Reviewing a Pair of Criminal Villainesses from "Newlywed Nightmare"

This February has been quite fruitful when it comes to Lifetime villainesses, and the final weekend of the month delivers once again with this film, Newlywed Nightmare. Originally titled, Escape From Love, the film centers on newlyweds Lauren and David Hasen; happily enjoying their first moments as husband and wife, but all of that comes to a halt when Lauren is suddenly abducted. A mysterious man takes her in broad daylight, and when we next see Lauren, she is held captive by a group of men, while one woman slowly walks towards her.

The woman happens to be Sadie Montgomery, who is David's ex-wife, and she is behind Lauren's abduction. As we see via flashbacks, David and Sadie's marriage was not a good one, as Sadie has fits of insane jealousy, with one instance seeing her smash David's car when she saw him with another woman (she was David's cousin). The truly diabolical moment was abducting and killing David's then-girlfriend, Cynthia, prior to their relationship beginning, and that's what led to the divorce. Sadie's mission was simple: she wanted the Hasens' joint bank account cleaned out, and Lauren's forced to do so under the threat of her life, as well as David's.

Speaking of David, his report about Lauren's abduction is disbelieved, as he is told by detectives that Lauren willingly left with her abductor (oh boy). His only ally in the search was Gina, a private investigator who assisted David, though there were obstacles--one of them being a restraining order filed against him. As for Sadie, we see a bit of a development: she wants to see David, but she's denied by her cohort, Chet, who attacks her in response to Sadie's own attack. So Sadie's motivation appears to be David, and when she's returned to the house, she reveals that she was married to David, which is followed by Sadie telling a very watered down version of how they met--it's a miracle the rest of the film wasn't postponed on account of rain, it was so watered down.

So Sadie appears to have Lauren on her side, though when she was at the bank the first time, she left David's phone number for the main teller to call, which he does. David finally heads to the house, but he's knocked out and tied up inside the living room, where he finds not only Lauren, but Sadie--the latter revealing that she never signed the divorce papers. Sadie continued her manipulation on Lauren, and then revealed to David that she was pregnant, but lost the baby. While confessing to everything, Sadie revealed that she was coerced by her father into participating in this scheme, which centered on taking David's inheritance for her father's criminal business. We also see Sadie completely unravel as Lauren and David's bond strengthens, and it's followed by Lauren taking down Sadie before escaping.

David later hears a familiar voice from behind him: Gina, who is revealed as Sadie's stepmother and the mastermind behind everything. After commenting that she is now in charge after the death of her husband (Sadie's father), Gina lashed out at Sadie for failing to complete her role, while also mocking Sadie's love for David before giving the order to kill the couple. At that moment, police arrived, as Lauren called them, and all of the villains were arrested. A news report revealed that they were all part of a drug and trafficking ring, and while Gina and the others would face prison time, Sadie was out on bail after agreeing to testify against her stepmother and cohorts. Meanwhile, good news for the Hasens: they are going to be parents.

And now, for the reason you came to this story, the villainesses:

Sadie Montgomery

Newlywed Nightmare aired on Lifetime on February 24, 2023, and the film featured Olivia Jordan as one of the villainesses, Sadie Montgomery. Sadie was absolutely insane, but from what we see in the second half, she's quite tormented. Even so, that doesn't absolve her. Sadie was evil in her own right even before the events of the film. She had an intense jealousy that even turned to violence against David, and while she didn't care about the rest of the results of the film's central scheme, Sadie did participate out of her delusional hope that she and David would be back together.

Olivia Jordan's performance as Sadie was thrilling, chilling, and fulfilling. Though Sadie was psychotic, she was also quite ruthless and cunning, especially when she basically manipulates Lauren into sympathizing with her and being on her side. Jordan played every facet of Sadie to perfection, and here's hoping we see her in more Lifetime films. She has had some practice in playing the villainess; just months prior to this film, she played fiendish baddie Vessela Toska in an episode of NCIS: Hawai'i.

Check out Sadie Montgomery's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Gina Montgomery

The true delight of this film had to be the evil Gina Montgomery, played ever so deliciously by Catherine Dyer. I saw Marvista's trailer, though the synopsis let us know that Sadie was a villainess. I wasn't expecting Gina to be one as well, and when Gina turned heel in that big twist, I literally beamed! When we first see Gina, she's so kindly and sweet, and she served as quite the ally to David in his search for Lauren. However, all of that would make Gina's heel turn that much more sweeter, as when she's revealed to be the evil, big bad crime boss, we see a very ruthless and diabolical side to Gina. Even better, Gina's an evil stepmother as well, so she's basically a cross between Lady Tremaine and Elementary's Jamie Moriarty--a very delicious combination.

Catherine Dyer hit a grand slam with this performance; she acted out Gina's genial nature very well, but when it came to her revealed evil side, Dyer went all in and really played that side brilliantly! We shouldn't be surprised at this stellar performance. Not only has Dyer done the Lifetime villainess thing before (as Joyce Miller in Psycho In-Law), she also played main villainess Connie Frazier during the first season of Netflix's hit show, Stranger Things.

Check out Gina Montgomery's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

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