A Killer in My Home (2020 Lifetime)

A Killer in My Home (2020 Lifetime)

Stars: Bree Williamson, Hannah Vandenbygaart, Percy Hynes White, Krista Bridges, Mishael Morgan, Damon Runyan

Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast here!

Please buy me a coffee (or glass of 🍷) Support Lifetime Uncorked by leaving a $3 tip. 

Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Allison Winters’ perfect world falls apart when her husband dies of a sudden heart attack. What she wasn’t expecting was him to announce on his deathbed that he has a secret family! Six months later, Jenna and her teenage son Joshua arrive on Allison’s doorstep, determined to be a part of her and daughter Hollie’s lives… no matter what.

Thoughts

At a fancy party, a woman in a red ballgown is abducted in a thunderstorm. 

The next morning or earlier in the timeline it is unclear… The woman in the red ballgown is not kidnapped or wearing a red dress. Her name is Holly and she is going off to college. Allison is Holly’s mom and she is throwing her daughter a graduation party. Allison’s husband has a heart attack and later is dying in a hospital bed. As he lays dying he introduces his wife to his illegitimate emo teen son named Joshua. 

Flash forward to 8 months later. Allison is opening a restaurant or throwing a gala for heart disease awareness? The chef catches someone going through Allison’s phone and confronts them. The chef gets violently thrown down the stairs and dies. The suspects are Melissa the BFF, Joshua the emo son who worked in the kitchen, and Holly’s boyfriend who went to the bathroom at an inopportune time.

Jenna, the other woman, and Joshua’s mom finds Allison and asks her for money. She begs for help one second and threatens legal action the next. Allison is not able to help because she is still angry and needs to take care of her own daughter. Jenna reminds Allison of the promise she made her husband on his death bed. As they are talking Joshua is playing the piano dramatically underscoring the whole conversation. Allison caves and lets them move into the guest house. THE GUEST HOUSE!!!! (Allison is selfish as hell, she had a guest house and made Jenna beg?)

The guest house is incredibly nice and plenty big enough for an entire family. Allison isn’t thrilled to have Jenna and Joshua living there and asks Melissa to investigate Jenna. Jenna has a criminal background and used to teach piano. Jenna also is abusive to her son and has a short fuse. When he says Allison is nice, Jenna throws a sandwich at him and hits him in the head. (WTF!)

Allison is left to babysit Joshua who is “on the spectrum” according to Jenna. Allison gives him new shoes and talks about his dad and her childhood, she too was socially awkward and brushing horses helped her. She takes Joshua to the stables and talks about love. Holly is less welcoming and is flat out rude to him, she catches him going through her bag and calls Joshua a freak. Hayden, her boyfriend, even beats him up. Holly and her boyfriend suck.

Damon Runyan plays a car salesman for some reason. Holly really wants to buy a car with her dead dad’s money. Allison realizes that her husband left her a MILLION DOLLARS. Melissa tells Allison to turn her millions of dollars into much more, with a fancy gala. (Finally, we learn that Allison is an event planner. This movie is so poorly written.)

As Holly is studying someone in a black hoodie ransacks the house and steals her phone. Allison comes home and finds a broken picture and the front door wide open. The hoddie person slams Allison against the wall and steals the wedding ring off her finger. The thief took over $30,000 worth of goods. Detectives are called and Holly blames Joshua and Jenna but the two have an alibi. (Piano lessons with the mayor’s daughter.)

Holly continues to be an awful brat with terribly unflattering clothing. She refuses a car gifted to her by Melissa because it is “too old.” Then she screams at Allison in a teenage angst-ridden rage about her dad’s legacy. (But really money she thinks she is entitled to.) 

Jenna takes shower in the guest house and puts on a wedding ring while saying “I do” in the mirror. Then she plays the piano and in Allison’s husband’s shirt. Jenna buys Joshua a new car and is REALLY comically excited about it. It is the car that Holly wanted. Jenna has crossed a line.

Holly breaks up with Hayden when he vandalizes Josh’s car. She calls him a loser and then starts hanging out with Josh. Josh is thrilled to have a friend and opens up about Jenna’s influx of money. They also bond over horses. When they arrive home they see a bunch of people partying in the front yard. Jenna is hanging out with Damon Runyan and his biker friends. Allison is about to throw Jenna out, but Jenna shows Allison the wedding ring and claims one of her friends “found it.”

Melissa puts together that Jenna and Damon Runyan are dating and planning to ditch Josh with Allison and run off together. Melissa goes over to his house alone to confront him. Which is a mistake? It is nighttime and she snoops around with a flashlight. She breaks into the house through a bathroom window and continues to look around. Melissa finds tickets or something, but Damon Runyan catches her and beats her with a baseball bat. (She is fine, just in the hospital.)

Allison confronts Jenna and threatens to go to the cops. Jenna blames Hayden. The detectives, Holly, and Allison all go over to Hayden’s house and he claims that he has been framed. He did tamper with Holly’s college application to try and get her to stay in town and not leave him.

We are finally back at the night of the big fancy party from the beginning of the movie. Jenna and Joshua are there too. Holly in her red dress is lured outside by Joshua and kidnapped in a thunderstorm. It was Damon Runyan and Joshua who took her. They hold her in the horse stables as she screams for her life. Joshua cries while holding Holly hostage with a pitchfork. It is as ridiculous as it sounds.

Allison is confronted by Jenna and Damon Runyan. They show her footage of Joshua with the pitchfork. They tell her that if Allison doesn’t transfer the million dollars to their Cayman Island account, Joshua will kill Holly. 

Allison knows Joshua isn’t really dangerous and so does Holly. Holly annoyingly shouts at Joshua to let her go. 

In the most anticlimactic fight scene, I’ve ever seen. Holly headbutts Jenna and Joshua pitchforks, Damon Runyan. They die? Everyone is saved?

Holly goes to college in Joshua’s car and he rides a horse. This movie was terrible 

Side Note

Minority Report: Tru, Melissa, Detective, 

This movie is a HOT MESS. Poorly written, acted, and confusing as hell. Waste of time.

Don’t forget to listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

 Donate to keep the blog and podcast going 😊

Overall rating

🔪 ( Knife)

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)

*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime