Amanda By Night
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The Girl Next Door (1998) Directed by: David Greene
Written By: Mel Frohman and Ross Firestone,
Starring: Tracey Gold, Sharon Gless, Tom Irwin
Originally produced for CBS in 1998, The Girl Next Door is a decent time waster about the perils of a weak spirit coerced into committing murder in the name of love – or so she believes.
Tracey Gold has played victim, predator, hero... you name it. Her baby faced, slightly frumpy appearance allows her to take on all kinds of various Lifetime-esque roles, and how can someone not appreciate that? Although I prefer when she’s the psycho, I do like her as various other characters too...
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02/04/10 |
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The Last Bride of Salem (1974) Directed by Tom Donovan
Written by Rita Lakin
Starring Bradford Dillman, Lois Nettleton
ABC, 1974
Review By Amanda Reyes
This Toronto-lensed, shot-on-video thriller originally aired under the ABC Afternoon Playbreak moniker all the way back in 1974. The Playbreak series, which ran from October 31st, 1973 – February 13th, 1975, was a cycle of 90 minute stand alone episodes that would air once a month, preempting the daytime soap programming, and there were about 4 to 5 episodes per season. The afternoon movie format proved to be popular and many of the Playbreaks won Emmys, including The Last Bride of Salem which garnered an award for TV stalwart Bradford Dillman...
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01/24/10 |
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Women of Christmas Horror By Heidi Martinuzzi and Amanda Reyes
We went through the best and worst Christmas movies ever, and picked out the most awesome females from each film for your holiday enjoyment. There are so many wonderful bad horror Christmas movies, it'll make you cry tears. Tears of AWESOME...
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12/24/09 |
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A Few Thoughts on Meredith Baxter's Coming Out Party For anyone who reads my sporadically updated Lifetime Kills column (which I promise to update soon), you are well aware of my love for the basic cable channel that features delish delights of scandalous scandal, tawdry tawdriness and (G-rated) sexy sex. It's Television for Women and by and large it delivers. If you're aware of Lifetime, then certainly you're no stranger to the second half of Meredith Baxter's impressive resume. Maybe it's because of my connection with these movies (and of course, watching her for years on Family Ties), that had me feeling overjoyed watching Meredith on the Today Show when she told Matt Lauer she was gay...
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12/02/09 |
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Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas (2009) Review by Amanda Reyes
Starring Antonio Sabato Jr., Kostas Sommer, Kelly Curran
Directed by Michael Feifer
Written by Michael Feifer, Wood Dickinson, Christopher Ryan
Since Henry was all about confessions, I thought I’d start my review with one: I am a pretty voracious true crime nut and I’ve always been drawn to films about the “superstar” serial killers, such as Dahmer, Bundy and, you guessed it, Henry Lee Lucas. Like good ol’ Ed Gein, Lucas has inspired a tale or two about his supposed rampage across the country. I say supposed because Lucas confessed to a few hundred some odd murders and then rescinded most of them.
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09/01/09 |
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Ultimate Deception (1999) Directed by Richard A. Colla
Written by David Burton Morris, Victoria Wozniak
Starring Yasmine Bleeth, Richard Grieco
1999, USA Network
One of my favorite things about the Lifetime Movie Network (and trust me, I LOVE a lot of things about that channel!) is their True Movie Thursdays. Every week they show two movies based on real life events. They can be about anything although most of the films revolve around murder. I've always been fascinated by how filmmakers take these stories and condense them into two hour movies. Ultimate Deception is an almost a perfect example of how to do it right...
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02/19/09 |
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Sex & Lies in Sin City (2008) Review by Amanda Reyes
Directed by Peter Medak
Written by Teena Booth
Starring Mena Suvari, Matthew Modine, Jonathan Schaech, Marcia Gay Harden
Lifetime Movie Network, 2008
Having been raised in Sin City myself, I have an unhealthy obsession with watching films that take place in my old stomping grounds because from the time I was 7 until I moved away at 25 years of age in 1996, that dang city has changed more often than Liz Taylor changed husbands. I'm also fascinated by the kind of lifestyle that some of the city's more, uh, interesting patrons live. Fittingly, a lot of these citizens are ripe for characterizations in movies. Case in point, Sex & Lies in Sin City is the non-fictional tale about the infamous Ted Binion murder. Unfortunately, it's also full of enough fictional accounting to make you remember why this kind of stuff is supposed to stay in Vegas...
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01/18/09 |
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Her Only Child (2008)
Directed by: Douglas Jackson
Written by: Christine Conradt & Mary Weinstein
Starring: Nicholle Tom, Gwynyth Walsh, Cameron Daddo
Lance Entertainment
I make no excuses for my love of Lifetime, and I sure won't do it here either as I unabashedly state that Her Only Child is the kind of movie that keeps me coming back to Lifetime. It's an engaging thriller for women. You won't find any gore or T&A, but the story is interesting and the movie as a whole is quite fun...
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11/25/08 |
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Small Screen Scream Queens of the 1970s |
11/10/08 |
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Hush (2008)
Directed by: Harvey Kahn
Written by: Julie Ferber Frank, Steven Fran
Starring: Tori Spelling, Tahmoh Penikett, Victoria Pratt
Lifetime Movie Network
Tori Spelling is one of the reigning queens of made-for-television thrillers. She may have got some street cred on the indie circuit with House of Yes and Trick, but she definitely found a niche for herself on the small screen in such fare as Co-ed Call Girl (i.e. the best movie title ever) & Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? (i.e. the second best movie title ever)...
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11/03/08 |
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