Designed for Death

source: Designed for Death

Moviecut—Designed for Death

Typical Lifetime plot. Psycho homewrecker. A stupid clueless husband. An innocent victim wife and a naive but loyal daughter who eventually believes and loves her mother. And the ending is haphazard and silly, be it a happy one. I like Kelcie a lot. She's been in some good LMN movies. But this role was not for her.

My vote for the worst of the year, and I'm including Psycho Storm Chaser. Killer in My Backyard might be tied with this. I have been working from home for a year and a half now, and I'm watching more Lifetime than I ever would allow myself before. They make decent, predictable background noise, or if I'm lucky, they're nice to watch w/pizza and vino on a night in. That faint praise aside, it's pretty obvious when Lifetime tries and when they just don't care. This is the latter. I thought it was terrible. The dad is a lifetime staple leading man and the mom I see on Hallmark pretty often, but this movie felt like total filler. Even down to the house being pretty blah. So much of this movie irritated me. The villain's acting, the thin plot, the killings, the voyeurism that didn't cause her Ava to buy a clue, the flashbacks that were heavy-handed, yet didn't justify how Ava chose to live her life....so much of it was bad. Some truly tiresome tropes here: break-ins complete with cameras, the omniscience and omnipresence of the villain no matter the time of day (how did she know when and where to attack Darlene?), committing multiple crimes in a day like it' sno big deal, nothing that justifies why this particular client or family. LIfetime needs to improve on giving villain's motivations that line up with their behaviors. I've already typed more than this movie was worth. Waste of time? Yes. I finished it, but was mad at myself for finishing it. Lifetime has better movies with this plot in their catalog.

Omg this show is a joke .It's like a train wreck hard to look away because it's soooooo bad!!I asked my daughter who lives in Vancouver if thus is a Vancouver film. I hope not ...the acting is embarrassing bad 👎 🙄 😬

Designed for Death. First, I was impressed with the opening title sequence. Second, although I don't like things dragged out unnecessarily, they could have had Ava's obsession build up a little slower. Some of the situations should have been clarified better. The leading man, Jim, had no intention of listening to the wife trying to explain her side of anything. I have to agree with the other reviewer about the music. Although the music was creative, it was often too loud and/or misplaced. And if you're going to play music over dialogue, don't put singing! On the other hand, I did like the strategically used, creative cinematography. Not only could the ending have been better, it was just stupid. But for a Lifetime movie, it was creative and just a bit different from the rest. I was being generous here and gave it a 6.

Designed for Death (my latest review) refers to an interior designer who hears voices in her head and hallucinates. She designs a handsome dude's house and then decides she wants to become the ultimate homewrecker (no pun intended). Said designer's name is Ava and she is played with discipline by 28-year-old Kelcie Stranahan. Stranahan is quite pretty and can act but "Death's" script causes her to go way too far over the top. Kelcie's Ava, Mrs. Mott, and Joan Crawford could have become real-life besties (ugh). Best buds begot, Designed for Death is a Lifetime thriller that has a real hard-on for style, dazed imagery, and voyeurism. It's as if the director wanted you to forget that the flick was Lifetime fare and more a cinematic acid trip. Everything from the opening credits sequence to the heightened flashbacks to the fast-cut editing shows that an inner Oliver Stone was channeled. I was wondering, did the two opposite list filmmakers hang out at a screening for U Turn? So yeah, I could've recommended "Death" but a few things kept gnawing at me. I mean there's actors featured here with bad actor voices, annoying next door neighbor characters that might be a little cray cray themselves, an ending that feels a little misguided, and an obsession with the antagonist (and the protagonist) hitting everybody over the head with some sort of mass. Oh and there's also enough long shots of sunny LA to make your eyes roll. I'm curious if the helmer was just using these shots as filler. Maybe. Possibly. Bottom line: Designed for Death is not "designed" to be taken seriously (when it thinks it is). It's also out of the box film-making that you don't normally get with everyday Lifetime swipe. Oh whatever, I'll just call the whole thing a wash. "Designed" by committee (yup, I'm the committee).

Is it my imagination, or is there way too much music in this film, completely covering the dialogue? I can't tell whether anything of importance is going on because I can't understand what anyone is saying.

Ava, a disturbed interior decorator. Falls for Jim, who wants to re-decorate his home as a surprise for his wife and daughter but Ava has her sights on him and will stop at nothing to get him all to herself! Kelcie Stranahan does a great job as Ava! Check it out! Would definitely watch again!

source: Designed for Death