A Killer Upstairs

The likes of a top class actor Bruce Boxleitner could not save this movie. But even he was poorly cast as the smug, dismissive detective.

The plot concerns a mother Sandra (Tracy Nelson) who does her own detective work to prove that her 17 year old son (Christopher Jacot) did not murder a model wife Vivian Jamison (Jayne Heitmeyer) of a local businessman David Jamison (Barry Flatman).

The acting is overly dramatic at times making the poor pacing and supposedly dramatic pauses rather unbearable. It is not worth waiting for the final scene which has some great plot twists and finally some reasonable acting from Barry Flatman and Stefanie Buxton.

The decisions made about the main themes between the Director and writers seems to be where the problem lies. If they decided that the main thread was the transformation of an ordinary single mother still grieving from the death of her husband 3 years earlier into a DIY detective determined to hunt down the real killer to save her son, then they needed to find an actress who could portray the rage, fear and trauma of that process. If the main tension was to be derived from all the red herrings presented along the search for the real killer, then there was not enough evidence or interaction with the range of possible suspects to build that kind of tension.

The characters were so one dimensional that the third theme that could have been portrayed, that of police incompetence driving individuals to taking the law into their own hands, would be probably be as unconvincing as the two themes mentioned previously.

Suspense is difficult to build and to maintain a pace that keeps your viewers attentive, let alone on the edge of their seats. The tension in this movie came from the failures which ejected me from my seat.

These Lifetime movies move at such a snail's pace that you can tune in anytime and not miss much actual plot. They set up a good case for murder and then plod along to fill out a two-hour program length.

A KILLER UPSTAIRS at least has one thing to recommend it--a good final twist for the end of the mystery behind a woman's death at the hands of a spurned lover. But getting to those final fifteen minutes of exposition takes patience because the central characters are not at all likable.

Part of this has to be due to the main performance by Tracey Nelson, the mother with the staring eyes and the whining voice. It's a one-note portrayal of a mother anxious to clear her son of false charges. Christopher Jacot is the son with the haunted look in his eyes, a hurt expression summing up his reaction at being falsely accused. There's not much else he can do with a thankless role.

What's really surprising is how weak Bruce Boxleitner is as the cocky detective who never believes a word the mother says. He looks bored (true, it's another thankless role), and nothing more. Nor are any of the other participants likely to be up for Emmy nominations.

Loopholes in the script are plentiful when it comes to character motivation. And a scene at the local liquor store where the mother is pleading with a worker to tell the truth, comes across as highly unbelievable in view of the fact that neither notices the criminal listening intently to their every word.

Only one thing is sure: the final revelations do come as a surprise, but by that time will anyone care?

Poor acting, not well researched for location, an actor (the judge) mispronounced names of a city located in Pennsylvania (lancaster) where the movie takes place. One of the actors goes to a Liqour Store in the movie at 9 pm and is there till 10 pm when all stores of this nature are run by the state and close a 8 pm in the state of PA. some unbelievable crap and i do mean crap occurs in this movie which are outrageous and totally unbelievable. The story line: A model is having an affair with a 17 year old high school student, she breaks up with him and ends up dead. all clues lead to the high school student. no one believes him or his mother so it is up to her to figure out who really killed the model if anyone. there are some OK plot twists in the movie but for the most part it is OK for a made for TV movie made in Canada.

This is made for television. Maybe the kind of entertaining low budget thriller that is being left behind, for glossier entertainments but it caught my attention and held it for the whole film, that is very unusual these days! The simplicity and clarity of the acting, and the lack of posturing, ambiguity were refreshing. We care about the characters, especially the mother, I couldn't help thinking that is believable that is wonderful what she is doing for her son, even if I thought he was guilty. The writing and directing were like clockwork, perfect as far as I am concerned. Its been a long time since I sat through a movie. The mother played by Tracey Nelson was super ( she happens to be the daughter of the late great singing star Ricky Nelson) Hey I could cynically say this is a formula made for TV but I call it good entertainment.

Sometimes you just need the first three seconds of a movie to already know this is going to be bad. A Killer Upstairs is one of those movies. They for sure didn't try to hide it was a tv movie. From the first seconds you get that bad image, that bad music and sound, that lousy acting, that are typical for tv movies. I only watched it because there was a supposed mystery but everything is so predictable it isn't funny anymore. I exactly knew what happened after twenty minutes so no surprise there. The reason I gave it three and not one star is the fact that I laughed a lot and so had a little bit of joy after all. I laughed because the acting is so bad you wonder how the hell those people made it into cinema. All shots are so cliché it becomes funny after a while. It's really bad though, but funny because it's so bad. The music or sound effects that should create a mysterious ambiance are also laughable, the typical sounds of a bad tv movie, in other words the obliged and typical bad piano music. Tracy Nelson, the supposed star of the movie, has her eternal same stupid facial expression for every scene, and that's most likely the reason why she only appears in stinkers.