Mommy Group Murder (2019 Lifetime)

Mommy Group Murder

Cast: Leah Pipes, Helena Mattson, Ryan Carnes

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

A new mom joins a local mommy group to help her deal with the stress that motherhood is putting on her and her marriage. But she soon learns that membership comes at a price. When a member’s husband turns up dead, our new mom is convinced that one of the other moms is responsible. Now she must discover the truth before something happens to her or her family.

Thoughts

Natalie is a new mom who recently lost her mom to cancer just before her baby was even born. She is REALLY suffering from some postpartum depression and struggles to live up to the perfect memory of her mother. Natalie and her husband, Ryan, have just moved to a new town for his job. In this whole opening sequence, we get shots of the Natalie breastfeeding, shopping online for a jogging stroller, weighing herself, failing at doing yoga, anything to fill her time while her husband is at work.. She is isolated and suffering from depression.

On her neighborhood jog (Along a beautiful lake pathway) Natalie stops to get a drink of water and some punk kids hit the stroller sending it speeding towards the lake. Natalie chases after it and a pretty blond woman named Grace saves her baby. Grace is a, single mother, and is neighbors with Natalie. (Conveniently.) She listens to Natalie and gives her mothering advice. Grace offers Natalie a mimosa and… some breast milk. (TOTALLY NORMAL!) Grace invites Natalie to a mommy group.

Natalie tries to get it on with Ryan, but he turns her down. Natalie goes to relax in a bath and goes to get her baby she falls asleep with the baby in the bathtub and she downs the baby. But it is just a dream, Natalie fell asleep in the bathtub and dreamt the whole thing. Postpartum depression is really fucked up.

Mommy group happens. We finally get some diversity in this movie with Maria (an ER Doctor) and Roz (who worked in the peace corps. Roz is lonely because her husband has been traveling for the peace corps.) They even become instagram friends, which make it official. Natalie wants to get back to being a teacher and doesn’t know what Grace does for a living. In fact she doesn’t know much about Grace at all… On Instagram, someone named Savannah Bowen posts a cryptic comment on Grace’s Instagram. Natalie sees it and is suspicious.

Maria thinks her husband, Tony, is cheating and she waits up for him late at night. Her husband gets home and immediately takes a shower… which means he is cheating. Maria installs a nanny cam in her living room.

Ryan and Natalie throw a party to get to know their neighbors better. Natalie walks in on Tony and Roz arguing inside. Natalie is starting to put things together here. Could Roz and Tony be hooking up? Is Grace hitting on her husband? Natalie confronts her husband and her puts her fears to rest, by doing her in the shower.

The next morning, Natalie goes for a jog with her baby and notices that Grace’s front door is open. Lifetime attempts to go for a jump scare here, but it doesn’t work. Grace pops up and invites Natalie in. Grace tells Natalie that her husband is a catch. Natalie goes to use the bathroom and accidentally uses the wrong door, she sees that the basement door is locked…

Shavanna Bee messages Natalie on Instagram and tells her to say away from Grace, re heal name is Rachel Temple. She googles Rachel Temple and finds her myspace. It is a dark and stormy night. Maria stops by with footage she found on the nanny cam. It isn’t Roz, it is GRACE! Natalie offers for Maria to stay the night. Too bad, Natalie lives right next to Grace because Maria goes over and confronts her.

The next morning, Grace comes over and admits to having an affair to Natalie and Ryan. Natalie doesn’t want to hear it. She asks Grace why she changed her name. Turns out Grace or Rachel or whoever, had her boyfriend die when she was in high school. Rumors followed her that she was a killer. Natalie tells her husband to stay away from Grace. (She is not wrong.)

Natalie and Roz go to lunch. Turns out Roz was confronting Tony because she too was suspicious of Grace. Roz offers to run a background check on Grace. Turns out Maria is missing and not returning any calls. Natalie goes to Maria’s house and Tony tells her that she didn’t come home last night. Tony says that Grace wouldn’t let him break it off, she told him she would hurt herself if he broke up with her.

Savannah Bee and Natalie facetime. Savannah Bee has terrible pink hair and is a barista? She tells Natalie that Grace/Rachel grew up with no family and shot her brother in the back of the head in high school. They couldn’t prove anything so Grace/Rachel skipped town and started a new life.

Grace goes over to Tony’s and tells him that he loves her. He just wants his wife and asks her to leave. Grace grabs a knife out of the kitchen knife block and hold the knife to her wrist. “You can have me or no one can.” and then she asks him to kiss her one last time. Tony does, but then also gets stabbed to death, like a lot. (She cleans up the murder weapon and changes her clothes, but of course, the nanny camera has caught everything.)

Roz finds out that Grace used to live in Mississippi, has never been married, and doesn’t pay a mortgage on her house. It actually is still under the previous owners names….. Maybe they are in the basement?!?!?! Natalie looks on Facebook and sees the owner of the house and recognizes the baby in their picture. It is Rachel/Grace’s “son”. Natalie grabs her baby monitor and runs next door to investigate what is in the basement. She pops off the hinges on the door just as Grace is returning home from her murder.

In the basement, Natalie loses signal on her baby monitor. (Don’t worry she places it at the top of the stairs like a responsible mother.) She finds a freezer but it is locked. Natalie’s daughter begins to cry and so does someone in the basement. They are locked begins a door and Natalie pops open the door handle off. Natalie thinks it is Maria but is isn’t. It is the owner of the house, Lydia Jackson. She is chained and shackled. Turns out Grace was interviewing to be their nanny and became obsessed and took over Lydia’s life. Grace only keeps her alive for her breast milk.

Natalie runs to get help and one she is up the stairs she runs directly into Grace/Rachel with a gun. Grace/Rachel shots Natalie and throws her in the locked freezer.

Ryan comes home and finds his daughter sleeping in her room and his wife nowhere in sight. He calls Roz and she tells him that she knows where Natalie is. Maria was staying at her mom’s house and sees the report of Tony’s murder.

Grace/Rachel is packing her things and goes to Lydia for one last breast pump before she leaves. Lydia stabs Grace/Rachel in the arm with a screwdriver. Grace/Rachel knocks out Lydia and is about to kill her when she hears a knock at the door. It is Roz and she is not buying Grace/Rachel’s story. Roz sneaks into the house to save Natalie, she texts 911 while hiding from Grace/Rachel in the house.

Natalie wakes up in the freezer and is locked in their with Lydia’s husband’s dead body. Natalie kicks open the freezer and crawls up the stairs. She hits Grace/Rachel with a crowbar and saves Roz, who is fighting Rachel/Grace. Grace grabs a fire poker and almost kills Natalie but Lydia shoots Grace/Rachel.

All the moms are safe. Lydia is reunited with her son. Maria has some disturbing footage on her nanny cam, Roz is in the ambulance, and Natalie and Ryan are together. He jokes that Rachel/Grace picked the wrong mommy group. LOL?

At Billy’s birthday party, Lydia tells the moms that all her money has been drained and he house is almost sold. Natalie and Ryan hired Lydia to be their nanny because it takes a tribe to raise a baby. Natalie is going to go back to work as a teacher.

Side Note

Movie is set in Kentucky.

Written & Directed & Edited by Nick Everhart (He does it all!)

Minority Report: Roz & Maria

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Overall rating

🔪🔪 (2 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required)