Pretty Little Dead Girl (2020 Lifetime)
Cast: Makenzie Vega, Johannah Newmarch, Ben Cotton, Ben Wilkinson
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Emma, the lucky recipient of a recent heart transplant, sets out to find her donor’s identity only to learn that it was her estranged cousin who may have been the victim of murder.
Thoughts
The movie begins with a disclaimer that true events inspired the film. Then we see a woman in her car unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. I think she dies? The editing here is a little confusing.
Cut to Emma, who has recently had a heart transplant and the scar to go with it. She has a nightmare about the heart donor, and Emma asks her mother who the donor was. Sharon is not forthcoming with information and seems to be withholding. Garret, Emma’s father, does not take her recovery and makes light of everything, much to Sharon’s annoyance. Emma wants her independence back and to stop being babied.
Emma notices her mother talking angrily to Aunt Tanya on the phone. Tanya’s daughter (Emma’s Cousin) Constance committed suicide. Emma looks into Constance’s death because her aunt hasn’t been around since the surgery. Emma visits Tanya, who is paranoid and depressed. Emma’s worst fears are confirmed. Her cousin’s heart is in her body, and no one told her.
Next, Emma starts skipping school to meet with Contance’s old roommate named Seth. They break into a swanky apartment that Constance was staying in, but no one knew. The apartment seems to belong to Constance and a man named Peter. In the bedroom is a lot of sexy lingerie. Constance was a hooker, and Peter was her pimp. Seth seems distraught by the news and breaks a photo of the two together.
Detective Roberts is on the case and starts digging around on the closed case. She eventually gets security footage.
Emma tries to put everything she learned behind her and goes back to school. She dates a goober named Mark and dodges calls from Seth, who has more news. Emma realizes that her new debate team coach is Peter is the county prosecutor and the man pimping out Constance.
Peter has a police officer pick up Emma and bring him to her. He tells Emma that he will not be blackmailed. He offers to give her a ride home, but Emma declines and walks home. When Emma gets home, she collapses, and her parents rush Emma to the hospital. She recovers quickly but sees her parents are terrified. When she is released, Emma is grounded.
That doesn’t last long. Mark sneaks Emma out of the house, and she goes to find Seth. Seth has been in jail because his prints were found in the apartment. Emma goes back to the apartment with the intent to entrap Peter by seducing him on video. Peter falls for it and pours up some wine and spills all his secrets on tape and even gets violent. When Emma spills a glass of wine, Peter sees the camera and is caught.
Emma’s mom shows up in the apartment with a gun and screams at Peter and shoots him. The detective bursts in and arrests Emma’s mom for the murder of Constance. She killed her niece to get her heart and save her daughter. Sharon stage the murder to look like a suicide and confesses everything in an interrogation room. She is booked and thrown in jail.
Emma goes back to her normal like and wins the debate team match? (Is that what you call it? I did theatre.) Seth visits Emma and asks her out on a date. They walk out hand in hand. The end!
Side Note
Minority Report: Doctor Stevens, Tina,
Also known as Her Secret Killer or Murder of the Heart
Filmed in 2016 but not released in the US until December 2020.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 Lifetime
