Lifetime Review: 'A Daughter's Plan to Kill'

With her husband Greg (Matt Dallas) preparing to reunite with his estranged daughter from a previous marriage after years apart, psychiatrist Katie Carlyle (Claire Coffee) promises to help her husband navigate the admittedly awkward situation. After first meeting Greg's daughter Samantha (Jordan Lane Price), Katie and Greg are charmed by the young woman, as are their teenage children Lauren (Lauren DiMario) and Tommy (Liam Obergfoll). After a seemingly smooth introduction, it appears the Carlyle family is going to adapt well to their new family member.

But as things go on, it becomes clearer and clearer to Katie that something is not right about Samantha. As she becomes further integrated into her household, Samantha's presence appears to breed chaos in her life and the lives of her children. With Greg blind to his daughter's actions, Katie and her children find themselves in the crosshairs of a dangerous young woman with a sinister agenda and no intentions of stopping until she gets what she wants....

As I watched A Daughter's Plan to Kill, I found myself thinking back to a previous Lifetime film I've written about: Murder In Law. While both films are different when looked at through the details, they're both very similar when looked at as a bigger picture. Both films center around a married woman who welcomes a family member into her house who is related to her husband, only to later find that her new house guest is scheming and causing trouble among her family. In both cases, things escalate into something of a cat-and-mouse game between the women, with the husband rather blindly staying on his family member's side as opposed to his wife. As a whole, A Daughter's Plan to Kill is on the same level of enjoyment as Murder In Law....

Apart from one issue the film has that was also present in Murder In Law, but is vastly more visible and problematic in this film: Greg Carlyle and his blindness to Samantha's actions. Greg's backstory involving his less-than-savory ex and the implied trauma Samantha experienced under her custody is meant to serve as validation to Greg's unwillingness to believe anything bad about his daughter, and in the first act, this went along well with the earlier (and more subdued) tactics Samantha employs. But as the film progresses and Samantha escalates her behavior to the point of hardly even trying to hide her true nature, Greg's disbelief goes from understandable to outright infuriating.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

This can most be felt in how easily it takes for Samantha to convince Greg that Katie is cheating on him with her childhood friend Ryan, with Greg's tantrum-esque confrontation of Katie fraying my nerves beyond repair for him. Plus, in Tina Kershaw-esque fashion, it takes Greg literally walking in on Samantha stabbing Katie to get him to finally see the truth. And apart from a bout of apologetic remorse immediately afterwards and a sort-of admission of guilt in the epilogue, Greg hardly suffers any consequences for his aggressively dense and rather callous actions—especially since they expose Greg as a possessively jealous husband and neglectful workaholic father who can't even be bothered to take time away from work after learning his daughter was nearly raped.

(Jim from Murder In Law, as idiotic as he was throughout a lot of the film, was able to see the truth when it finally became too obvious to miss, redeemed himself by helping put a stop to his mother's rampage, and was made to deal with the consequences of his blindness. No such luck with Greg)

Spoilers Over

Now that I've gotten the film's lowest point out of the way, I can now share one of the better points: Jordan Lane Price as Samantha. In a role akin to Tess Harper from Killer Caregiver, Samantha is a manipulative psychopath so confident and arrogant in her abilities that at a certain point, she doesn't even bother with trying to hide her true form. Price excels in her portrayal of Samantha, with the passive-aggressive tone that enters her voice as she grows bolder in her actions bringing an extra layer of malice to her character. While Samantha's brazenness adds to the frustrating nature of Greg's blindness, it nonetheless makes Samantha a villainess as cunning and calculated as she is dangerous.

Claire Coffee brings a similar energy to Katie as Kristen Dalton did to Allison in Murder In Law, and additionally doubles down when it comes to calling her oblivious husband out for his idiocy and for the ease at which he turns against her. Lauren DiMario and Liam Obergfoll round out the Carlyle clan as Lauren and Tommy, and while both initially appear to be going down the "wholesome-to-the-point-of-obnoxious" route, each manage to bring a charm to their characters as they end up entangled in Samantha's web. DiMario, in particular, brings a sympathetic edge to the shy Lauren as she falls victim to a particularly vicious scheme of Samantha's. Will Tomi brings effective charm and sleaze to Lauren's crush Milo, and Jabari Gray not only shines for the chemistry he has with Coffee as Katie's childhood friend Ryan, but for his cathartic tell-off to Greg for his more infuriating behavior.

Greg's unlikable character is not only a shame for Matt Dallas (who does what he can to bring some sympathy to Greg and, in one moment, succeeds), but also A Daughter's Plan to Kill as a whole due it leaving a black mark on an otherwise strong thriller with a great cast and a well-structured plot. Like with My Stepfather's Secret, I say it's well worth the watch as long as you can suppress your rage against Greg enough to avoid rage quitting.

Score: 8 out of 10 cats that don't like Greg Carlyle (who can blame them?)