Top 10 Lifetime Villainesses of 2023 (Part 2: The Top 5)

I'm going to admit something: deciding who would be part of the first half of the year-end top 10 list this year was quite difficult. 2023 gave us a lot of very delicious villainesses on Lifetime's networks, and deciding who would be in the first half of that list wasn't easy, but it was done, and the list can be found here. Now, while deciding the first half was hard, the top 5 wasn't. As early as the beginning of fall, I had my top 5 cemented. These villainesses were truly the best of the best in 2023, and I'm still beaming over how delicious and epic they were!

With that said, here's the top 5:

5. Eve Blackwood (My Best Friend the Baby Snatcher)

This amazing thriller, which aired on May 18 of this year, centered on two best friends: Penelope Fitzgerald and Eve Blackwood, as well as how they both became expectant mothers. Eve was planning to donate her egg to Penelope, only to end up pregnant herself via intercourse with husband Tom Blackwood. Penelope would receive another donor thanks to husband Richie Fitzgerald selling his car, and there's our setting. Much like close tag teams in wrestling, the women planned for motherhood together, but also in that similar situation, something went wrong for one of them. In this case, it was Eve--she suffered a miscarriage.

And just like in wrestling, we see the dissolution of a close bond. Penelope continues to plan for her baby, while also sending her sympathies to Eve. However, Eve turned heel against her BFF after the miscarriage, and started to plan to take Penelope's baby--a scheme that included murder. We are also treated to a look back at Eve's backstory, which revealed that she was plenty damaged entering the film's events. She killed her father in a house fire, and in the events, she went on a huge killing spree; eliminating her mother, the fertility doctor, and even her own husband. The final piece was taking Penelope's baby and killing her former friend, but that plan was kiboshed and Eve ended up behind bars...where she gushed over her cellmate being pregnant.

Jennifer Taylor's appearance as the deranged Eve Blackwood marked her fifth time playing a Lifetime film villainess! That's just amazing! Overall, this was her best evil role; as great as Taylor's other villainesses were, Eve Blackwood was definitely the topper here. Eve was unhinged, ruthless, and willing to eliminate anyone in her way, and Taylor's performance was absolutely iconic!

4. Tracey (The Pregnancy Project)

A week before Jennifer Taylor's villainous Lifetime appearance, we were treated to this film, The Pregnancy Promise. This film featured teenage best friends Lucy and Skye actually becoming pregnant together, and regarding their families, Skye's parents are a bit on the controlling side (not a whole lot, just a bit), but they are peaches compared to Tracey, Lucy's mother. From what we see, Tracey's quite combative, especially towards Lucy. As the film progressed, we see Diane (Skye's mother) contacted by a mysterious blackmailer, and as for Skye, she ends up drugged and abducted.

Charles (Skye's father) went to Tracey's house searching for Skye, but ended up drugged and attacked by Tracey, who was revealed to be holding both girls captive and was behind the blackmailing scheme. She later contacted Diane and demanded money from her, only for Diane and Jake (the latter being Skye's boyfriend) to find the girls' location, as well as Tracey wielding a gun with intent on killing Diane. As Lucy protects Diane from her insane mother, Tracey vented over Lucy being embarrassed by her, and originally felt that she didn't need her daughter in her life, yet she could not bring herself to harm her own daughter even when Lucy dared her to.

Tracey was played by Gabriella Schaefer in her first Lifetime thriller, and she truly stole this film. Tracey was already established as not being "mother of the year" caliber, but at first, that was her only flaw. As we see later on, Tracey became capable of so many criminal acts: blackmail, extortion, abduction, and was even willing to resort to murder. Schaefer acted out Tracey's insanity in such stellar fashion, and I couldn't help but love Tracey's expression after drugging Charles; it truly showed that she was all in on her evil demeanor.

3. Grace Hutchinson (The Baby Swindler)

While I was waiting patiently for the Stanley Cup Playoffs to start, The Baby Swindler premiered on LMN on March 31 of this year. In this film, main protagonist Susie Ashcroft, who lost her husband, Mike Ashcroft, prior to the film's events, had acquired a surrogate, Lorna Morgan, to carry Susie's baby from her frozen embryo. In the film, the pair were living with Andrew Hutchinson (Susie's brother) and his wife, Grace, who couldn't carry children after their last attempt via IVF failed. What followed was a shocking discovery that Andrew had been stealing money from his and Mike's business to pay off loans, and he had been using Lorna to run grifts.

After both Susie and Lorna were abducted, the former learned about the grifts from the latter, and they learned the rest together, after which Andrew caught them both and was set on killing the pair. Grace later entered the fray and appeared to be set on saving Susie and Lorna, only to take Andrew's gun and point it at Susie. As Grace's heel turn revealed, she was the mastermind behind Andrew's crimes, which actually included sending her husband to kill Mike. The plan was to kill Susie and take in Lorna so she could have their baby, but Susie and Lorna fought off against the couple, with Susie sending Grace to her death.

Grace Hutchinson was an amazingly chilling villainess, and Ashley Alexander played her so beautifully. Grace had such a sweet and friendly demeanor, which made her unveiling as an evil mastermind so awesome! This was the second Lifetime film to feature Ashley Alexander and Rhonda Dent together, with this one seeing an evil Alexander against Dent (here's hoping those roles get reversed in another film). I really enjoyed seeing Grace in action, and Alexander's performance was so stellar.

2. Nora Hyatt (Who Killed Our Father?)

I remember being excited for Who Killed Our Father? for months, and then February 16 came and this movie was on LMN. The movie centered Leila Moore visiting the home of Scott Hyatt and encountering his wife, Nora, and Scott's daughter, Violet. After Leila's foster mother was killed, Leila discovered that Scott was her birth father, leading to Nora inviting Leila to live in their house. During the early scenes, Scott is brutally murdered, with the investigation revealing that Scott had been cheating on Nora.

Even so, Faith Brewer (Nora's sister) ended up suspected of committing Scott's murder, only for Faith to reveal that she was watching a movie with Nora that night, but was out like a light during most of it. Both girls ended up coming to the conclusion that Nora committed the murder, and after the reading of the will revealed that Violet would receive everything from Scott, Nora snapped and grabbed a knife before going after Leila. She was later confronted by Faith, which saw Nora admit to killing Scott for money and revenge, and she also murdered Hazel (the family's caretaker) and set her up as Scott's killer.

Joanne Boland appeared in the film as the evil Nora Hyatt, and I absolutely loved her! She was an evil, greedy, and murderous stepmother; seriously, we need more of these on Lifetime. Nora was also cunning and crafty, and also very sociopathic. She wore a veil of kindness, but it covered up a malicious and psychotic demeanor. Boland's performance was absolutely legendary, and I want her to play more Lifetime villainesses!

1. Ariande Conniver (The Serial Killer Seduced Me)

Was there ever any doubt? On August 20 of this year, Lifetime gave us something a lot of us (myself especially) had been waiting for: Kristi Murdock playing a huge uber-villainess. The Serial Killer Seduced Me featured Murdock as Ariande Conniver, introduced as a blogger who was interviewing aspiring artist Chloe Cochran, who received a painting from famed artist Julian, which ended up at an art gallery. The film would see Chloe facing accusations of plagiarism, all the while, a serial killer was on the loose, and Julian was under suspicion, as the victims were his models.

The quest also included the mention of Julian's first model, who simply disappeared, and we would see Chloe and Ariande in a confrontation with Luke, as both of them figured that he was the killer, though Ariande appeared to be fascinated by the paintings. Chloe ended up subduing Julian with an arrow, only for Ariande to appear and hold Chloe at gunpoint, with Chloe realizing that Ariande was not only Julian's first model, she was also the killer. Ariande killed Julian's models out of insane jealousy, and also added Julian's mother, Lilian, Chase (Chloe's business partner), and Steven (the husband of Marissa, one of the models) to her collection of fallen bodies. Ariande was set on killing both Chloe and Julian and portraying the latter as the serial killer in an eventual story, only for Chloe to knock out the madwoman, leading to Ariande's arrest.

Kristi Murdock absolutely delivered as the maniacal Ariande Conniver; a serial killer who used so many different methods in her murders. She was fiendishly bloodthirsty, insanely vengeful, and truly, truly evil and cold-blooded! Murdock played Ariande's psychotic demeanor to absolute perfection. Her performance is why she is always in demand and has done so many Lifetime films (this one was her third in 2023)! I knew that if given the chance, Kristi Murdock would absolutely shine as a villainess. Here's hoping she does more evil on Lifetime!

Thank you for reading my list! Here's to 2024! Click the heart if you liked it, click subscribe if you want more of my stories, and feel free to comment below! Tips and pledges are also welcomed, but only if you want to do so!

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