[I’d say spoiler warning, but it’s in the title, y’all.]
Gather round, friends. Back in ye olden times, Lifetime Television was the go-to destination for deliciously cheesy, “You in danger, girl,” women in peril yarns. In more recent times, those have shifted to Lifetime Movie Network (LMN as it’s known now) while the mothership pivoted to reality TV, procedural reruns, and “ripped from the headlines” fare. I cut my TV-movie-loving teeth on the thrillers that were often paint by numbers but no less fun to watch so I keep an eye out for newbies.
Friday night, LMN drops some delightful fromage into the oeuvre with The Caretaker Next Door, starring and produced by Eve Mauro and Colin Egglesfield. What makes this one an even more enjoyable wink-nod throughout is that it was written and co-produced by Riley Weston (who also co-stars), from a story by Joanna Evans and directed by Jeff Wentworth. Hallmarkies will know Weston from her romcom repertoire, and y’all know that I love to support my romcom multi-hyphenate women.
In the film, Mauro is Willow, a prosecutor coming off a successful bank robbery conviction who’s been ordered to take some much-needed time off. She heads home to her late grandmother’s house for the first time since her death, to both settle the estate and rest and recharge. Once she’s there, she meets Luke (Egglesfield), the titular caretaker who’s looking after the house but is also maybe a scoche more stealthy, territorial, and intense than he really needs to be (clue #1).
Willow lets her guard down enough to befriend him just as news breaks that the guy she just put away has already escaped from prison. We learn in flashbacks that he also threatened her in court with the nugget that the ringleader is still loose in the world. So, now there are two of them out roaming around. (clue #2)
Weston plays Willow’s assistant/BFF, Maggie, whose initial eagerness to set Willow up on a dating app while she’s on vacation turns into actual concern when she does a little digging on the dude next door rocking the gun show and can’t find anything on him. SHOCKER (and clue #3).
Maggie decides to burn off some vacation of her own and go see Willow — and meet this mysterious Luke, and it doesn’t take long for her to start chirping to her bestie that her new crush is a little — or a lot — off. That’s a fun little meta thread because that means Weston, who wrote the thing, also gets to be the onscreen chorus sounding the alarm that maybe Willow should be more hard-nosed prosecutor and less the easygoing gal on her first vacation in ages.
Thankfully, there’s also a friendly sheriff in the mix, Tate (Andy McDermott). That comes in handy when Maggie goes missing on the heels of an another missing woman just as Willow finds herself in the cross hairs on a couple of fronts. It’s all very high drama. The Illinois setting gives it a down home, small town feel — think the back half of Sleeping With the Enemy.
If you need a little straightforward Friday night popcorn movie where you can yell at your TV, LMN has you covered. The Caretaker Next Door premieres Friday at 8 pm/7c on LMN and repeats at midnight/11c. Egglesfield shared some BTS pics on his IG. Click through below for the carousel!
Photos and video courtesy of A+E Global Media.
