Coleen is the granny predator in search of the perfect family. Apparently independently wealthy, she is not seeking monetary gain from her victims. Instead, she wants to be the center of attention in an idealized family. In the character of Samantha Kirkpatrick, she believes she has finally struck the mother lode.
Samantha is predisposed to co-dependency. She is a bleeding heart who will be a sucker for a sob story. Colleen easily dupes Samantha into believing that she is her grandmother, who gave her mom up for adoption. The film seeks to unfold how deep Colleen gets her tentacles into Samantha. Despite the attempts of Samantha's husband Brad to urge his wife to proceed with caution in her newfound relationship, Samantha does not pay heed to his advice.
The filmmakers could not quite walk the line between dark comedy and the horror genre. It was unpleasant that Colleen had to knock two interesting characters out of the film, including Brad's colleague and Samantha's bestie Aimee. While there were some snappy lines of dialogue for the former nurse Colleen ("I dabble in a little needlework"), the villainess was far too unpleasant from start to finish.
The elements of this film seemed all too predictable. It was not made clear why Colleen had given up a daughter for adoption. The appearance of Melanie as a "deus ex machina" at the end seemed especially strained. The viewer had to wonder who was this stranger breaking the door down in the nick of time. Melanie also showed just a little too much empathy for her birth mother whom she just conked over the head. Melanie wants Colleen to get help that she needs, but it didn't seem very likely that Melanie would be paying many visits to a mother in a nut house.
Samantha is predisposed to co-dependency. She is a bleeding heart who will be a sucker for a sob story. Colleen easily dupes Samantha into believing that she is her grandmother, who gave her mom up for adoption. The film seeks to unfold how deep Colleen gets her tentacles into Samantha. Despite the attempts of Samantha's husband Brad to urge his wife to proceed with caution in her newfound relationship, Samantha does not pay heed to his advice.
The filmmakers could not quite walk the line between dark comedy and the horror genre. It was unpleasant that Colleen had to knock two interesting characters out of the film, including Brad's colleague and Samantha's bestie Aimee. While there were some snappy lines of dialogue for the former nurse Colleen ("I dabble in a little needlework"), the villainess was far too unpleasant from start to finish.
The elements of this film seemed all too predictable. It was not made clear why Colleen had given up a daughter for adoption. The appearance of Melanie as a "deus ex machina" at the end seemed especially strained. The viewer had to wonder who was this stranger breaking the door down in the nick of time. Melanie also showed just a little too much empathy for her birth mother whom she just conked over the head. Melanie wants Colleen to get help that she needs, but it didn't seem very likely that Melanie would be paying many visits to a mother in a nut house.