Lifetime
The latest ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ Lifetime movie depicts a real-life story easily researchable on the internet, especially since the events depicted happened just in the last couple of years, with the film’s conclusion only happening in February of this year. It is a shocking and cautionary tale about fame, religion and trust, and how a toxic combination of the three can tear a family apart.
In Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story, Emilie Ullerup portrays mommy vlogger Ruby Franke, a devout Mormon who began documenting her family’s daily life, creating the YouTube Channel ‘8Passengers’. The videos were mostly light-hearted and by 2020 Franke had more than 2.5 million followers. But Franke began to take a ‘warts and all’ approach to the vlog, showing not only the fun times but some of the darker moments including what many began to see as questionable parenting, with some rather severe punishment — oldest son Chad was not allowed to sleep in his own bed for seven months after he played a prank on his youngest brother, Ruby refused to take her six-year-old daughter’s lunch to school after she had forgotten it — that led to viewers launching a petition to get CPS involved in investigating the family. Ruby initially felt these issues would blow over, and she got mixed up with a licensed counselor in Utah named Jodi Hildebrandt (Heather Locklear), who took Ruby under her wing to essentially help her grow her channel. Through Jodi’s counseling business ConneXions, she suggested she could help Ruby’s children act out less and become more close knit (the two oldest kids left the home as soon as they were able), but what actually happened was that Ruby felt her husband Kevin was becoming too sexual simply because he wanted to enjoy some romance with his wife. Jodi convinced Ruby that he was a sex addict and began to drive a wedge between the couple.
Jodi began to consume all of Ruby’s time, calling her at all hours, and then claiming to be tortured by ‘shadow beings’ in her home and demonic migraines, begging Ruby to let her stay at the Franke home … very much against Kevin’s wishes. Jodi burrowed her way deeper into Ruby’s mind, suggesting that she needed to separate from Kevin to reassess their marriage, and that Ruby and her two youngest children should move with Jodi back into her own home (which in reality was about five hours away from the Franke home), leaving the two middle daughters at their own home unattended. Oldest daughter Shari came home one day and found the girls moving around like zombies, no food in the refrigerator, having been alone for weeks. The police were called but Ruby had returned and told the girls to ignore them, so without a warrant they could not enter the home. Meanwhile, the youngest children, Eve and Russell, were undergoing extreme punishments at the hand and behest of Jodi, with Russell made to sleep outside, the two being forced to stand in the sun, and neither of them being fed. It’s not clear why Kevin was so out of the picture, perhaps he simply trusted his wife to protect their kids, but it wasn’t until Russell — who had been tied to a chair with ropes, duct tape around his wrists and ankles used as bandages to cover the wounds created by the ropes (which were dressed with a combination of honey and cayenne pepper) — managed to slip out of the house and make his way to a neighbor that the walls came tumbling down, finally giving the police the authority to enter the Franke and Hildebrandt homes because the children were considered to be in danger. Both Ruby and Jodi were arrested for child abuse, with both of them sentenced in early 2024 to four consecutive terms of up to 15 years, 60 years total (although Utah law puts a limit on consecutive terms so they can’t serve more than 30 years), but Franke’s family was left in a shambles with Kevin now fighting to regain custody of his minor children.
To be very clear, the Franke family did not participate in Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story, and receives no compensation from Lifetime for depicting their story, with daughter Shari very vocal in her disgust with having the family tragedy broadcast again for the world to see. One can sympathize with her feelings, however it also seems like a story that should be told so that others who may find themselves in similar situations can see that what they are enduring is not normal and can seek help.
childhelphotline.org
The film itself is very well made and it has some compelling performances from Ullerup and Locklear. Viewers may find themselves being frustrated by how easily Hildebrandt wormed her way into Ruby’s life, but she knew how to play with her mind, taking advantage of Ruby’s deep faith, convincing her that God was talking to Jodi and He was telling her what Ruby needed to do to help her family. Faith can be a powerful force in someone’s life, but the problem with having faith is often the people who are so devout are always told not to question anything, let God do what He’s going to do, have faith that He will guide them in the right direction. Jodi took complete advantage of Ruby’s faith, dropping God’s name when she needed to, and Ruby kept the faith and never questioned Jodi (although there are times in Ullerup’s performance where she does seem to be thinking things may not be on the up-and-up but she goes along anyway because she can’t question God’s will). We see at one point that Kevin is warned that Jodi has done all of this before, and that she is basically a cult leader, and he’d better not get on Jodi’s bad side, and it’s when he kicks her out of the house that she escalates her attacks on the Franke family.
Ullerup portrays Ruby as a driven woman, someone who not only is devout to her religion but consumed by the instant fame she got from being a YouTuber, the money her channel earned, willing to humiliate her children for clicks. Ullerup never plays Ruby as a victim, but it’s clear she is also completely under Jodi’s control. Locklear is also terrific as Jodi, coming on to Ruby like a savvy businesswoman, really showing the viewer that Jodi is pure evil, someone who can easily use her words to sway someone’s belief system to do their own bidding. Kevin makes a comment about Jodi’s $5 million home, which makes it clear that she’s using Ruby for her own gain, convincing her to quit her own vlog and join Jodi’s, bringing her own followers along, enriching Jodi with views and memberships to her group. Locklear shows how insidious Jodi was but does it with great subtly, never a stereotypical, mustache-twirling villain.
Josh Blacker does well as Kevin, often beating his head against a brick wall with Ruby, and Savannah Miller is also good as oldest daughter Shari, frustrated at the lack of police intervention. The other child actors turn in really natural performances, going from outgoing, happy kids to sullen, almost blank beings as things go from bad to worse. The screenplay by Alyson Evans and Steve Kornacki (no, not that Steve Kornacki) tells the story faithfully without veering too far into exploitation, and director Kevin Fair keeps things believable and gets good performances from the cast, making this a chilling, worrisome and cautionary tale that may in the end help people who find themselves in a similar situation, or at least can make their families take notice.
Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
Lifetime
Share this post
