This movie was mostly well acted and Mitzi is a fine actress. The story kept your interest because of the characters. Nevertheless, the things that were annoying were really a distraction, and it not clear who can be at fault. Why was Mitzi so often wearing a woolly cap (differnt ones) and/or having her hair hanging in strings. Each different shot showed different strings. I can't imagine that the director let this go. Also, the daughter Liv was so hateful as not to be believed, and yet the mother just accepted her whining and smart-alecky remarks. Characterization was not real. When mother and daughter were hiding from actor Richard Mancuso, mother kept kissing the teenage daughter over and over. Enough already. Again the director. I liked that Richard, who was an older man had his hair obviously bleached reddish-blond; this made him look more sleazy and was a good clue for later. Too bad Liv's boyfriend got killed, but that let Liv and her parents of the hook. Perhaps it was the writing that made this less than stellar. Entertaining but annoying
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akell17 November 2010
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michaelRokeefe19 August 2008Obviously made for TV. The pace is a dead give-a-way and the language seems awful mild for the situations. Albeit director William Tannen seems to get the most out of his characters. The predictable story has a couple trying to make up for infidelities and it just isn't going to be easy. Jill Dunne(Mitzi Kapture)discovers her husband Sean(Rick Roberts)is involved with another woman, so she herself strays while in a weakened condition. Caught in the middle is Sean's teen daughter Olivia(Martha Maclsaac)and this girl is a first class pain in the ass. The Dunnes will try and rekindle the bonds that bind with a week of camping. One night is all it takes for all hell to break loose. Tension, suspicions and anxiety does not make for a happy camp. The man Jill had the tryst with seems to be a bit psychotic in his search for the perfect family. With the truth being told, the only reason I watched this was because of Ms. Kapture. Don't get me wrong; this movie is worth watching, just nothing to go out of your way for.
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Neuro-417 July 2020I wouldn't have added a review except being repulsed that people were giving it 10/10's (ostensibly to fabricate a better score). The arguments are contrived the the acting is wooden. Nick Mancuso is genuinely creepy but they waste him here. You 10/10 people (this ranks up there with The Godfather?) should stop lying to pad numbers.
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...and really that's saying something. I always finish anything I start watching, and I wanted to turn this off. It almost takes a certain skill to create something this awful - were they trying to be ironic? Was it some kind of weird artistic commentary? As unlikely as it is to believe, every possible terrible piece just happened to fall into place in this perfect storm of awful. The script was awful, the acting was awful. Truly, it's hard to believe anyone could possibly believe this is how human beings in the respective situations would behave and speak.
I also want to give this movie props for quite possibly the most unnatural and bizarre love scene I've ever seen - one that I *literally* had trouble watching.
Just...good lord. My first 1/10 rating! -
Jill Dunne (played by Mitzi Kapture), is an attractive, nice woman, over-whelmed by a smart-mouthed teenage daughter, Liv (Martha MacIsaac) and a petty, two-timing husband, Sean (Rick Roberts), both of which were tediously self-centered, and obnoxious.
This was advertised as a troubled family stalked by a crazed killer during a relentless storm.
The storm doesn't even happen until about the last 5 minutes of the film, and then it isn't anything to send anybody running to the storm cellar.
The stalking, likewise doesn't get intense until almost the end of the film.
Most of the film we spend listening to Jill and her insufferable daughter, Liv, argue until I just wanted to back slap the daughter into next week.
Jill's problem with Liv is that she has taken up with Zack, a boy of questionable character, and they are constantly making out--in fact Jill comes home to find the two of them on Liv's bed.
The rest of the time we spend listening to Jill's husband Sean either whine at Jill or criticize her.
Sean was not at all appealing--since his face is so covered in freckles you could play connect the dots.
The story begins with Jill being notified of an out-standing bill on their credit card for a hotel she has never been to, and that she thought Sean had never been to either.
Jill goes to the hotel where she meets the owner & manager, Richard Grant (Nick Mancuso), a very nice, older, divorced man, who is sympathetic to her. In fact, when he spots her husband there again, he phones Jill and tips her off.
Jill returns to the hotel, sees Sean with another woman. She is upset, leaves without Sean seeing her, and does absolutely nothing. In fact, she doesn't even say anything to Sean when he arrives home. This made no sense to me.
Jill has given Richard her business card, and so he calls her and she is apparently in real estate. She shows him a condo. Afterwards they have a drink, and things get cozy between them.
Richard and Jill are getting it on, hot and heavy. In fact, he seems a bit more aggressive than necessary, when Jill suddenly decides to cut out.
Jill and Sean have a confrontation about his cheating. Sean whines about how Jill has been letting him down since her father died. Apparently his lack of any morals is all her fault. Eventually Jill confesses her own lack of morals and near adultery to Sean--and of course that's all her fault too, as far as Sean is concerned.
The little family decides to go on a camping trip--which means more whining and grousing among them, especially from the spoiled daughter.
I was so rooting for the stalker to get everybody, but Jill.
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This movie sucked. It really was a waste of my life. The acting was atrocious, the plot completely implausible. Long, long story short, these people get "terrorized" by this pathetic "crazed killer", but completely fail to fight back in any manner. And this is after they take a raft on a camping trip, with no gear, and show up at a campsite that is already assembled and completely stocked with food and clothes and the daughters headphones. Additionally, after their boat goes missing, they panic that they're stuck in the woods, but then the daughters boyfriend just shows up and they apparently never consider that they could just hike out of the woods like he did to get to them. Like I said, this movie sucks. A complete joke. Don't let your girlfriend talk you into watching it.
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moviebuff03826 March 2006Lifetime did it again. Can we say stupid? I couldn't wait for it to end. The plot was senseless. The acting was terrible! Especially by the teenagers. The story has been played a thousand times! Are we just desperate to give actors a job? The previews were attractive and I was really looking for a good thriller.Once in awhile lifetime comes up with a good movie, this isn't one of them. Unless one has nothing else to do I would avoid this one at all cost. This was a waste of two hours of my life. Can I get them back? I would have rather scraped my face against a brick wall for two hours then soaked it in peroxide. That would have been more entertaining.
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onetyger29 November 2020I caught this on TV and only saw approximately the last half hour. From the other reviews, it doesn't seem that I missed very much. Even though it was predictable and slow, the filming and acting was actually pretty good.
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treighsea26 March 2006I watch most movies that Nick Mancuso is in because, frankly, I love the guy, even though as he ages he is typically cast as the baddie (long-time fans should note that he is for some reason blond in this flick). It's a fairly familiar movie in terms of plot (but then most movies these days aren't exactly original), but Rick Roberts is appealing as the imperfect husband, Martha MacIsaac is equally appealing as the daughter, and Mitzi Kapture does a good job, if that was her goal, of being angry and sometimes pretty hard to like. Nick has still got it in terms of being able to demonstrate both charm and psychosis. However, too much of the plot takes place off-screen -- like motivation, prior behaviors, good times and bad times -- and things that seem apparent to the characters never quite make it to the audience (i.e., me). The final scene leaves everything to be desired in the "but what about..." category, and overall, I can't say that I cared much about any of the characters. That being said, it was what it was -- a reasonably entertaining way to spend the afternoon -- and I still like Nick.
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IcePrincess674-127 March 2006It's hard for me to criticize anything that Mitzi Kapture does. She just radiates beauty and grace on the screen and is a phenomenal actress. That notwithstanding, yes, the plot was predictable. I think perhaps if Jill HAD slept with Richard then it may have made him a little crazier than he already was, which would have added more to the suspense. It would have also been nice to see Jill and her husband find out about Richard's little problem with his ex-wife, maybe a bit more back story. I was a little disappointed with the ending of the movie. I would have liked to have seen more closure with Zack's death and possibly closure with her husband. I do have to say though, I will never be able to look at a flare gun and not picture her standing there. It was a very fitting end for Richard. Of course, Mitzi ROCKED! I am so looking forward to her future projects.
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sol-kay6 May 2007(There are Spoilers) Having trouble keeping her rebellious daughter Olivia, Martha Maclsaac,from making out and having all kinds of heavy action with her musician boyfriend Zack, Joe MacLeod, real-estate agent Jill Dunne, Mitzi Kapture, finds out that her husband Sean, Rick Roberts, is also having fun both in and out of the sack but not with her but his secret lover at the out of town Colston Hotel.
Checking in on him Jill finds Sean smooching in public, at the Colston Hotel diner, with his oriental-looking girlfriend and just lose it. Having gotten acquainted with the hotels manager the kind and understanding as well as helpful Richard Grant, Nick Mancusc, Jill soon finds herself spending the evening with him at his suite. It's then when Jill quickly gets to realize that he's a bit too aggressive then she would want him to be. After a bellhop knocks on the door with, what Grant ordered, the evening refreshments Jill bolts out of the hotel and out of Grants. Jill doesn't know that Grant has gotten so obsessed with her that he'll go so far as to kill anyone that stands in his way from taking her to be his bride.
Nick Mancuscu as the deranged hotel manager Richard Grant, much like Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates in "Psycho",is frighteningly convincing as a man obsessed with a love, Jill Dunne, that he should have known is beyond his reach.It not that long when he goes off the deep end in trying to get her to become his partner in life. Jill herself is anything but innocent in her screwing up Grants mind by having a one-night affair with him that got Grant to thinking that she truly was in love with him like he was with her. You have to say one thing in Jill's favor in her breaking off her affair with Grant the next day but by then it was too late for Grant to turn back as he went head first after her with both romance and murder on his mind.
Jill talking her marital problems over with Sean it's decided for the two together with Olivia to take a trip to the country to air out their differences with Zack later tagging along. Grant now more then ever is determined to have Jill all for himself is going to make himself an uninvited and unwanted guest at the Dunne's campsite and couldn't care less what Jill or Sean or anyone else thinks about it.
Pandemonium reigns in the Canadian woods as an out of control Richard Grant go bananas as he goes after a very reluctant Jill who's terrified with fear of his intentions for her. With both her klutzy husband Sean and Olivia's absent minded boyfriend Zack both dispatched by the crazed psycho Jill goes one on one with the rampaging and psychotic keeping him from both murdering and her her daughter Olivia who just happen to stand in his way. -
whpratt124 September 2006This film starts out with a family who were all going in different directions and their teenage daughter Martha MacIssac (Olivia Dunne) was very much in love with Joe MacLeod,(Zack). The mother is played by Mitzi Kapture,(Jill Dunne) who suddenly walks in on her daughter and Zack making out and then all kinds of problems seem to surface. Jill Dunne has a husband who is always traveling or staying away from the home quite often. There are also big problems that occur when the family decides to go on a camping trip which their daughter Olivia dislikes and just cannot adapt to sleeping outdoors and requires a tent to be kept out all the bugs. In many ways, Olivia does an outstanding performance as the teenage and Nick Mancuso,(Richard Grant) gives a great supporting role as a hotel owner. This film will keep you guessing how it will end and you will enjoy a film filled with plenty of horror and terror. Enjoy
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mitzithebest26 March 2006It's all about Mitzi. I loved her in this. And didn't she look fantastic?! I love these Lifetime Sunday afternoon popcorn movies. This is like one of those nailbiters where they always go to commercial at the most annoying times. The Richard character was completely creepy. I've dated guys like that. Well, not totally like that lol. I wish Zack hadn't have gotten killed. He was a cutie and very easy on the eyes. I LOVE these stalker type stories. It always makes me get up and make sure my doors are locked. My husband doesn't usually like these types of movies but actually sat through the entire thing with me and actually enjoyed it. I can't wait to see what Mitzi does next!
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Loved it but still have nightmares over the hotel manager.The movie, was presented well, with the choice of actors carrying their roles to reality of the writing. Many scenes gripped the imagination and created a nail biter. The progression of situations were cleverly written,making me believe the story was headed one way only to find a new twist on what I thought might be the obvious. Too bad there have to be commercials.I have told many friends to watch for further showings and I of course will view again.I enjoyed the scenery of the film and felt this added to the plots and intrigue. Husband and wife heated discussions(or should I say fights?) were very realistic.The initial situation is a common one but the escalation into the story presented fortunately is not.I want to thank all who were involved in this great entertainment film. Thank you! Looking forward to the next films---when? Whidbey