Lifetime’s The Killer Next Door: 5 killer acts

2. Taking out Blake’s knee.

Allie’s decision to attack Blake doesn’t actually make much sense. It doesn’t affect her overall plan. If she wanted to alienate Julie from Blake, you’d think she would have tried seducing him, which is normally on the first page in the evil-neighbor/sister/nanny-Lifetime-handbook. Beating his leg in with a crowbar actually keeps Julie in business as a physical therapy and brought her and Blake closer together since she could be there to support him through his recovery.

It set the whole revenge fire in motion. Her evil deed may have backfired a little with this one since it’s through a reconnaissance meeting with Blake that Julie comes up with her entrapment idea to catch Allie in the act.

1. Tried to murder Julie.

In the film’s final act, Julie confronts Allison by using some of her own tricks against her. The creepy nanny cam Allison had stashed in Matty’s teddy bear is turned against her as Julie stows it in a plush dinosaur, a faux gift from Matty to his favorite aunt Allie.

The ploy to get Allie to meet up with a lawyer named Jeremiah and help Julie lose custody of her son works! Allie unravels and pulls a gun on Julie but the cops arrive just in time to save the day. Except, Allie was right wasn’t she? Why would the cops believe Julie, the woman with a reputation for overreacting and triggering false alarms?

Cue the dinosaur cam! Allie’s demise comes from a trick of her own design.

Odds & Ends

• Look, I’m all about willful suspension of belief when it comes to watching television and movies, especially on Lifetime, but how am I supposed to believe Julie could afford that beautiful big house while only working three days a week as a physical therapist!?
• Julie’s house gets broken into like 5 times during this movie yet her neighbors and the police think she’s crazy? Are we sure these people are even real and not Stepford robots?

Lifetime’s next original movie is titled, My Killer Client, and it debuts at 8/9c on April 6.