Lifetime Review: 'The Killing Secret'

With her senior year wrapping up, Nicole Voss (Ari Meyers) couldn't ask for more. Having grown up in the affluent community of Tarrington, Nicole enjoys her life as a popular cheerleader with a boyfriend in star quarterback Greg Dunleavy (Mark Kassen). But as Nicole and her friends prepare for their final summer of high school, waitress Tina Decapprio (Tess Harper) finds herself in a parent's worst nightmare when her daughter Emily (Soleil Moon Frye) suddenly disappears.

Nicole reaches out to express support for the panicked mother, which leads to Nicole and Tina forming an unlikely friendship as they search for Emily—a supportive bond that Nicole is in desperate need of when she learns that Greg was seeing Emily behind her back. When Emily is found murdered and it's discovered she was pregnant with Greg's baby, Tina becomes convinced that Greg is her killer. Is Tina simply blinded by her grief and anger—or is Nicole about to learn some hard truths about the boyfriend she thought she knew?

Once upon a time, The Killing Secret originated as an NBC original movie before finding a second home on Lifetime, where it once enjoyed semi-frequent re-airings. Nowadays, it seems that this film has become something of a bygone relic for Lifetime, but despite it not holding the same "cult classic" status as Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? or Death of a Cheerleader, this has always been one of the earliest Lifetime films to truly stay on my mind. So after seeing The Killing Secret find another new home on Tubi, I decided to revisit this film and see if it held up to my memory of it.

While my rewatch provided the opportunity to be refreshed on one major problem I have with The Killing Secret as well as a few other minor issues, the film ultimately stands up as an enjoyable older Lifetime flick. In a similar vein to the original Death of a Cheerleader, The Killing Secret is understated in terms of drama and thrills. Part of this is tied to its status as a "howcatchem" mystery; the film makes no secret of the fact that Greg is in fact Emily's killer, with the murder shown less than half an hour into the movie. But what The Killing Secret lacks in mystery, it makes up for with the plot arc that dominates much of the second act: Nicole's budding friendship with Tina in the wake of Emily's death.

Ari Meyers and Tess Harper both give strong performances on their own, with both actresses allowing the audience to see the impact Nicole and Tina's bond have on each other. Meyers, in particular, brings a fire to Nicole's transformation from slightly vapid teen leading a life of privilege to a strong young woman willing to stand up to the blatant classism that she was once blissfully unaware of. Harper brings the same fire to Tina as she alternates between being a distraught mother grieving for the loss of her daughter (a scene of her and Nicole planting flowers as a memorial to Emily stands out as one of her best moments) and a fierce woman unwilling to let her daughter's killer go unpunished. Harper also remembers to bring a warmness to Tina's admittedly brash character, which allows for the implied motherly bond Nicole forms with her to ring true.

(Overall, the social commentary subtext present in The Killing Secret reminds me of similar overarching themes in Death of a Cheerleader, albeit the message is presented here in a comparatively more subdued manner.)

Completing the trio of the film's main leads is Mark Kassen—formerly Mark Krassenbaum—as Greg Dunleavy, who effectively sells Greg as a thoughtless, arrogant, and privileged teen. With the film revealing early that Greg is responsible for killing Emily, his scenes come with an underlying sense of tension, as we already know what Greg is capable of and are left wondering at just how far he is prepared to go to protect his life of leisure. Kassen also brings a cold malice to Greg when his violent side emerges, with the icy look that comes into his eyes during these moments coming to mind.

Soleil Moon Frye is sympathetic as the ill-fated Emily, even when her actions regarding Greg begin ranging from cloyingly naive to frustratingly inept. John O'Hurley and Cindy Pickett are effective as Greg's father Ted and Nicole's mother Liz, both of whom display their own forms of elitism and neglect that each have their own negative effect on their children. Erika Flores' Sharon stands out as a particularly catty member of Nicole's clique of two-faced friends, Todd Rulapaugh is equal parts sleazy and oddly charming as P.J., and Sean Bridgers is effective as unstable fanatic Aaron Clemens, with his role acting as further elaboration on The Killing Secret's theme of elitist prejudice. Ben Epps also did well at bringing an appealing determination to Detective Phil Rodlauer, but after a cathartic scene of him refusing to kowtow to Ted Dunleavy's demands, the film drops the ball by forcing him to revert into the standard "Useless Lifetime Cop" trope in order to spark the climax.

WARNING: Spoilers Below

The climax and ultimate conclusion of The Killing Secret is ultimately where many of its problems lie with me. As Nicole in on the verge of being strangled to death by Greg to keep his secret, it appears things are gearing up for an intense climax, with Tina preparing to come to Nicole's aid with a tire iron. But just when it looks like the action is about to start, Greg suddenly breaks down into tears and apologizes to Nicole, with the epilogue showing him give a statement of remorse in court after being given a life sentence for his crime. My problems with this conclusion are as followed:

1. Greg's remorse comes off as completely out-of-character from the Greg the film builds up: one who is an arrogant monster willing to kill a pregnant girl, let an innocent man go to jail, and then kill his own longtime girlfriend just to protect his ideal future. This is especially felt after the minutes leading up to his attempt on Nicole's life have him become especially sociopathic in his ramblings.

2. The climax has Nicole—who was previously seen to be a resourceful and determined woman in her pursuit of exposing the truth—regress into the standard Damsel in Distress, begging Greg for mercy while making hardly-there attempts to defend herself. It's rather jarring that she has more fury to give him when she learned he'd cheated on her than when she learns he's a murderer.

And 3. It serves as an anti-climatic ending in more ways than one. In addition to cheating us out of a thrilling conclusion after a whole movie of tense build-up, the film also ends Nicole's character arc on a lukewarm note. After Aaron Clemens is wrongfully arrested for Emily's murder and Nicole becomes briefly convinced in Greg's innocence, she's shown to be more than happy to re-integrate herself back in with the circle of fake friends who shunned and mocked her for the crime of befriending someone from "the wrong side of the tracks." The ultimate ending also has Nicole and her mother being revealed to have randomly reconciled, adding further injury to the strong overarching plot that The Killing Secret had going for it.

Spoilers Over

While the conclusion proves to be a rather big stumbling block, The Killing Secret's surprisingly deep subtext is enough to where the mistakes made in the finale can be mostly forgiven. With a strong cast of characters to carry that message and actors who bring those characters to life, The Killing Secret stands out as a lesser known Lifetime film that deserves more attention than it's received. Fingers crossed it gets picked up by Lifetime to get the remake treatment.

Score: 8 out of 10 flower buttons.