Garage Sale Mystery: The Deadly Room

I've always loved movies with secret rooms and this one was not disappointing.

I don't know how to describe this film except with the word ridiculous, it's all too far-fetched and hasty and the acting has something mechanical and unnatural, for heaven's sake the plot is also interesting and the film is light to see, but otherwise this movie is really ridiculous.

Jenn suspects foul play when her friend dies in an old house with a cursed reputation. Even though police evidence - and even webcam footage of the death - point to natural causes - this mysterious death in a cursed" home poised for multi-million dollar sale seems too coincidental. Putting her keen instincts to work, she examines a few key suspects. As she digs into this deadly mystery, she uncovers clues that bring her closer to the truth, and even put her own life in danger.

There's a dead body but no signs of unnatural death, wounds and the live cam shows no killer in sight, which makes a unique feature in this excellent whodunnit. With the help of her son, Jenn gradually pieces together how her friend was murdered.

Back in the day movie houses always had hidden rooms and staircases the better to serve the villain's nefarious ends. A house that's being put up for sale has one of those and a staircase. It also has a peephole into the bedroom for voyeurs or for some blackmail photography. The place had an unsavory reputation.

This all starts when Lori Loughlin's friend Janet Kidder borrows an antique statue for display in the house for buyers. To prove that there's no such thing as evil spirits haunting the place she has herself videotaped sleeping at the place. Kidder is the listed real estate agent and there's a lot of money riding on this for her. But it turns out her life was riding on it as well.

No one can figure it out, she's just dead. But Loughlin is fortunate to have a computer nerd son who helps immensely. But in discovering the how, she forgot the who.

Two things bothered me with this one. Forensics should have been able to find something and the 'souvenir' the perpetrator kept of the killing was the final nail on that coffin.

Not one of the better Hallmark mysteries.

7/10 - fun and original mystery is one of the better Hallmark Movies and Mysteries features