Lifetime
Well, it’s not just Saturday night on Lifetime where you can find a new ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ movie … they have them on Sunday too! And as per usual, the roster of films offered are a very mixed bag, from the pretty excellent Buried Alive and Survived to the utterly ridiculous Nightmare in the Desert. This week’s Sunday thriller is titled There’s a New Killer in Town, a clever title that seems to suggest the small town of Pine Point in the state of Limbo (you’ll be hard pressed to find a license plate or police officer’s jacket patches that give any indication where this town is) has more than one killer … or has been home to other killers in this town of maybe ten people (in spite of what the population states on the Welcome to Pine Point sign at 15201).
The movie opens with a young woman encountering an intruder in her home who pushes her down a flight of stairs, killing her. Cut to the town of Pine Point where we meet Alice and Maddie at some sort of botanical garden where Alice apparently works (although she spends most of her time at the Double R Diner). Alice is forgetful and had left her keys to the greenhouse in the door which Maddie retrieved so Alice puts her in charge of the keys. Alice then spots a woman snapping pictures and confronts her about taking a picture of her, and the woman shows her that she’s just taking pictures of the flora — quickly skipping past the photo of Alice (even though she took about six) — and introduces herself as Ronnie, an author who is working on a book and needed photos of the plants for some reason. Ronnie asks where she can get a bite to eat and Alice suggests, you guessed it, the Double R. She could have also mentioned the other two really generic eateries in town, the ‘Bakery Cafe’ or the ‘Bar and Grill’ (the only two businesses on the city block that have names, vague as they are), but her friend Holly ‘works’ (I use that term loosely as well since the employment in this town seems to be come when you can, leave when you want) at the diner so all the business is directed there. Also, the woman killed at the beginning was Holly’s sister, we learn a little later.
After Alice shows up at the greenhouse and leaves, she heads to the diner and Holly spots a creepy woman staring in the window. Yeah, it’s Ronnie who claims she was just looking at the menu board above the counter to see if there was anything she could eat. Alice orders for her, Ronnie offers to pay but doesn’t have her debit card, and then it turns out she doesn’t have a car and all the hotels in town are booked (by invisible people), and the next thing you know Alice is inviting Ronnie to spend the night at her place … forgetting all about the date night she already had lined up with police officer Oscar (who shows up and surprises Alice by proclaiming himself her boyfriend as she tries to introduce him to Ronnie). Oscar leaves, the girls get tipsy and even though there seemed to be a very heavy vibe between them, Ronnie sleeps on the couch. Alice wakes up the next day, hung over, Ronnie is gone and when Alice gets to the diner, her debit card and ID are gone as well (she doesn’t seem to miss the earrings Ronnie made a comment about when they first met). Alice just thinks it’s her absent-mindedness that somehow misplaced two cards that were firmly in her wallet, and refuses to entertain Holly’s insinuations that Ronnie is the culprit (and we even get to see Ronnie in a hilariously bad Party City wig at the bank withdrawing money from Alice’s account).
More things happen and even Oscar is suspicious of Ronnie, but Alice keeps shooting them all down. Alice also has a run-in with Maddie’s juvenile delinquent boyfriend when Maddie uses her keys to let him and his friends into the greenhouse while cutting school to play cards and drink. Alice is furious and drives Maddie home, but not before she also takes Dylan’s keys so he and his pals have to hoof it. But when Alice’s cards suddenly reappear she goes to Ronnie’s motel and reads her for filth. Next thing you know the greenhouse is broken in to, plants are destroyed and ‘BITCH’ is spray painted on the windows. This sends Alice back to the motel with Holly and Oscar in tow, but while she’s going off on Ronnie again, Oscar has to stop her because he’s gotten a call that Maddie confessed that it was Dylan and his friends. Oops. Alice and Ronnie start over and Alice talks about her psycho ex Kevin and who should show up in Pine Point right outside the diner? KEVIN! Ronnie threatens him, he ends up dead so … whodunit? Who exactly is the new killer in town?
Lifetime
I have to admit that the killer’s identity did keep me guessing almost all the way to the end because it really could have been any number of people. Of course, Ronnie is the main suspect and she certainly is sketchy enough to be the killer, but is murder too far to go from identity theft (girlfriend has a history but all of her victims are still alive, well, except for Holly’s sister so maybe she’s stepping things up a notch). But could it be Holly? When Ronnie says there are two types of people in Pine Point, natives and those running from something, Holly is very reluctant to talk about what she’s running from (even though Ronnie pegged her for a native because she just seemed to ‘fit’ in Pine Point). Did she kill her sister to get a hold of her bank account so she could flee a bad marriage? Alice is also a ‘runner’, obviously fleeing Kevin, but she only just met Holly when she got to town and she seems too well-adjusted to be a serial killer. What about Oscar? Alice seems to have money for the huge house she’s renting in Pine Point (claiming the rent is much cheaper than in the city). Is he leading her on romantically to get her where he wants her? Well, one of those suspects is knocked out of the running when they are very nearly stabbed to death, so it was at that point I was certain who the killer was, and that’s actually the sign of a good mystery thriller.
Charlie Mihelich’s script is actually very well-crafted for someone who only has two other features and one short film on his writing resumé … and none of them are thrillers! All of the characters are pretty well-drawn, none of them do anything really stupid. Director Sean Cisterna also manages to keep the mystery taut, and gets really good performances from the cast. One of the key pieces to identify the killer are the black boots with buckles shown at the beginning, and Cisterna seems to go out of his way to keep us from seeing anyone’s feet. Some of the production value is a big comical though, like the generic eateries and no other building on the block having a name, and the blank license plates with just numbers and letters. The one scene in the police station is so weirdly lit that it almost feels like another movie altogether. It was so dark you’d expect the cops to be bumping into one another. Over all though, it is a very well-directed film.
The cast is also top notch for the most part. Kathryn Kohut is perfectly sunny and spunky as Alice, even if at times she is a little too willing to forgive, but then fly off the handle when her plants are destroyed. And she really turns it on in the last several minutes of the film as all is revealed. Sarah Booth is good as the over-protective Holly who seems to know a lot more than she’s letting on. René Escobar Jr. is also good as Officer Oscar, later making you question if he’s slightly inept or purposely clueless. Hanneke Talbot is really good as Ronnie, but she sometimes overplays the character too much, practically holding a neon sign over her head flashing ‘I’m the new killer in town!’ She should have been a bit more down-to-earth like Alice because for long swaths of the movie it’s obvious that she’s playing too hard to assure you she is the killer, right down to a little smile she gives when it appears she’s gotten the upper hand on Alice, thus making you doubt she’s culprit. That is the one part that nearly scuttles the mystery. Also, was this movie sponsored by a make-up company because the lipstick is out of control, especially on Ronnie. And the one time she doesn’t have on bright red lipstick, it seems like she used it for blush instead. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed on these TV movies it’s that perhaps the actors are doing their own make-up and no one is there to tell them to tone it down.
Otherwise, There’s a New Killer in Town is really a very effective mystery thriller with a good story, good direction and a uniformly good cast. And nary a plot hole for a truck to drive through. This one was a pleasant surprise.
There’s a New Killer in Town has a run time of 1 hour 26 minutes, and is rated TV-14 for violence and suspense.
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