INTO THE ARMS OF DANGER

US, 2020, 86 minutes, Colour.

Cathy Moriarty, Alex Ann Hopkins, Laurie Fortier, Sam Meader, Joey Luthman, Mason Trueblood, Tom Keische.

Directed by Jeff Hare.

A Lifetime, pastime entertainment, an abduction story.

A lot of the material is familiar, the focus on a young woman, about to go to college, experiencing the death of her father, experiencing the hyper- protectiveness of her mother. At a party, she encounters a young musician and is persuaded to go to a concert. On the way, talking with her mother on the phone, she has a car crash, calling 911 and paramedics arriving.

So far, so familiar. However, the paramedics are fakes. Their father has left the family an ambulance he bought at auction. They abduct the young girl, bring her to their mother who identifies her as her runaway daughter. There are the expected confrontations, cruelty on behalf of one brother, especially with the identification brace on the girl’s leg. The other brother is rather sympathetic but dominated by his mother. And the mother is played, with reviewer, by Cathy Moriarty (40 years after her introduction to films in Raging Bull).

The mother searches for her daughter. The police don’t seem to particularly interested, just another case. The musician works on the phone call made by the daughter – who gives a clue to her mother by giving her best wishes to her father who is dead. One of the ironies is that the mother distributing posters for her daughter actually visits the home where she is imprisoned.

Eventually, using the information about locations, the mother fakes a call so that the fake paramedics turn up again. She follows them and there is a confrontation.

Someone remarked that it is a good Lifetime entertainment, just a right amount of cheese in this and suspense.

1. A television pastime? Family issues? Abduction and investigation?
2. The American town, homes, parties, police force and investigations? The home in the country, interiors, basement, sinister? The musical score, atmospheric?
3. The title? Dangerous Momma?
4. Jenny, her age, the party, her friend, the drink accident, drink, apology, talk, musician, the invitation to the concert? The car breakdown, her mother’s anxiety, ultra-protective, turning up, insulting Drake? Jenny’s reaction? The mother having to go to a conference, the phone calls? Jenny deciding to go to the concert, driving, talking to a mother, the crash, calling 911, her mother reassured returning? The paramedics, interrogation, the syringe, the abduction?
5. The abduction, the two brothers, the cruel brother and the bracelet, his treatment of Jenny? The other brother, reticent, but dominated by their mother? The situation, the mother and her daughter running away, the substitute daughter?
6. Momma, tough, dominating her sons, their bringing in substitute daughters? Her treatment of Jenny, imposing, demanding, the cooking, as a daughter?
7. Jenny’s mother, finding Drake, Jenny and the phone call, the clue with greetings to her dad? Drake, the analysis, his going to rescue Jenny, the encounter, the attempted escape, his death? The mother, the police, routine case, not particularly interested? The mother, the posters, distributing them, actually going to Momma’s house and talking with her? Jenny seeing her mother?
8. Jenny, pretending to be the loving daughter? The treatment by Clyde? Her coming onto Guy, his mother’s reaction, relegating guide to the basement?
9. Jenny, the attempted escape, Momma making Guy lock her in the basement, Jenny discovering the daughter’s bones?
10. The mother and her shrewdness, going to see the mother of the previously abducted girl, the gun? The setup, the phone call, the pretence? The paramedics, her following them, to the house, the fighting, guy learning the truth, his mother killing him? Momma being overcome?
11. The reconciliation? The moral about being protective and overprotective?
12. The sequence in the institution, Momma, getting ready for the meal, seeing the guard as a substitute daughter?