The Little Girl Who Lived Lifetime Movie 2025
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Cast: Brittany Bristow, Marcus Rosner, Elizabeth Longshaw, Jocelyn Chugg
Director: Dylan Pearce
Writer(s): Peter McLeod
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
At age eight, Alice spent four days at the mercy of The Strigoi, a serial killer who would kidnap children from their family homes in the dead of night, never to be seen again. Alice was the only child to escape to tell the tale.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie begins at a cabin in the woods, and a little girl is running from a creepy balding man. She drops her butterfly necklace, but makes it to safety when she runs into a Canadian Jogger, who politely takes the kidnapped child to the authorities.
Alice Kerrigan is a successful crime author who tells the story of the little girl in her most recent novel, The Murderer in My Mind. Claire, a super fan, is front and center at a book reading event and asks personal questions. Alice was the little girl from the beginning of the movie and was abducted by a serial killer. Alice teases her next book about her first-hand experience. CLAIRE FREAKS OUT. She is, like, too excited.
Lucky for Alice, her sister, Emma, is a police officer, and her abductor is not too old to be a threat to her. She still has residual trauma and is generally a jumpy person. Being in her hometown and her childhood home brings up some old wounds for Alice. The sisters get into an argument and go to bed angry.
In the middle of the night, Alice is woken up by a noise. When she goes to investigate, she finds someone has broken the window with a brick and left a note. It reads:
“You don’t know my story well enough to tell it. Maybe she (meaning Emma) will.” There is also a box with the butterfly necklace.
A hot detective, Marcus Rosner, asks Alice some questions, and she becomes agitated that he isn’t out there searching for her sister. Marcus Rosner is dumbfounded, and he explains that Emma has been on administrative leave following an incident on the job, and her drinking problem has worsened. Alice is incredulous when he tells her to wait 48 hours, in case Emma is just out on a bender.
Emma is, of course, actually kidnapped by the same guy who took Alice as a kid. He is creepy and locks her in a room covered in plastic. All the scenes with him are super scary.
Alice gets her true crime writer on and builds a serial killer wall to tie the pieces together. She looks into other cases that involved the kidnapper, but the brick appears to be the brick itself, marked with the number 55868. Alice calls the manufacturer with no luck, but when she runs into super fan Claire, Alice gets the help she needs.
Claire works with Alice on finding Emma and decoding the kidnapper’s MO. They gather that old people like playing chess, so they go to an outdoor chess table in the park to interrogate guys with walkers. Alice is ANGRY.
Next, they talk about dead nine-year-olds, so that isn’t fun. Claire offers to drive to interrogate their next suspect, and Alice falls asleep in the car. She has nightmares about being strangled. They end up at a restaurant and speak with the owner, pretending to be interested in purchasing the property. While Claire goes for the hard sell, Alice snoops around and finds a book marked “Payroll” and steals it. The owner chases after them with a kitchen knife, but they manage to escape.
They look through the box and find that an employee’s house is up for sale. Could Emma be held captive there? As Claire talks to the relitor, Alice looks around behind and finds bricks just like the ones she has. Emma’s shirt is also buried in the backyard with some animal bones. (Ewww!)
Claire and Alice visit an elderly lady in a nursing home with a nurse who has a sexy accent. Her name is Rebecca, and she is the owner of the Animal Bone House. Her son Steven is a great guy, according to his mother. He works at a veterans’ soup kitchen. Rebecca shares that her husband tries to toughen up Steven by physically abusing him, which upsets her.
Emma, remember her, she is still tied up. She tries to escape and manages to get outside, but she is abducted again.
Detective Marcus Rosner returns, and he almost has a mulet. Alice shares what she knows and tells him about Steven. They hug it out after a decidedly not romantic conversation, and then they notice a break-in at Alice’s house.
Alice thinks things aren’t adding up, and Alice looks up Clair online. Claire is a freak and is too interested in Alice’s kidnapping past on her blog. Alice discovers Claire is another kidnapped kid who didn’t get away. Alice blows off a coffee date with Claire to upset her. Claire storms off, and Alice trails her in her car to a No Exit Zone.
The road leads Alice deep into the woods and back to the cabin of her nightmares. The cabin Alice escaped from when she was a child. Alice creeps through the house, experiencing flashes of memory. Claire jumps out with a knife and strangles Alice. Alice manages to get away, and so does Emma.
Emma tries to chase after Alice’s car, but Claire tackles her and takes her back into captivity.
Alice speeds away, and the police pull her over. She tries to tell them about Emma and the cabin, but they have a hot tip that Alice is unhinged and drunk. While police run her place, Alice talks to her balding kidnapper on the phone and cries REAL TEARS! (This does not happen often on LMN.)
Thankfully, Marcus Rosner arrives on the scene and listens to Alice. She shares what she knows, but it isn’t solid evidence. IF HE TURNS OUT TO BE A BAD GUY, I WILL FLIP A TABLE!
Alice checks into a hotel, which needs to learn how to make their beds better, and has a full-on panic attack, which is fair! She pulls herself together and her hair into a ponytail and gets back to work. Alice looks up a medication that was found in her car and learns that Steven is sick and dying. She grabs a pair of handcuffs and goes back out to trick Claire.
Alice gets into Claire’s backseat and strangles her until she passes out. Then she handcuffs her and throws her in the backseat. Alice holds Claire and the medication hostage in exchange for her sister. Steven asks her to meet him on a rooftop garden; he is a plant enthusiast.
Through a voiceover, Alice explains everything to Detective Marcus Rosner, and he accompanies her to the rooftop, accompanied by other officers.
Alice comes face-to-face with her kidnapper and demands to know where her sister is. He tells her he will trade Emma for Alice and wants to jump off the roof together. Their stories are linked and should end together.
Detective Marcus Rosner and his bois rush in and pull their guns on Steven. Steven has a coughing fit due to his Stage 4 Cancer and falls over the edge. Detective Marcus Rosner grabs Alice, and then they rescue Emma from captivity.
Emma and Alice enjoy a dinner while Alice writes on a notes app. The dinner looks pretty good, actually.
One year later, Alice has another hit book called Surviving the Storm. Co-Authorized yt Charlie/Claire.
STRAY Thoughts
Marcus Rosner was not shirtless in this one, and THAT is the true crime.
Yay, Brittany Bristow in her first Lifetime thriller.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪 (1 knife)
Lifetime Tropes:
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 Glasses of Wine)
Should you watch it?
Pour it Up (Give it a shot!)
Put a Cork in It (Skip It!)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media at @LifetimeUncorked and @patrickmiguel.
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*Photo Credit: © 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
I love seeing actors & actresses who usually do Hallmark flicks Star in Lifetime thrillers.
I know! When they can nail both styles, it is awesome.
“Let me call my boyfriend first” was the nail in the coffin of me knowing she was in on everything. Why do main characters immediately trust perfect strangers, letting them into their personal spaces?! Such an annoying dangerous trait in a heroine. Is it just me or did the cop look like he was wearing a wig in some scenes? Enter the creepy house without a weapon?! Another annoying dumb trait.