Tuesday, September 25, 2012

DVD Review - Adopting Terror

Adopting Terror
Director: Micho Rutare
Starring: Sean Astin, Samaire Armstrong, Monet Mazur, Brendan Fehr, and Michael Gross
Studio: The ASYLUM Home Entertainment
ASIN: B008CLI45M
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Running Time: 90 minutes
Unrated

Adopting Terror aired on Lifetime earlier this year, in which I didn't watch it because I don't care for most of the channel's programming. The movie was made by Asylum Home Entertainment, whom I have reviewed a few DVDs for this year, and they nicely let me view an online screening of Adopting Terror through Fordela.

The movie stars Sean Astin and Samaire Armstrong as Tim and Cheryl Broadbent, who are proud parents of their newly adopted daughter, Mona. Just when they are adjusting to being a family, a stranger shows up at Mona's first birthday party. The stranger is Mona's birthfather, Kevin Anderson (played by Brendan Fehr), who was released from prison on a technicality.

Kevin follows Cheryl while she is grocery shopping, he shows up at their house, and he even shows up at their friend's home to mow the yard. The police can't help them as there is no real proof that he is stalking them. The social worker, Fay Hopkins (played Monet Mazur), tries to give them advice on the situation, but nothing seems to helps as Kevin is determined to take back his daughter.

Desperate to protect his family Tim buys a gun despite Cheryl's objections, and he may have to use it as Kevin is not the only person who wants to take Mona away from them.

I can see why Adopting Terror first premiered on Lifetime before hitting DVD as it has the typical "inspired by true events" plot that most of the channel's movies are about, but the movie is slightly more intense than most. Typically Asylum’s plots involve ghosts, zombies, disasters, sharks, or mockbusters, so I was surprised that the studio would release a melodrama thriller with actors that I have actually heard of. The movie started off slow for me, but the realistic plot kept me interested. There are a couple of twists that occur in the later half. I kind of saw the twist involving the social worker coming, but I didn't know if the writers would go that way or not. Despite a decent cast, the acting was average at best. There are of course a few plot holes that were probably caused by a rushed script. Like, why did the parents keep postponing the court date? And I guess the writers didn't know what a baby thermometer is. I'm still wondering how Kevin got out of the trunk of a car alive! Adopting Terror is not going to win any awards, but it is not as bad as you may think.


1 comment:

  1. In case you didn't read the cover of the movie, it says "Based on true events" not "Inspired by true events". There is a huge difference between the two.

    ReplyDelete

I adore reading reader feedback! I will, however, remove all spam and pointless comments.

Please take note that I have the right to delete comments from this site. Please only post constructive and respectful feedback.