Lifetime Review: 'Trapped by My Father's Killer'

Even five years later, Diana Ratlidge (Lindy Booth) can't shake her horrifying memories of the day her father and fiancée were murdered. Things get even worse for Diana when she learns that Louis Allen (Craig Olejnik), her family's former groundskeeper who was tried and sentenced for the murders, has escaped from prison. While afraid, Diana is assured that she'll be kept safe by the police and her extensive security system.

But late that night, Diana is shocked when Louis breaks into her house and takes her captive. But as Louis explains to Diana, he's come not to hurt her, but to prove that he's not a killer. While Diana is initially convinced of Louis's guilt, she begins questioning what she witnessed the day of the murders and wondering if Louis is telling the truth. As the night drags on, a heavy question weighs on Diana's mind: is she being held hostage by a manipulative psychopath, or is there a more shocking truth behind the five-year-old murders?

Now this is a repackaged Lifetime "premiere" that I have a lot of foreknowledge about--for better or worse. Originally released in 2017 under the title Eyewitness, I first saw the original trailer for this new-to-Lifetime premiere years ago. Revisiting that trailer had me, for reasons I'll divulge later, dreading that Trapped by My Father's Killer would be an unbearable disaster. But while my primary worry turned out to be warranted, there's enough in this movie to prevent it from becoming as lost a cause as the last repackaged premiere LMN received from Daro Film Distribution.

First off, it must be said: don't go into Trapped by My Father's Killer expecting something that reinvents the Lifetime suspense/mystery genre. While it does have a few small misdirections that come into play in the final act, much of the film goes exactly the way you'll likely expect it to. Things are made especially predictable given the relatively small amount of characters. That being said, director Andrew C. Erin and crew know how to make an admittedly unsurprising movie intense. About 80% of the movie is focused around Diana and Louis's extended confrontation/hostage situation, and the atmosphere and cinematography of both Diana's house and the surrounding forest perfectly reflect the foreboding mood. Even if you can pinpoint how the ending will play out ahead of time, that palpable sense of dread is still effective at keeping you watching.

The performances of the film's principal leads also play a big role in bringing that tension to life. Lindy Booth and Craig Olejnik strike taut chemistry between Diana and Louis as they become immersed in a clash of wills. Booth is sympathetic as a woman whose struggle with grief is compounded by her current predicament, while Olejnik gives a nice blend of pained desperation and bitter resentment as Louis makes his demands to Diana.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

But it's regarding Louis that my pre-watch worries come into effect. While it was fairly clear from the beginning that Louis would be revealed as innocent in the murders, it didn't take away the sting of some of his inexcusably vicious actions throughout the movie. Despite his vow to his daughter that he'd never hurt anyone, he spends much of his time with Diana manhandling and threatening to harm her if she doesn't do as he says. He shows little regard for her trauma in regards to her father and fiancée's murders and blames her for believing he killed them after finding him crouched over her father's body. "I never thought it would look bad," Louis said as I did a mental facepalm. And in a particularly grimace-earning scene, Louis seems perfectly OK with murdering a pair of innocent housekeepers if they became a liability to his plan.

Even worse is the dollop of hypocrisy that comes with Louis's cruelty. After a bit of Louis going hard on his "I'm in control, do what I say or I'll hurt you" schtick, he tells Diana that he wants her to trust him. You'd think this would be the start of Louis's redemption arc, with him and Diana reconciling and working together to reinvestigate the murders while keeping Louis from being caught. But while we do get some investigative work between Diana and Louis, he still keeps his gun at the ready and once again uses it to threaten her when an obstacle--one completely out of Diana's control--pops up. In the end, Louis does too much bad in his efforts to clear his name, and the fact that he only gives an indirect half-apology to Diana in the end really rubs the wrong way.

(Also, given how easy it was for Louis to gather the evidence needed to convince Diana of his innocence, the disturbing implication is raised that he wanted to terrorize Diana--apparently prioritizing his irrational revenge over clearing his name and getting his daughter back. It only adds another icky fold to Louis's character)

Spoilers Over

In addition to its heavily formulaic mystery, Trapped by My Father's Killer keeps itself at a slow boil for most of its runtime until the climax. The intermittent bursts of action from the central hostage taking help alleviate some of the potential boredom, but if you're able to predict the story in advance, they might not help enough. As for the supporting cast, most of them struggle to make a memorable impression thanks to the film's focal point resting solely on Diana and Louis for so long. SPOILER ALERT But once their characters' true colors come out, Jon McLaren and Alexis Maitland bring as much fire as they can to their third-act villainous reveals. McLaren in particular brings a callous ferocity to Chris's willingness to kill his entire family (from what's established of the Ratlidge clan) to save his own skin. Spoilers Over

While Daro's Betrayed by My Husband was a hot mess, Trapped by My Father's Killer has a handful of good qualities to make it more of a worthwhile watch. The performances and pace are more consistent, and there's actually a sense of tension to be had with its story. On the other hand, it replicates to a lesser degree the previous premiere's issues with pace and uneven character writing. The fact that Trapped by My Father's Killer restricts its latter flaw to one character (Louis) doesn't take away from the damage his frustrating development leaves. And if you're a keen-sensed Lifetime fan, the predictable story will only exacerbate the film's slow momentum. Trapped by My Father's Killer may not join Betrayed by My Husband at the bottom of the Lifetime barrel, but it's still a movie best reserved for being a "while you're doing chores" watch.

Score: 5 out of 10 full moon parties.