A Young Father’s Nightmare (2025 Lifetime Movie)
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Cast: Andrew Reid, John Castle, Kate Dailey
Director: Ben Meyerson
Writer(s): Paul Howard Hunt
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Lifetime)
Tom and Bethany seem to have a perfectly happy life, even with the surprise of having their son Liam as teenagers. The night they become engaged, Bethany and Liam go missing. When a body is discovered and reported as Bethany’s, Tom makes it his mission.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie starts where most Lifetime movies start: a cabin in the woods. This time, a girl is trapped in a burning garage.
A college-aged, attractive couple, Tom and Beth, celebrate their son’s first birthday. They get keys to a th family cabin, which might be a bad thing. Beth’s look-a-like, Sophia, is dating a showy guy named Mikey, who is a co-worker of Tom. (They are both in med school.) Tom plans to propose to Beth at the cabin. Now that they have the keys and all.
Tom’s mother gives him a family heirloom ring, which might be a bad omen, because she is divorced and dating a new man named Ross. Tom blames himself for his parents’ divorce because it happened after he told them he got Beth pregnant.
At the cabin, they will take a selfie when they arrive. (What is this 2009?) Then Tom proposes by a fireplace and tells Beth she is a fantastic mother. Beth hesitates, but eventually says yes. Then she vanishes, after crying on the phone to someone in the middle of the night.
Tom calls his mother, and they get the police involved because Liam, the baby, is also MIA. It looks like Beth packed her bags. Tom gets a voicemail from Beth that says she has run off and is sorry. Case closed? Or is it AI? Nothing can be taken at face value anymore because of stupid AI. People reading this article probably think I am AI. (I’m me, but I did fail a CAPTCHA the other day and was worried.)
Police search the woods with their dogs and booming bass voices. “BETHANY, THIS IS THE POLICE.” Tom isn’t there and spends more time looking at videos on his phone than searching for his fiancée. They find her body face down in a ditch, and things aren’t looking good for Tom. There is an incriminating video of Beth claiming that a man is “hurting” her and “manipulating” her.
Jackie, Tom’s mother, gives the phone to Ross, even though it is incriminating. Ross helps the mother and son figure out what is going on. Ross is quick to blame Mikey. Because Beth told Ross that Mikey hit on her. Then Mikey shows up and asks where Sophia is, because she broke up with him and is missing too. (Why are all the actresses missing in this movie?)
The movie meanders as Tom looks for evidence. Later, he searches through Beth’s childhood bedroom and talks with her dad. He finds a picture or pamphlet for a paternity test.
The video leaks, and someone vandalizes Tom’s mom’s store. Then Tom is kidnapped.
Ross and Beth have been working together, and the baby is actually his. Ross planned to marry Tom’s mom for money or something.
Jackie rushes to save her son, and Tom is very confused when Beth unties him and tells him that she got the baby from Ross. Beth tells Tom that the leaked video was about Ross being manipulative and dangerous, not about Tom. Tom is like, Why wrap me up in this? Beth admits she made some poor choices.
There is A LOT of exposition and backpedaling. It is tedious and uninteresting. Her monologue is cut short by the smell of smoke. It is Jackie who is trapped in the garage that is on fire.
Beth and Tom try to save Jackie from burning up as the police arrive. Then there is a confrontation with Ross, who killed Sophia because she knew too much, and tried to frame Tom.
Four months later, Tom is still cute and dating Beth?!?! He is also raising the baby that isn’t his? Okay, Lifetime.
STRAY Thoughts
Also Known As: Girlfriend Missing
A male protagonist, on Lifetime? Ewww.
Overall rating
Number of Kills: 🔪 (1 knife)
Lifetime Tropes: Who’s my daddy?, Bad Boyfriend, Mother/Son Relationships, Cabin in the Woods.
Enjoyment Level (1-5 scale)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 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 know right?! I’m so used to the protagonists being female and that’s how it should always be imo. Makes me glad I didn’t watch this. It looked so cheaply filmed anyway.
Weekend filler for sure
Sounds like a real snoozer. Shame, because this sounds like it could have been good.
are you freaking kidding me? I wish they would stop making these movies where the guy ends up being a pussy and looking like he has no self esteem. OK so he and his girlfriend have a baby. She let him think it’s his. She disappears and when he finds her, he finds out that she not only slept with another guy, but it was with his stepfather. And, to top it off, the baby is not even his. Why the hell would they show him take her back at the end? As soon as he found out he should’ve kicked her and her stupid baby to the street. No self-respecting dude would forgive her and get back together with her. These movies are a freaking joke!