Villainess Review: Janice Roseland (Memories of a Murder)

This weekend, Lifetime gave us Memories of a Murder (originally titled, Souvenirs), which centered on a young woman named Gail, who was running a murder memorabilia shop. The shop served as a target of ridicule and vandalism from a group of teens led by Tori Kelly, and it was after eggs were thrown that Gail was visited by Janice Roseland, a detective who spoke to Gail about the vandalism and her shop. The film's progression sees Gail on the receiving end of calls from a mysterious killer, who had been taunting Gail and ordering her to sell some of the items from the shop. The caller also claimed that Gail's father was a killer himself, and that he created both of them.

Items from the shop had been appearing at the killer's murder scenes, while Gail has had to deal with her controlling grandmother, Margot, who keeps Gail under her thumb and in her home, even going as far as preventing Gail from going off to college. Gail's latest encounter with the killer includes the mention of G.W. Stubbs, a name that draws anger from Margot, and we find out why when Gail visits Stubbs in prison: Stubbs is Gail's father--a fact that Margot attempted to hide from Gail. After lashing out at her best friend, Alexa, for putting an item up for sale, Gail is confronted by Janice, who voices her suspicion of Gail due to the shop being tied to the murders, and afterwards, Gail discovers that Margot had been lying about being injured and handicapped just to keep her in the house.

A return to the house sees Gail find Margot's wheelchair knocked over, and later ends with Gail finding Margot with her throat slashed in the greenhouse, where Janice arrived and handcuffed Gail. However, it's at that moment that Janice revealed herself as the true killer, having committed the serial killings and using the shop in a twisted act of revenge against Gail, as Janice also revealed that Stubbs was her father as well. Stubbs killed Janice's mother, leaving Janice to believe that he loved Gail and her mother more, and just as she was about to kill Gail, she ends up disarmed and taken down by her half-sister. After Gail leaves the prison after another meeting with Stubbs, we see her walk past Janice, as she was also in prison.

This was not your typical Lifetime movie, which can be a good thing at times, and in the case of this one, it was. I had Janice Roseland, played by Rosa Gilmore, pegged from her first scene--she just had that suspicious aura about her. Even before her reveal, Janice seemed to be a bit of an antagonist towards Gina, and with no other real viable suspects, it was definitely a foregone conclusion that Janice would be the villainess. Gilmore played Janice's determination very well, and her reveal saw her portray Janice's vengeful and deranged demeanor brilliantly. As for the character, Janice was a very maniacal villainess, elaborate yet deeply disturbed, and honestly, that last scene where she sees Gail leaving the prison showed that even though she had been defeated and imprisoned herself for her murderous spree, Janice still felt that she was in competition for her father's attention--and was feeling like she was still losing.

I had to do some homework on Rosa Gilmore, as I had never really seen her in much of anything prior to this Lifetime film. According to her IMDB, Gilmore has appeared in episodes of Elementary, The Handmaid's Tale, and Younger, and has also recurred on the Amazon Prime series, The Expanse.

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Click here for Janice Roseland's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!