I was surprised that so many people gave this movie a rating of 5/10 or even 1/10 - perhaps I have watched so many awful Lifetime movies such as "Engaged to a Psycho," "Psycho Yoga Instructor" and "The Wrong Cheerleading Coach" that an allegedly mediocre film has excited me. "The Wrong Cheerleading Coach" has to be one of the most irritating movies I have ever watched and in comparison, this movie is absolutely amazing. I actually enjoyed "Deadly Jealousy: The Killer Cousin" as it had a different plot to most Lifetime movies and the storyline was intriguing.
The premise of the movie is that a teenage girl, Madison, becomes extremely jealous of her cousin who excels academically and is involved in many student activities. Madison has a rather complacent attitude towards school, drinks alcohol during school hours and does not exert copious amounts of effort in terms of her studies. Madison's father is extremely wealthy and Madison seems to be accustomed to getting what she wants. Madison concocts a vicious and underhanded plan to blackmail her cousin, Hanna, which places her cousin in an extremely precarious situation.
Both girls reside in single parent families and it soon becomes evident that Madison resents her cousin. The actress, Sydney Meyer, did a fantastic job of making the audience loathe her character and the despicable things that she does. Her character is vile and horrible, but the actress portrays this very well. Her character does show remorse for her actions at one point in the movie by crying after she does something horrendous to her teacher, but she is more vicious than anything else. This is one of the first few times that a nefarious Lifetime character has shown self awareness.
One of the first unrealistic aspects of the plot is that Madison wrecks a car and immediately gets another one. It is clear that Madison rarely faces consequences of her actions. Her extremely wealthy lifestyle is clearly evidenced and she has not involved herself in student activities to the extent that Hanna has.
What drives the plot is when Madison invites Hanna to her house and serves her a mocktail, which we later find out contains rohypnol. At first, Madison jokingly asks Hanna to take her college entrance exam for her and then almost immediately states that she was kidding. Hanna conveniently passes out for the whole night, which enables Madison to take photographs of her naked cousin. Madison then uses these photographs to blackmail her cousin. The characters in Lifetime movies always seem to acquire illegal drugs with ease. As Hanna has not been home for the whole night, her mother is understandably concerned when Hanna returns home. The mother seems extremely calm despite the fact that her child has been missing for the duration of the night. Hanna states that Madison gave her some clothing, but it is evident that she entered her home without carrying anything that would resemble clothing. In many Lifetime movies, the mothers are presented as being overbearing such as in "The Boy She Met Online," in which the mother classifies her daughter as being out of control because her daughter wants to get a job and is showing that she can actually think for herself which the mother labels as being rebellious. The mother is this movie seems reasonable and she knows that something is wrong, but she cannot place her finger on it.
The mother has a close relationship with her daughter and had Hanna just told her what had happened, things could have been very different. Hanna had obviously not done anything wrong and she is an extremely smart girl. Madison blackmails her cousin into taking a college entrance exam for her. No mention is ever made of Hanna taking such an exam, despite her academic brilliance.
Madison also convinces her father to let her attend Hanna's school. Of course, this happens amazingly quickly because in what seems like the very next day, Madison is flaunting her perfect outfit through the halls and everyone pays attention to her.
Some things were slightly too convenient and implausible, such as Madison breaking a window at her teacher's house during the day, which causes the house alarm to sound. The purpose of this was so that the teacher would be called away from his test proctoring duties. How did Madison know that the teacher had a house alarm? She was surprised when he told her that he was proctoring the exam and she did not have a lot of time to plan. It was a bit too convenient.
Madison also wanted Hanna to find a way to make her part of some honour student group. I know that this was not what it was called in the movie, but the point is that it was a group of students who were selected because of their high academic achievements. It was a bit far-fetched that Hannah could so easily access the school during the evening, not cause any alarms to sound, remain undetected and just guess the password on a first attempt. She was also able to make the relevant changes with relative ease. People would question why and how Madison became a member of this coveted group. It was really silly how easily Hannah broke into the school and accessed information. People would raise questions when they saw that Madison was part of the group when no one nominated her.
The time line of the movie is a bit unclear. Madison's plan begins to work and she receives higher grades as a result of Hannah doing all of her homework for her. The Lifetime movie conveniently does not show the administrative burden of Madison having to complete forms, select classes and make the transition into a new school.
The ending is a bit farfetched, but everyone eventually discovers what Madison has been doing.
I felt a sense of frustration when Madison began to manipulate Hanna by blocking her mother and friends from her phone. The fact that Hanna was not receiving texts should have been addressed earlier in the movie. Hanna's friend often asks her about the texts that she sends. Hanna is presented as being extremely smart. When Hanna's friend states that Hanna has not responded to texts, Hanna does not show her friend the phone as proof. When confronted, Hanna never examines her phone as a sensible person would. The characters in some Lifetime movies often engage in actions which flout common sense. It would not take a genius to examine a phone and realise that people were blocked. Madison intruded upon Hanna's life in every way and Madison's hunger for greed was insatiable.
Furthermore, the times of the cheerleading practices seemed to change quite frequently and the decision to remove her from the cheerleading squad seemed a bit too unilateral and the coach should have made more of an effort to speak to Hanna. Why did they not seem more concerned that Hanna was missing practices and acting strangely?
Furthermore, when Madison speaks to Hanna's friend during the school's lunch period, Madison "accidentally" reveals negative and insulting things that Hanna allegedly said about her friend. Why did Hanna's friend immediately believe what Madison said? What Madison stated was so bizarre that Hanna's friend should have doubted Madison's credibility. So many Lifetime movie plots pertain to seemingly intelligent people who believe a complete stranger. Hanna's mother eventually figures out what is going on and she confronts Madison's father who at first refuses to believe that his daughter could do such horrible things.
The photos on Madison phone are what the character uses to blackmail Hanna. Hanna's studious nature and wholesome character gives her credibility. If suddenly photos were distributed of Hanna without clothes and words written on her in lipstick, this would cause people to ask questions. Her classmates would think that it was exceptionally out of character for Hanna to do anything like that. I do not think that the ages of the characters are ever mentioned, but Madison's possession of the photographs on her phone could amount to something extremely criminal and if she dispensed those photos, she it is highly likely that she would be criminally liable. The issue was never raised that if Madison did publish the photos, it would be relatively easy for it to be proven that the photographs originated from Madison's phone. I do concede that Hanna would not want anyone to see those photographs.
I enjoyed the movie because the characters were interesting and it was so much better than most Lifetime movies. It was frustrating that Madison got away with things for so long and the hold she had over Hannah.
The premise of the movie is that a teenage girl, Madison, becomes extremely jealous of her cousin who excels academically and is involved in many student activities. Madison has a rather complacent attitude towards school, drinks alcohol during school hours and does not exert copious amounts of effort in terms of her studies. Madison's father is extremely wealthy and Madison seems to be accustomed to getting what she wants. Madison concocts a vicious and underhanded plan to blackmail her cousin, Hanna, which places her cousin in an extremely precarious situation.
Both girls reside in single parent families and it soon becomes evident that Madison resents her cousin. The actress, Sydney Meyer, did a fantastic job of making the audience loathe her character and the despicable things that she does. Her character is vile and horrible, but the actress portrays this very well. Her character does show remorse for her actions at one point in the movie by crying after she does something horrendous to her teacher, but she is more vicious than anything else. This is one of the first few times that a nefarious Lifetime character has shown self awareness.
One of the first unrealistic aspects of the plot is that Madison wrecks a car and immediately gets another one. It is clear that Madison rarely faces consequences of her actions. Her extremely wealthy lifestyle is clearly evidenced and she has not involved herself in student activities to the extent that Hanna has.
What drives the plot is when Madison invites Hanna to her house and serves her a mocktail, which we later find out contains rohypnol. At first, Madison jokingly asks Hanna to take her college entrance exam for her and then almost immediately states that she was kidding. Hanna conveniently passes out for the whole night, which enables Madison to take photographs of her naked cousin. Madison then uses these photographs to blackmail her cousin. The characters in Lifetime movies always seem to acquire illegal drugs with ease. As Hanna has not been home for the whole night, her mother is understandably concerned when Hanna returns home. The mother seems extremely calm despite the fact that her child has been missing for the duration of the night. Hanna states that Madison gave her some clothing, but it is evident that she entered her home without carrying anything that would resemble clothing. In many Lifetime movies, the mothers are presented as being overbearing such as in "The Boy She Met Online," in which the mother classifies her daughter as being out of control because her daughter wants to get a job and is showing that she can actually think for herself which the mother labels as being rebellious. The mother is this movie seems reasonable and she knows that something is wrong, but she cannot place her finger on it.
The mother has a close relationship with her daughter and had Hanna just told her what had happened, things could have been very different. Hanna had obviously not done anything wrong and she is an extremely smart girl. Madison blackmails her cousin into taking a college entrance exam for her. No mention is ever made of Hanna taking such an exam, despite her academic brilliance.
Madison also convinces her father to let her attend Hanna's school. Of course, this happens amazingly quickly because in what seems like the very next day, Madison is flaunting her perfect outfit through the halls and everyone pays attention to her.
Some things were slightly too convenient and implausible, such as Madison breaking a window at her teacher's house during the day, which causes the house alarm to sound. The purpose of this was so that the teacher would be called away from his test proctoring duties. How did Madison know that the teacher had a house alarm? She was surprised when he told her that he was proctoring the exam and she did not have a lot of time to plan. It was a bit too convenient.
Madison also wanted Hanna to find a way to make her part of some honour student group. I know that this was not what it was called in the movie, but the point is that it was a group of students who were selected because of their high academic achievements. It was a bit far-fetched that Hannah could so easily access the school during the evening, not cause any alarms to sound, remain undetected and just guess the password on a first attempt. She was also able to make the relevant changes with relative ease. People would question why and how Madison became a member of this coveted group. It was really silly how easily Hannah broke into the school and accessed information. People would raise questions when they saw that Madison was part of the group when no one nominated her.
The time line of the movie is a bit unclear. Madison's plan begins to work and she receives higher grades as a result of Hannah doing all of her homework for her. The Lifetime movie conveniently does not show the administrative burden of Madison having to complete forms, select classes and make the transition into a new school.
The ending is a bit farfetched, but everyone eventually discovers what Madison has been doing.
I felt a sense of frustration when Madison began to manipulate Hanna by blocking her mother and friends from her phone. The fact that Hanna was not receiving texts should have been addressed earlier in the movie. Hanna's friend often asks her about the texts that she sends. Hanna is presented as being extremely smart. When Hanna's friend states that Hanna has not responded to texts, Hanna does not show her friend the phone as proof. When confronted, Hanna never examines her phone as a sensible person would. The characters in some Lifetime movies often engage in actions which flout common sense. It would not take a genius to examine a phone and realise that people were blocked. Madison intruded upon Hanna's life in every way and Madison's hunger for greed was insatiable.
Furthermore, the times of the cheerleading practices seemed to change quite frequently and the decision to remove her from the cheerleading squad seemed a bit too unilateral and the coach should have made more of an effort to speak to Hanna. Why did they not seem more concerned that Hanna was missing practices and acting strangely?
Furthermore, when Madison speaks to Hanna's friend during the school's lunch period, Madison "accidentally" reveals negative and insulting things that Hanna allegedly said about her friend. Why did Hanna's friend immediately believe what Madison said? What Madison stated was so bizarre that Hanna's friend should have doubted Madison's credibility. So many Lifetime movie plots pertain to seemingly intelligent people who believe a complete stranger. Hanna's mother eventually figures out what is going on and she confronts Madison's father who at first refuses to believe that his daughter could do such horrible things.
The photos on Madison phone are what the character uses to blackmail Hanna. Hanna's studious nature and wholesome character gives her credibility. If suddenly photos were distributed of Hanna without clothes and words written on her in lipstick, this would cause people to ask questions. Her classmates would think that it was exceptionally out of character for Hanna to do anything like that. I do not think that the ages of the characters are ever mentioned, but Madison's possession of the photographs on her phone could amount to something extremely criminal and if she dispensed those photos, she it is highly likely that she would be criminally liable. The issue was never raised that if Madison did publish the photos, it would be relatively easy for it to be proven that the photographs originated from Madison's phone. I do concede that Hanna would not want anyone to see those photographs.
I enjoyed the movie because the characters were interesting and it was so much better than most Lifetime movies. It was frustrating that Madison got away with things for so long and the hold she had over Hannah.