Escaping my Stalker (2020 Lifetime)
Cast: Ezmie Garcia, Andrew James Allen, Alexandra Paul, Linden Ashby.
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Seventeen-year-old Taylor lived on the streets until she was taken in by Larry and Sandy Stewart, who adopted her and gave her a chance at a better life. But the new life Taylor built is threatened when an assailant breaks into her home and seriously wounds her father. Taylor returns to the unforgiving back alleys of Los Angeles to find out who was responsible, triggering a deadly game of cat and mouse with her mysterious stalker.
Thoughts
An old lady looks pictures when a man comes behind her and doesn’t kill her?!? Instead, he tells his grandmother that he has “found her.”
Next, we get some terrible actors playing homeless people in dirty face make up. Is this a community theater production of Oliver? No, this is a very, very bad Lifetime movie.
Taylor used to be homeless and helps kids on the street. Former Baywatch babe and Lifetime movie OG, Alexandra Paul, is Taylor’s adopted mom Sandy. As they leave the homeless shelter, they are watched by a creepy man with a lot of hair. His name is Miles, and he lives with the grandma from the beginning of the movie, and his little brother committed suicide? The grandmother wants revenge on Taylor because she is, in some way, responsible. Miles does his grandmother bidding and is emotionally manipulated by her.
At the skate park, Taylor meets a skater who looks exactly like Miles but isn’t. (Same hair length/color and same forgettable face.) His name is Clu, and they flirt.
Miles sneaks into the house while Taylor’s parents are out with a ski maks, handcuffs and a gun. He almost gets Taylor, but her parents come home early. Taylor’s adopted dad, Jeff, struggles with Miles and gets shot in the leg. Sandy runs upstairs and screams, “WHAT HAPPENED?!” repeatedly.
“Cool” skateboarding happens, and then Clu and Taylor are almost run over by a car Miles is driving. Clu saves Taylor, and they realize that someone is “stalking” Taylor… or TRYING TO KILL HER. Taylor blames her rough past and associating with the wrong people when she lived on the street. Taylor promises her parents that she will be careful. However, she recruits Clu to look into her dangerous past with her. Cue a montage of Taylor skateboarding around town and talking to the bad POC.
Meanwhile, Miles has been working at the homeless shelter the whole time and is close friends with Sandy and Larry. This is how he has been keeping tabs on Taylor. He meets Clu at the shelter and then later kills him with a pocket knife. Before Clu dies, he texts Taylor a warning about Miles. Miles steals his phone and sets up a meeting with Taylor.
Thinking she is meeting Clu, in a dark abandoned warehouse, Taylor is almost kidnapped again but is saved by Danger Z. (Who also gets shot by Miles.) The police arrive and take them into custody for shooting a firearm. Taylor makes bail, thanks to her wealthy white adopted parents. They lecture her until she tells them that she suspects Miles. They call their hacker friends and learn that the info he gave them was fake. (except for his first name.)
Taylor realizes that she knows Miles’s brother. He is one of the street kids she tried to save. She couldn’t stay with him because the nice white people saved her and not him. Taylor blames herself, and her parents immediately talk her out of that thinking. They go to the police to show them what they have learned.
Taylor runs away to save her family from Miles; it doesn’t work because Miles holds them hostage, anyway. He calls Taylor to arrange a meeting while his grandmother talks to Sandy, who is tied up. The grandmother does her villain monologue and who cares. Taylor shows up and is annoyed to see Sandy almost being killed. When she learns that Clu was murdered, Taylor looks indifferent.
Larry gets freed by the boy from the beginning of the movie. Taylor doesn’t need saving, which could be the one redeeming quality in this movie. She grabs the gun from Miles and holds him at gunpoint while his grandmother yells kill orders. Miles disobeys his grandmother and leaves the house, walking right into a police barricade.
Taylor goes to see Miles in prison because… why not!.
Side Note
Minority Report: Taylor, James, Danger Z, Joe X, Detective Salzman
I hated the white savior trope being used here and all the POC actors being “gang bangers” or homeless.
The actor who played Larry directed the movie as well.
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Overall rating
🔪 (1 Knife)
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime
What do you have against white people? It appears that you’re white so isn’t that a little self loathing?
It’s so tiring to see if white people choose to be helpful to another race then they’re just trying to be ‘saviors’ and it doesn’t come from any sincere human place. Then of course if they’re indifferent or jerks they’re just being self centered ‘typical’ whites! The movie itself was a little corny but somewhat different than the usual lifetime fare. It’d be nice to read a review that didn’t have so much blatant hate towards one race. Sheesh.
I liked it
I loved this movie it was decent but me being a true crime junk I am like but did the ever find clu body or was he even reported as missing beside Taylor talking about her concern about it
Shame that you have to be prejudice against white people.
Normally I love your reviews, but I have to disagree with your biased view. I was one of these street kids (I currently joke that I was raised by wolves, but mainly myself), and help (and hurt) comes from all colors. Right or wrong, white people are the majority (by a wide mile) of the population, and so they are the color of the face you’re most likely to see from “help”. That doesn’t mean POC (or other minorities) don’t care, but REALISTICALLY, a white face will often be who you are dealing with. This has nothing to do with saviors or villains, and we could dive in and discuss the socioeconomic causes of why most gang members are POC. BUT that has NOTHING to do with good people helping children in need.
Let me tell you two horror stories from my own childhood. My mother was an alcoholic horror show, who kicked me out many times, and then would call the police on me. It would generally take them some time to find me, because unlike other street kids, I went to school, and just crashed where I could. On one of these occasions, a cop came for me, and I did react badly. I was taking care of myself, and even attending school, why was NO ONE HELPING ME! That didn’t excuse my resisting arrest, but I was 14, and pissed for being picked up after being thrown out AGAIN. Everyone in the system went to bat for me, especially one of the guards at the teen jail. She agreed to take me until I was 18, but this was Texas in the ’80’s, and she was gay (and white), and it was a no go. They instead put me in an inner city reform school for girls, even though there was someone willing to help me.
While awaiting transfer, I stayed at a children’s home in Sherman, TX. There was a girl called Rosemary, who was there with her sister. She used to sleep in my bed every night because she was terrified of her father. I think of her often, and wonder if she’s still alive. She’d been mercilessly sexually and physically abused by her father (she had an iron burn on her side), but her whole family blamed her for her father’s arrest, including her sister. While I was there, they found a foster home for these girls, that specialized in this kind of trauma. But they weren’t allowed to go. Why? Because Rosemary and her sister were Hispanic, and the foster parents were white. I can’t tell you how many times I saw that happen. What should it matter if my “savior” was a white, gay woman, who saw I was in need, and WANTED to help? Do you think I cared? Do you think Rosemary did? No, we just wanted someone, of any color, to make us feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, that type of love and security eludes most street kids, as it did me.
You mentioned Linden Ashby directing and starring in the movie. We recently completed his page over at The Lifetime Movies Wiki, and he has a good heart, probably coming from his mother, who spent her life working for the good of others. Early in his career, Linden dedicated a lot of his time to an organization called “Thursday’s Child”. People of a certain age (like myself) will remembering seeing it featured on their local news stations. It helped at risk youth, and helped in finding good foster parents for needy children. Good for him for lending his celebrity to such an organization.
To conclude, I hope I have not offended you, and I certainly hope this doesn’t sound like a sermon, but we sometimes have to be reminded that we are all more than the sum of our parts, and we all bleed the same color. There’s no such thing as cultural appropriation, we are all the same culture, the human race. We all love, feel and grieve the same. Separation only hurts us, let’s try to celebrate each other’s good works.
Thank you for sharing, no offense taken at all! I appreciate you sharing and for the backstory on the director. I appreciate your insights, as always 😊