Top 10 Lifetime Villainesses of 2023 (Part 1: #10 - #6)

Can you believe this is Year Three of this list on Vocal? Seems like yesterday that I first did this. This year's gave us some very delicious villainesses, including a number of actresses finally entering the dark side of a Lifetime movie for the first time. Here's how this list has evolved already. Two years ago, it was only villainesses from Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network. Last year, I decided to mix it up and add some baddies from Lifetime Movie Club and Tubi, because the latter's thrillers are basically Lifetime movies. For this year, I gave Tubi their own list (click here for that story), but this list will still feature the best villainesses from Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, and Lifetime Movie Club. This was a hell of a year for Lifetime villainesses, and I truly enjoyed it.

With that said, let's get this list started.

10. Judy (My Son Didn't Do It)

On August 17 of this year, Lifetime gave us My Son Didn't Do It (aka Catfish Murder), which I enjoyed because Gina Holden played a strong heroine in the form of Helen Parker, whose son, Taylor, is actually arrested for the murder of popular girl Sophia Bliss. Helen believes in her son's innocence, and has an ally in the form of her best friend, Judy, but the truth comes out in the climax, and it's quite closer than Helen thought. As it turned out, Judy's son, Miles, had been catfishing Sophia because he had a thing for her, and that turned into a confrontation that ended with Miles killing Sophia.

The first thing Miles did was call Judy, who worked with her son to cover up the murder--a plan that involved killing another student, Lucas Peters, and setting him up in Sophia's murder. What some mothers wouldn't do, right? Stephanie Izsak portrayed the evil Judy in this film, and she was quite the amazing villainess. Not only does she cover up for her son's actions, she actually gets her hands dirty and kills a student as part of the quest. As I said before, the Lifetime movie equivalent of Missing's Rosemary Vick. Beautiful. Izsak's portrayal was so stellar, and seeing her go from supportive friend from ruthless villainess in the climax was so epic!

9. Gina Montgomery (Newlywed Nightmare)

It was ten days after Valentine's Day that the film, Newlywed Nightmare, premiered, and it centered on Lauren and David Hasen, a pair of newlyweds whose bliss was interrupted by Lauren being abducted. The mastermind behind the abduction was David's crazed ex-wife, Sadie Montgomery, and as for David, he is assisted on his search by Gina, who introduced herself as a private investigator. David does reunite with Lauren, but it sees them held captive by Sadie, who lashed out at both of them and revealed that the plan was to gain David's money to fund her father's criminal activities.

At this point, David later hears a familiar voice: belonging to Gina, who is revealed as the head of this criminal ring following the death of Sadie's father. That was beautiful! Sadie was a pretty good villainess in her own right, but Gina Montgomery really took the cake with her epic heel turn in the climax. Dyer acted out that sinister swerve ever so brilliantly, and it's no surprise; she's best known for playing evil villainess Connie Frazier on Stranger Things.

8. Susan Bannister (You'll Never Leave Me)

Imagine wanting to stay with your cheating husband so badly that you'll have his mistress eliminated just to do it. That was the case with Susan Bannister in You'll Never Leave Me. After watching the first game of the NBA Finals, I tuned in to this film, which centered on the aforementioned mistress, April Cook, and the end of her illicit relationship with Patrick Bannister. An argument between the two resulted in a car crash that left Patrick comatose, and as Susan visited her husband, she encountered April, and also lashed out at her for the affair.

We later see April in an apparent budding relationship with Jimmy Conway, but as we later learn, Jimmy is Patrick's half-brother, and he was enlisted by Susan to eliminate April. Her reason for wanting April dead: she's preparing for Patrick's revival, and to make sure they remain married, she has to eliminate April. However, after killing April's BFF, Marie, Susan learns that Patrick had passed, and Jimmy is backing out of the plan, leaving Susan to make the attempt herself.

Nicole Marie Johnson played Susan Bannister in this film, and it was so nice to finally see her play a truly evil and remorseless villainess (she played a villainess before, but the remorse was large). Johnson had done so many Lifetime films and played the heroic wife and mother roles so well, so it was such a breath of fresh air to see her play such a deliciously wicked role; she truly stole this whole film!

7. Rachel Jordan (Hiding from My Husband)

On August 24, Hiding from My Husband premiered on Lifetime Movie Network, and it centered on Jessica Howard, who was escaping with her son, Noah, from her abusive ex-husband, Peter Howard. The planned sanctuary was the home of her sister, Rachel Jordan, who served as a means of protection and support for her sister and nephew. Jessica does learn that Peter is deceased, but even that doesn't put her at ease, as she's on the receiving end of harassing texts from Peter.

The climax sees Peter resurface and hold Noah hostage, with Rachel and Jessica attempting to save Noah from Peter's clutches. The confrontation ends with Peter falling to his actual death, and it's followed by Rachel actually calling the police and claiming that her sister murdered Peter. So Rachel was a scheming villainess who was planning to get sole custody of Noah; a plan that included enlisting her henchman, Cory, to kill Peter and eliminate Jessica so she could have Noah and benefit financially. Rachel's heel turn was so epic, and regarding her portrayer, Betsy Stewart, she was absolutely golden in her villainous role. We would see Stewart again on Lifetime this year in Secrets of a Celebrity Nanny, though I hope 2024 sees Betsy Stewart in more Lifetime movies.

6. Gemma (Sabotaging the Squad)

One day after LMN gave us, You'll Never Leave Me, Lifetime Movie Club gave us the long overdue film, Sabotaging the Squad, another of Lifetime's amazing cheer movies. In the film, Gemma served as the best friend of Missy Clark, who was hired to coach their former cheer squad, while Gemma served as her assistant. Missy had to deal with their fellow squad members, whose daughters were on the squad and weren't happy with Missy being the coach, with the biggest hater being Darlene, who served as the coach after the last coach, Krista, suddenly died.

What follows is a series of mishaps that befell Missy, including being locked in a bathroom during one performance, and also being drugged. After Candi, one of the moms, was murdered, suspicion falls on Darlene big time, with Gemma later visiting Darlene and claiming that she found blood-covered gloves that belonged to her. This was followed by Gemma suddenly chloroforming Darlene, and she later does the same to Missy's daughter, Arielle, before sending a message to Missy regarding her daughter. Missy ends up tied up along with Arielle and Darlene, and it's followed by Gemma revealing that she had been insanely jealous of Missy, who she accused of stealing Adam (Missy's deceased husband) from her. She also revealed that she killed Krista after it was uncovered that Gemma hooked up with Krista's husband, and she killed Candi because she knew the truth. Brittany Goodwin played Gemma, her second Lifetime villainess of 2023, and she absolutely showed out in this role. Gemma was unhinged, jealous, and bloodthirsty, an absolutely delicious villainess. Goodwin's performance was award-winning. I want to see her in more Lifetime films!

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Click here for Part 2, and check out my Villainess Reviews below!