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Villainess Review: Annie Weaver (Am I a Serial Killer?)

An 18-year-old girl, the daughter of a convicted killer, wonders if she has murderous tendencies of her own in this 2019 Lifetime film

By Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 5 min read
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Crystal Allen as Annie Weaver

2019's Am I a Serial Killer? was quite an interesting Lifetime film full of twists and turns. The film centered on Natalie, an 18-year-old girl living with her aunt, Caroline Weaver, having done so in the eight years that passed since Natalie's mother, Annie Weaver, was convicted of killing couple Lucy and Frank Miller. The Millers had been living in a room at Annie's mother's old home, but they were suddenly murdered when Natalie was 10 years of age, and it was Natalie who testified against Annie, leading to Annie's conviction.

However, Annie's introductory scene shows her being visited by Natalie, with the claim that Annie was trying to protect Natalie, but wouldn't say from who or what. All the while, Natalie had been seeing a therapist, Dr. Welk, and had been bullied at school by fellow student, Kent, due to Annie's incarceration. Kent later turns up dead, and as it turned out, he was killed with a hatchet, with buttons placed over his eyes. It was a familiar scene, as it was the exact same fashion as the Millers' murders. Natalie's boss, Owen Moore, is murdered in the same fashion, and after Natalie's drawings of the Millers post-mortem are made public, Annie ended up released from prison.

The person most dismayed over Annie's release was Caroline, and the confrontation between the two sisters-in-law saw Annie demand to see Natalie, who started to believe that she could have killed the Millers. Her fear and belief was due to a memory of Natalie giving the hatchet to Annie on the day in question, and even Annie told her daughter that she had anger issues, furthering Natalie's fears. However, Natalie later found what appeared to be prison letters written to Annie, and she recognized the handwriting: it was Dr. Welk's. This led Natalie to believe that Welk committed the pair of copycat murders to get Annie out of jail, though at that time, Natalie believed that Welk had an infatuation with Annie and did it in an attempt to be with her. She was close.

When Natalie returned to the house, she saw her mother and Welk together. Together together. As the late, great blues singer Johnnie Taylor once sang, "Everything's out in the open." Annie and Welk had been in a relationship for some time, and as also revealed, Annie really did kill the Millers on that day, and began colluding with Welk to commit the copycat murders after Welk's visit to the prison. Their plan even included framing Natalie, and in that regard, Annie was all too happy to set up her own daughter, as she snarled at Natalie for getting her convicted, while also accusing Natalie of taking her life away and voiced her desire to do the same to her own daughter, right before she murdered Welk. During Annie's pursuit of Natalie, the latter remembered everything that really happened, which included Annie rubbing her victims' blood on her then-10-year-old daughter, revealing that she was trying to set her up back then. Wow.

Caroline's appearance nearly resulted in her being killed by her evil sister-in-law, who later revealed that she killed the Millers due to her hatred of seeing them show love to Natalie, while berating Natalie for playing along with them. She continued to boast about her plan to frame Natalie for killing Welk and Caroline, but as she took the knife from Natalie and was about to eliminate her own daughter, she was shot by captain Maxine Lawrence, and was arrested once again.

Am I a Serial Killer? aired on Friday, May 10, 2019, and featured the amazing Crystal Allen as the maniacal Annie Weaver. Out of all four of Crystal Allen's Lifetime villainesses, Annie Weaver is my favorite, but she is also the most monstrous. Once the mask was gone, once the facade of a caring mother and an innocent woman was gone, all that was left was a truly evil, deranged, and soulless fiend. To say that Annie hated her daughter would be an understatement; she killed her tenants because they were attentive towards Natalie, she attempted to set up Natalie (who was only ten) as a double murderess, and she turned up her insanity by masterminding copycat murders and attempting to set up Natalie for those. Annie also remorselessly voiced her hatred of Natalie face-to-face on more than one occasion; definitely cementing her in the Complete Monster trope.

Regarding Crystal Allen, this was another terrific performance. Based on this performance alone, it's clear that Allen loves playing the villainess; the way she delivered her villainous rant to Monroe Cline's Natalie showed that Allen really relished in acting out Annie Weaver's venomously evil demeanor. I remember watching this and hoping that Annie was truly innocent and the true villainess was Jhey Castles' Caroline Weaver, but as a fan of villainesses, I was (and still am) happy with how it turned out. Plus, Jhey Castles would definitely make up for this a year later on Lifetime. Crystal Allen's appearance in this film came two years after playing villainess Beth Glynner in The Stalker Club, and it was a year after this that she played another evil murderess, Anna, in Beware of Mom. She recently appeared in another Lifetime film, Picture Perfect Lies, and outside of Lifetime, Allen has appeared in episodes of Castle, Grey's Anatomy, and Supernatural (among other shows).

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Click here for Annie Weaver's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

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About the Creator

Clyde E. Dawkins

I am an avid fan of sports and wrestling, and I've been a fan of female villains since the age of eight. Also into film and TV, especially Simpsons and Family Guy.

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