Villainess Review: Valerie McGlynn (You're Not Safe Here)

There is a huge reason why I was so excited weeks ago when I learned about this movie, originally titled, The Girl in the Window, now known as You're Not Safe Here. The film begins with Ava discovering that she's pregnant with her first child with boyfriend Shane, who is established as being abusive and controlling towards Ava. Ava leaves Shane's clutches with the help of her friend Kyle, but while on the road, she ends up crashing her car. When she wakes up, Ava finds herself in a house occupied by Valerie and William McGlynn, who are both doctors.

The McGlynns tended to and befriended Ava, though Ava quickly notices that several things are amiss. The couple claims that phones are down, but Ava noticed William on his cellphone. Ava's walk around the area is later interrupted when Valerie drives up and takes her home, and we later see Ava attempt to get away again, but her water starts breaking. Valerie hears Ava's screams, but ignores her pleas to take her to a hospital, leading to Ava giving birth at the house. When the following day comes, Ava is informed by William that she lost the baby, though Ava doesn't believe the claim.

We later see William attempt to console Ava, and later reveal that he and Valerie had made attempts to have a child of their own, finally becoming successful after many failures. However, Valerie suffered a miscarriage, and was informed that she would never carry a child to full term. The conversation is interrupted by the sound of a baby's cries, with Ava returning to the house with her conviction that her baby was indeed alive. What she found, once inside, was this:

It was Ava's baby, in the clutches of Valerie, and it was followed by William chloroforming Ava, who was shackled to her bed. As Valerie revealed, she and William schemed to take Ava's baby as their own after taking Ava in, while also claiming that Ava wasn't fit to be a mother to her daughter. She later forced Ava to take medication, and regarding William, he made another revelation: he had a painkiller addiction that cost him his job as a surgeon when an operation resulted in the death of a young boy. He also faced a malpractice lawsuit, and the entire ordeal reached adoption agencies, who turned down the couple when they were looking to adopt a child of their own. William's reasoning for going along with his wife's deranged plan: she "saved him," so he is with her all the way in her goal. There's a word for guys like him.

We would see William express apparent kindness to Ava, and that didn't please Valerie, who thought Ava was "getting in his head." William voiced her devotion to Valerie, but the film's climax saw William drugged by Ava (who had convinced William to unshackle her); after which Ava went to regain her daughter--only to find herself held at gunpoint by Valerie. The couple's plan to eliminate Ava was interrupted by the appearance of Shane and Lilla (the latter being Ava's sister), who were looking for Ava. Ava's screams led them to turn back to the house, leading to Lilla freeing Ava and helping her regain her baby, while Valerie fired shots at the pair of siblings.

The climactic confrontation saw Valerie demand the baby from Ava, who tossed the blanket to Valerie, only to find it empty. The baby was placed closed by, and after the sisters disarmed Valerie and held her at gunpoint, Valerie vowed revenge on Ava for thwarting her plans to become a mother. Just as Valerie was about to go after Ava's baby (a girl later named Hope), she ended up shot to death by Ava.

You're Not Safe Here aired on Lifetime on July 31, 2021, and it featured Nicky Whelan as villainess Valerie McGlynn. Whelan's credits include four other Lifetime films: Sins of Seduction, Pretty Little Stalker (which aired on Netflix, but is definitely a Lifetime-esque film), Secrets at the Lake, and InstaPsycho, but after playing protagonists in all of them, she finally joins the dark side with her very first villainous role in a Lifetime film. I had wanted Whelan to play a Lifetime villainess since watching her in Sins of Seduction, because I knew she would really show out in such a role. She proved me right with this performance. Valerie McGlynn was charming, but as we saw, that genial demeanor covered up her malevolent and fiendish personality. From what we've seen regarding William, Valerie's also a manipulator; basically using William's terrible past to keep him aligned with her evil abduction scheme, which would later include attempted murder.

Whelan played Valerie's charm very well, which is no surprise; she has played warm and sweet characters before. Once the reveal comes, we see Whelan act out Valerie's maliciousness to absolute perfection, and we also see Whelan play Valerie's arrogance and venom towards Ava very well. Nicky Whelan previously played another villainess, Katie Wells, in 2017's Inconceivable, acting alongside Nicolas Cage and Gina Gershon in the film. She also appeared in the big screen as Nadia in the comedy, The Wedding Ringer, which co-starred Kevin Hart and Josh Gad.

Regarding the small screen, the Australian actress is best known for recurring on the Australian soap opera, Neighbours (which, fun fact, premiered on the same day that I did: March 18, 1985), as Pepper Steiger from 2006-2007, and also played Maya on Scrubs, as well as Annie Mason on the short-lived series, Matador. I hope that we see more Lifetime villainess roles from Nicky Whelan; this film (as well as Inconceivable) proved she could play baddies very well if given the chance.

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