Cassie's "magic" seems to be going wrong and her attempts at helping people are backfiring. Lori discovers that Cassie's great-aunt disappeared on her birthday. A number of parallels between her and Cassie, whose birthday is approaching, has Lori worried Cassie is cursed.
The plot to this one's pretty contrived. For five movies now Cassie has been wiping the butts of the people of Middleton. Suddenly, because a few things go wrong, they're being jerks to her. It's all done to make the rather stupid curse story work. I understand Gwen's son Drew (Robin Dunne) blaming Cassie. He doesn't know her and it was written into the story that he never takes responsibility for his actions. But Jake? Martha? It's pretty hard to swallow they would turn on Cassie, even briefly, after all they've been through. To say nothing of Jake being her husband. It's a big drawback to this entry in the series, which have been some of the best made-for-TV movies made in the last decade. The likability of the characters has been a big part of that. But here they aren't that likable. Jake's a sourpuss, Brandon's a stubborn brat, Martha's a traitor, and Lori is annoying. Even Cassie is less likable than usual. She lets her family think she was kidnapped just to surprise them with a party...for herself!!! That was such a bizarre scene. Bell appeared intoxicated walking down the stairs. Just weird. Her immobile upper lip from whatever cosmetic procedures she's had in recent years didn't help matters.
The new character, Drew, is a freak. The movie goes out of its way to make him appear psycho and his repeated threats toward Cassie are disturbing. When the inevitable happy ending for everybody comes, it feels off because this guy creeped me out throughout the movie and I thought he needed psychological help. One last thing: a newspaper story from the 1920s features prominently in the movie. The headline uses the term 'restraining order.' Maybe I'm an idiot but was that even a thing in the '20s? I'm not sure if it was even a proper legal term, let alone common enough to be used in a newspaper headline. Still watchable but the weakest in the series so far and definitely the weirdest.
The plot to this one's pretty contrived. For five movies now Cassie has been wiping the butts of the people of Middleton. Suddenly, because a few things go wrong, they're being jerks to her. It's all done to make the rather stupid curse story work. I understand Gwen's son Drew (Robin Dunne) blaming Cassie. He doesn't know her and it was written into the story that he never takes responsibility for his actions. But Jake? Martha? It's pretty hard to swallow they would turn on Cassie, even briefly, after all they've been through. To say nothing of Jake being her husband. It's a big drawback to this entry in the series, which have been some of the best made-for-TV movies made in the last decade. The likability of the characters has been a big part of that. But here they aren't that likable. Jake's a sourpuss, Brandon's a stubborn brat, Martha's a traitor, and Lori is annoying. Even Cassie is less likable than usual. She lets her family think she was kidnapped just to surprise them with a party...for herself!!! That was such a bizarre scene. Bell appeared intoxicated walking down the stairs. Just weird. Her immobile upper lip from whatever cosmetic procedures she's had in recent years didn't help matters.
The new character, Drew, is a freak. The movie goes out of its way to make him appear psycho and his repeated threats toward Cassie are disturbing. When the inevitable happy ending for everybody comes, it feels off because this guy creeped me out throughout the movie and I thought he needed psychological help. One last thing: a newspaper story from the 1920s features prominently in the movie. The headline uses the term 'restraining order.' Maybe I'm an idiot but was that even a thing in the '20s? I'm not sure if it was even a proper legal term, let alone common enough to be used in a newspaper headline. Still watchable but the weakest in the series so far and definitely the weirdest.