When Secrets Kill (1997 TV Movie) User Reviews

The back end of an earlier homicide

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 21 March 2011]

***SPOILERS*** They don't get any better or more complicated then this one on the Lifetime TV Network with this mysterious woman showing up at the Newhall family's doorstep on Mother's Day no less! Linda Emery, Larissa Laskin, has come home after 13 years in exile and is determined to see her abandonment daughter that she gave up for adoption when she was just a few hours old. It just happens that Linda's daughter Jenny, Lacey Chabert, is now the adopted daughter of the Newhell's Greg & Karen, Gregory Harrison & Roxanne Hart! This very complicated family matter is settled by non other then Jenny herself who against her parents wishes wants Linda to stay with her and go to the nearest soda joint to talk things over. The most pressing thing on Jenny's mind is why her natural mother, Linda Emery, abandonment her at childbirth!

Before things even start to get going in the movie Linda is found murdered in a local junkyard with non other then Greg Newhell as the #1 suspect in her murder! It's then that things start to come about what exactly Greg had to do with Linda besides being suspected in murdering her and that, when it all comes out in the wash, just about blows everyone's minds in the movie's cast as well as those of us watching! To say the least Greg has a secret is an understatement. It's that secret that he's been hiding form his wife as well as daughter for years when it's finally exposed can very well put Greg behind bars for the rest of his life!

There's just too many sub-plots as well as twists and turns in the film to really get that deep into it without giving away important spoilers that can very well ruin it's very mind bugging and brain twisting storyline. It all has to do with something that happened some 14 years ago that has been covered up all that time until Linda Emery unexpectedly showed up in town. This all set the stage for a string of murders to keep whatever that big secret is from ever seeing the light of day.

***SPOILERS*** The movie's ending is anything but surprising, to me at least, in that the killer was so obvious that it didn't take a Sherlock Holmes or Let.Colombo to figurer out who is was from almost the first moment he came on the scene. Linda to her regret showed up in town when she thought that the coast was clear and whoever she was afraid of was now dead and buried! That miscalculation on Linda's part turned out to be fatal for her as well as a number of other persons who just happened to get in her killer's way!

An interesting, yet disturbing TV movie

[PeterPie · 2 September 1999]

This is one the most disturbing TV movies I have ever seen. It is very good, though. The story centers around Lacey Chabert's character and the death of her real mother. It is very suspenseful, with some good twists. If the script was a little better fine tuned and a better director on board, this would have been a hit in the theaters. If it is on Lifetime or something, I suggest you check it out

When Movies Kill

[DukeEman · 3/10 · 3 February 2003]

Brain dead tele feature that needs to be viewed when body falls in a heap on the lounge and the fingers cannot sustain the strength of pressing that darn button on the remote. But it is laughable with every cliche in the book thrown in from ridiculous direction to pathetic acting.

Only Watch This if There's Nothing Better On

[SataiDelen · 3/10 · 9 October 2010]

I read the synopsis and it sounded like a good movie. But then I tuned in to watch it. Boy, was I wrong! The acting was TERRIBLE! I think if this movie hadn't had people so badly overacting it could have had a chance at being watchable, but as it stands, well, Barney & Friends looks more appealing.

Side note: In response to something another reviewer said... Do NOT use the term "real mother" when referring to a birth mother. It is deeply offensive both to the adoptive mother, and the adopted child. A birth mother is NOT the "real" mother, the woman who loves, cares for, and raises the child is the real mother. The correct term for a woman who has a child and gives it up for adoption is called the birth mother. As an adopted child, I state this with fact. Nothing raises my hackles more than when someone finds out I'm adopted and has the ignorance to say, "So, have you ever met your real mom?" or something equally as inane.

If Agatha Christie were American, she would have written it

[przgzr · 8/10 · 12 July 2005]

This movie was more than a pleasant surprise when I took an old VC that I'd recorded years ago and put on a shelf for later (when nothing else would be available). A TV movie with Roxanne Hart isn't something one would run to buy or hire, and as there are gallons of "true" or "could be true" stories on different channels it can be easily missed. And what a pity it would be! My instinct didn't mislead me this time, this one is a hidden star in the mud of similar movies.

If Agatha Christie were American this would be her story. The story-writer must have read all her novels and carefully transposed it's mood and plot-developing to USA, not neglecting American society (small American town looks probably more like Martian than like English small town), characters, and construction of American movies: the only real difference is made in last five minutes, the movie doesn't end with meeting of all possible suspects and Poirot or Miss Marple points the villain, but in typical American way - a few shots and the bad one's dead (I won't reveal if it is he or she).

The story introduces us to a typical peaceful lethargic (rather) small town where you don't expect crime bigger than broken window or stolen garden dwarf (like Picket Fences, or Edward Scissorhands). Then we meet a family with a teenage girl and for a short while it is a typical ordinary sitcom-type family with all the problems a teenager-containing family is expected to have (8 Rules, Family Ties). A bell on the door shows that the family isn't so ordinary, and a drama replaces first light tones (Fly Away Home, The Horse Whisperer, Man in the Moon). We meet more and more characters, the slow start is speeding, and when a first (not so unexpected) corpse is found, we are prepared to start guessing who did it - all in typical A. Christie way, including a total of three murders (without the final shooting) as usual in her novels.

If you prefer calm who-did-it movies with a lot of possible suspects, all of them well played interesting characters, and a surprising but not illogical end, give this one a chance even if TV movies are on your ignore list.

great acting

[mrskywalker · 19 September 2003]

This film is theater quality. Twists and turns lead to clue after clue sort of like The Ring but not supernatural. The young daughter is very good and is not just a rebellious stereotype but actually insists on going to choir and you will see that significance. I love not this film. There are no agendas. Honor and justice and truth are all themes.