2020 October Horror Challenge #81: "The Wrong Stepmother"

 

I love "crazy new spouse terrifies blended family" stories. The "Stepfather" movies ate some of my favorites (both the originals and even the remake) so I was excited to see this among Hulu's Halloween horror movie selections. "The Stepmother" instead of "The Stepfather." I know from experience how women can be crazy and even scarier than men, so I was ready to see a creepy killer woman lurking in the shadows of this movie.

This movie opens with a scene showing us just how creepy the scary stepmother is in this movie. Seeing her stand in the shadows in a dark hoodie sent a chill down my spine. We cut to a teenage girl and her little sister making breakfast for their dad. Turns out their mother died a few years ago, and the dad has started dating a new woman (uh-oh). His younger daughter likes  the new woman, but his teenage daughter thinks there's something strange about the new woman (there is! Run, dad, run!) As the movie goes on, the new girlfriend gets more and more scary. Can the teenage daughter stop the scary lady and save her family before it's too late?

Look, dating is hard enough on its own. You have to meet someone,  learn about them, be vulnerable and open without scaring them away with too much information, and of course you always have to worry about crazy psychos like the lady in this movie that make the idea of dating even more intimidating. I think I'll just stay at home with my cat. Not nearly as many killer cat movies, yo.

Here i am again, being freaked out by a Lifetime horror movie. This is more a psycjogical thriller than the openly horrific stuff luke "Devil's Diary," but it's still pretty creepy seeing the new stepmother, Maddie, insert herself into everyone's life, starting out a little overprotective, slowly becoming more and more unhinged. Cindy Busby plays Maddie, and she's got these big eyes that show a lot of emotion, so when she goes from "happy mommy" to "angry mommy" she really sells the anger and the danger people are in if they piss her off.

Since this is a Lifetime movie, there's no gore, and everything gets wrapped up a little too easily for me (and cheesily too) but there's still some creepy scenes and a fun cameo by Vivica Fox. I had fun with this one, even though it's not great or anything.