Amanda Reyes

Directed by: David Greene
Written By: Mel Frohman and Ross Firestone,
Starring: Tracey Gold, Sharon Gless, Tom Irwin

Originally produced for CBS in 1998, The Girl Next Door is a decent time waster about the perils of a weak spirit coerced into committing murder in the name of love – or so she believes.

Tracey Gold has played victim, predator, hero... you name it. Her baby faced, slightly frumpy appearance allows her to take on all kinds of various Lifetime-esque roles, and how can someone not appreciate that? Although I prefer when she’s the psycho, I do like her as various other characters too...

Directed by Tom Donovan
Written by Rita Lakin
Starring Bradford Dillman, Lois Nettleton
ABC, 1974
Review By Amanda Reyes

This Toronto-lensed, shot-on-video thriller originally aired under the ABC Afternoon Playbreak moniker all the way back in 1974. The Playbreak series, which ran from October 31st, 1973 – February 13th, 1975, was a cycle of 90 minute stand alone episodes that would air once a month, preempting the daytime soap programming, and there were about 4 to 5 episodes per season. The afternoon movie format proved to be popular and many of the Playbreaks won Emmys, including The Last Bride of Salem which garnered an award for TV stalwart Bradford Dillman...

By Heidi Martinuzzi and Amanda Reyes

We went through the best and worst Christmas movies ever, and picked out the most awesome females from each film for your holiday enjoyment. There are so many wonderful bad horror Christmas movies, it'll make you cry tears. Tears of AWESOME...

For anyone who reads my sporadically updated Lifetime Kills column (which I promise to update soon), you are well aware of my love for the basic cable channel that features delish delights of scandalous scandal, tawdry tawdriness and (G-rated) sexy sex. It's Television for Women and by and large it delivers. If you're aware of Lifetime, then certainly you're no stranger to the second half of Meredith Baxter's impressive resume. Maybe it's because of my connection with these movies (and of course, watching her for years on Family Ties), that had me feeling overjoyed watching Meredith on the Today Show when she told Matt Lauer she was gay...

Review by Amanda Reyes
Starring Antonio Sabato Jr., Kostas Sommer, Kelly Curran
Directed by Michael Feifer
Written by Michael Feifer, Wood Dickinson, Christopher Ryan

Since Henry was all about confessions, I thought I’d start my review with one: I am a pretty voracious true crime nut and I’ve always been drawn to films about the “superstar” serial killers, such as Dahmer, Bundy and, you guessed it, Henry Lee Lucas. Like good ol’ Ed Gein, Lucas has inspired a tale or two about his supposed rampage across the country. I say supposed because Lucas confessed to a few hundred some odd murders and then rescinded most of them...

Directed by Richard A. Colla
Written by David Burton Morris, Victoria Wozniak
Starring Yasmine Bleeth, Richard Grieco
1999, USA Network

One of my favorite things about the Lifetime Movie Network (and trust me, I LOVE a lot of things about that channel!) is their True Movie Thursdays. Every week they show two movies based on real life events. They can be about anything although most of the films revolve around murder. I've always been fascinated by how filmmakers take these stories and condense them into two hour movies. Ultimate Deception is an almost a perfect example of how to do it right...

Review by Amanda Reyes
Directed by Peter Medak
Written by Teena Booth
Starring Mena Suvari, Matthew Modine, Jonathan Schaech, Marcia Gay Harden
Lifetime Movie Network, 2008

Having been raised in Sin City myself, I have an unhealthy obsession with watching films that take place in my old stomping grounds because from the time I was 7 until I moved away at 25 years of age in 1996, that dang city has changed more often than Liz Taylor changed husbands. I'm also fascinated by the kind of lifestyle that some of the city's more, uh, interesting patrons live. Fittingly, a lot of these citizens are ripe for characterizations in movies. Case in point, Sex & Lies in Sin City is the non-fictional tale about the infamous Ted Binion murder. Unfortunately, it's also full of enough fictional accounting to make you remember why this kind of stuff is supposed to stay in Vegas...

By Amanda Reyes

It would be difficult to pin a label on the women mentioned in this article. All are gorgeous, strong, and smart and each imbues something unique that made them so original in the first place. But one fact ties these vixens, girls-next-door, spinsters and housewives together - All are Small Screen Scream Queens. From 1970-1979 this fine assortment of talented ladies took over the boob-tube (pun intended!) and created memories long held dear by latch key kids everywhere. Moreover, they became icons of an era sadly long since passed. The Made for TV movies of the 70s provided a unique contribution to the genre and have actually created a sub-genre all their own.