Villainess Review: Marion (Sins of the Preacher's Wife)

It's that time in the calendar year where my emphasis on Lifetime movies increases. The NBA crowned their champions, the NHL awarded the Stanley Cup, and while I'm enjoying baseball and spending time on Vocal cooking up my own Lifetime-esque stories (like this one), I'm also enjoying this month's batch of actual Lifetime movies, with the last one of this month being Sins of the Preacher's Wife.

The movie centers on Beth, a practicing artist, though as the opening scene showed, she's haunted by a death from her past. Other than being an artist, Beth is a mother to infant Anna, as we see, Beth, Anna, and Dan (Beth's husband and Anna's father) moved into a new small town, and Beth is already uncomfortable. It's definitely with merit; for one, she's being harassed by one of the townspeople, Boyd--who repeatedly tells Beth to leave the town. Secondly, the local police are about as helpful as a fourth quarter field goal is when you're down by 20 points, and sadly, the same can be said about Dan, who brushes off his wife's ordeal and tells her to see a therapist.

Beth does, and her way out of the office nearly sees her run down in a car, only to be saved by a Good Samaritan--in the form of a woman named Marion, who introduces herself as the wife of the town's preacher. They quickly form a friendship, which includes Marion bringing her baked pies to the house, and it leads to Beth and Dan visiting a church run by Marion's husband, Jim. The church also has a daycare, which is run by Marion, and we see Anna enrolled there as well.

I mentioned Beth's past. So as it turned out, the deceased girl from Beth's past is named Cassie, and they were friends when they were teenagers. It was an on again, off again friendship, but they were pretty close. As Beth described, Cassie had a bit of a crush on Beth, who revealed that she was in love with Cassie's brother. That led Cassie to run off, and Beth didn't chase after her, figuring that it was more drama from Cassie, only to find Cassie deceased--having commited suicide. She had been living with that ever since, but Marion was helping her finally cope with Cassie's death in therapeutic fashion.

So all is pretty well between the couples, but remember, folks, it's Lifetime.

It took a while for the plot to thicken, but it got there. During that moment, Marion revealed that she couldn't have kids, and as we see later on, she's set on taking Anna for herself. Jim's all in on the scheme, as we see him drugging Dan's drink at a bar, and after bringing Dan back home, he takes Anna, while Marion is outside calling the police and accusing the couple of being on drugs--which were planted in the toilet. We later see Boyd with a knife with some sinister intentions for Beth, but he runs off back to Marion and Jim, leading to a conversation that sees Marion tell Boyd to call her, "Mama."

I'll be honest, when I heard that, my first thought was: "He's being groomed." He wasn't, but it was still something sinister. Turns out, Boyd's real name is Tristan, and when he was a child, Marion took him as well. Marion scolds Boyd for not killing Beth, who later confronted Jim and took Anna back. However, we see Beth face to face with a knife-wielding Marion, who stated that she had a tough childhood due to her mother, and was engaged in criminal activity in her early life, which is the reason why she wasn't allowed to adopt. She also voiced her bitterness over not having kids, but Beth being allowed to adopt Anna, referring to Beth as an unfit mother. Marion was set on killing Beth, only for Boyd to arrive and fight with his deranged "mother"; a scuffle that ended with Boyd accidentally stabbed to death. As Marion broke down over the death of her ill-gotten son, she ended up being arrested, and as for Beth and Dan, they fully regained Anna and got the hell out of town.

Sins of the Preacher's Wife aired on Lifetime Movie Network on June 29, 2023, and featured Vanessa Angel as the evil and unhinged Marion. I beamed when I saw that Vanessa Angel would be in this, because I knew she'd be the villainess--she's been evil a lot on film and TV. Even more epic was the fact that she was playing a Lifetime villainess, something she hadn't done in eighteen years! Angel played evil conspirator Susan Grace in 2005's Criminal Intent, and from what I saw in this film, the touch is still there. I knew I was going to love Marion, not only was she a baby-obsessed villainess, but she would use her immense aura of self-righteousness to justify her evil actions. Marion was ruthless and failure-intolerant, but most of all, she was immensely manipulative; it really showed in her scenes with both Boyd and Jim.

Angel really showed out in this film, as I knew she would. She played Marion's warmth very well, and she absolutely shined in the climax, which saw Marion's psychotic demeanor take center stage. Vanessa Angel is best known for playing the role of Lisa on the Weird Science TV series, and regarding Angel's villainous scorecard, she's played an evil vampiress (Susan Hastings in Vampires: Out For Blood), and a wicked head witch (Cassandra Keegan in Hansel and Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft); all she needs to do is play a vicious werewolf to complete the horror hat trick.

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Check out Marion's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!