid of the water. Haylie tells her to practice every day, but don’t let her mommy see and ruin the surprise. While she is getting changed, Haylie Duff makes imprints of the house keys and sees the spot where Will was killed. She asks Nicole a bunch of questions about the burglary while menacingly holding a letter opener.

Abby goes swimming by herself (it is what Haylie Duff tells her to do!) and starts to struggle. Eric and Nicole are fighting inside until Eric hears Abby’s calls for help and jumps in the pool for to save her. Abby tells Nicole that Haylie Duff told her to do it. Nicole confronts Haylie Duff and fires her on the spot. (Love this no BS character.)

Haylie Duff just hears fire and lights the whole restaurant on fire. Nicole suspects the second burglar and goes to the cops, who don’t seem to see how it adds up. He blames Nicole because she had the most to gain and again is just the WORST.

Ray (the dog food eating criminal with a neck tattoo) has been hold up in the cabin. When the owner comes back she notices the dog food is eaten and looks around her house with a log, haha. Ray ties her up and steals her car. He is heading back to LA! (We never see the cabin lady again, and I hope she is okay.)

Haylie Duff is set on destroying Nicole. She calls child services and Barbara Nevin is not impressed, she tells her that the almost drowning will have to be reported. The next day the adoption interview is scheduled to take place, however the police show up and look around the premises. They find what they are looking for because Haylie Duff had planted evidence to incriminate Nicole. The detective is mid telling Nicole that he will arrest her if this evidence checks out when (of course) Barbara Nevin arrives at the worst time and takes Abby away in to child protective services.

The next day, Nicole is surprised to see Haylie Duff at her door. She has shown up with a gift basket and to apologize. She overhears Nicole’s conversation with Eric, and hears Eric’s home address. Haylie Duff goes to the house and is followed by Ray. She is intending on killing him, but Ray punches her. Eric comes home and gets into an altercation with Ray, but Ray knocks him out with a frying pan Then Haylie Duff kills Ray with a knife and makes it look Eric did it. Nicole shows up and calls an ambulance.

Eric is in the hospital and the police realize that they were wrong. Eric admits that he doesn’t remember stabbing anyone, but the police laugh it off, “it is probably just your concussion.” Things aren’t adding up and Nicole is going to take matters into her own hands. She goes to Ray’s house and snoops around. She finds Haylie Duff’s Hot Red gum (the Big Red knockoff) and is piecing everything together. Nicole tells Eric everything and they hatch a plan to catch her.

Nicole leaves Eric home alone, knowing she is being followed by Haylie Duff. When Haylie Duff goes inside the house to syringe Eric with a deadly substance she is surprised to find Nicole in the house with a gun and a camera recording the whole thing. Nicole tells her that she is pathetic and her boyfriend, Will, was going to rape her. Haylie Duff injects herself with the substance, but it was empty? The woman struggle and Haylie Duff gets shot in the stomach but makes it to her car. She attempts to drive away but suddenly sees her boyfriend get in the car and they drive off into the sun set… just kidding she dies in the car with her head on the steering wheel.

The happy family is back on the beach. This time they really are a happy family. Eric and Nicole are getting married and Abby is their daughter. (Who can swim.) Awwwwww.

Side Note

Director Doug Campbell has directed 27 feature films for television in the last nine years, which are still airing on a rotating basis.

Haylie Duff has been in at least 27 TV movies

Overall rating

🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required)