Nour Hany
Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) offers many movie genres directed towards women. While watching these movies, you can clearly see the development of female characters and how they overcome their struggles.
In today’s article, we are going to explore some of the Lifetime horror movies; some are fictional, and others are based on true stories. So, hold on tight and let’s begin our journey.
Lifetime Horror Movies
Since the 1990s, Lifetime Network has produced many successful horror and thriller movies that you lose yourself watching! However, the most frightening part of any movie you watch is when that movie is based on true events. For that part, Lifetime has got you covered! Without further ado, let’s take a virtual tour of Lifetime’s horrors.
1. Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story (2019)
This chilling movie is based on the true story of Mary Stauffer and her eight-year-old daughter, Beth. For 53 days, Mary and Beth were held captive by one of Mary’s former students, Ming Sen Shiue, as he kidnapped them before they could go with their family on a missionary trip to the Philippines.
Ming Sen Shiue was obsessed with Mary, as she was his algebra teacher in high school 14 years before the kidnapping. He had a crush on her and developed sick sexual fantasies involving her. However, to justify what he did, he said that due to the bad grade Mary gave him, he didn’t go to college and ended up a war prisoner in Vietnam.
Needless to say, whatever he said was all just lies to get Mary to feel sorry for him. He repeatedly raped her and videotaped their conversations. What Mary and Her eight-year-old daughter had to endure was a very painful experience and a long-lasting trauma. However, they both managed to lead a happy life after that and kept raising awareness and encouraging others never to lose hope.
2. Devil’s Pond (2003)
A newlywed couple goes to a very isolated cabin on an island to spend their honeymoon. However, when they get there, Julianne (Tara Reid) finds out that her husband, Mitch (Kip Pardue), is not the man she thought he was.
3. The House Next Door (2006)
Col. Kennedy (Lara Flynn Boyle) and her husband become friends with the architect working on the house next to theirs. However, that house apparently devours whatever goes inside to inhabit it.
The movie is an adaptation of Anne River Siddon’s novel, which is considered one of the scariest novels in that genre ever.
4. Natalee Holloway (2009)
This Lifetime horror movie features the story of Natalee Holloway, the American teenager who disappeared in Aruba on 30 May 2005. The honour student had just graduated high school and wanted to go on this trip with her friends to celebrate. It was all going well until 30 May 2005, when she literally vanished with nowhere to be found.
Investigations kept going, offering clues and evidence to reach her whereabouts. What happened to Natalee and how she went missing might be answered in this movie.
5. Big Driver (2014)
Big Driver is an adaptation of Stephen King’s fantastic novel, featuring a female writer who was raped and seeks revenge.
The plot follows Tess, a mystery writer who travelled by car to Massachusetts to talk about her book in a library there. However, after she finishes, Ramona, a librarian, tells her about a shortcut that will save her lots of time on her way back home.
While on the road, Tess’s car steps on a nail, causing a flat tire. After a while, a seemingly nice truck driver stops to help her and ends up beating and brutally raping her.
If you want to follow Tess in her journey to revenge, consider watching this movie!
6. Kristy (2015)
If you are a college student living on campus, you should probably not watch this movie until you graduate!
This movie stars Haley Bennet in the role of a college student who lives on her isolated college campus. As the campus is closed during Thanksgiving break, she goes out to grab a snack from a nearby gas station, and there she grabs the attention of cyber cult killers who torture and kill their victims in ritualistic methods to view their followers.
7. Girl in the Box (2016)
Once again, LMN produces a movie based on a horrific true story. Girl in the Box follows the story of 22-year-old Colleen Stan, who was abducted and kept in a box for seven years.
If you are a hitchhiker, you may want to think once more before getting into a stranger’s car because that is what Colleen did! Colleen used to stand on the road, observe drivers, check if they “feel” safe, and then decide if she wanted a ride with them.
On that day, Colleen saw a car approaching, and inside was a man, a woman, and a baby. Any person would think that this is a safe, small family scene and that nothing bad would come out of it, but what happened after that was beyond Colleen’s imagination.
For seven years, Colleen was kept in a box the size of a coffin under the couple’s bed, tortured, and threatened if she ever screamed or tried to escape. She now suffers from permanent injuries in her spine and shoulders and a trauma she learns how to live with every day.
8. The Bride He Bought Online (2015)
When three high school girls come together to create a fake dating account, one of the men they chat with succeeds in revealing their real identities and hires a sexual worker to lure them in order to kidnap them and sexually traffic them to take revenge.
9. The Haunting of Sorority Row (2007)
Leighton Meester stars as Samantha Willows, a college student trying to join a sorority but faced with strange and scary events. These strange occurrences lead Samantha and her colleagues to investigate what is happening inside that sorority house.
10. Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? (1996)
This cult classic is about a college student who falls for a seemingly perfect guy. However, she soon realises the dark side he has been hiding and tries to survive his evil plan.
11. Girl in the Basement (2021)
Watching every Lifetime true story movie feels like a nightmare once you imagine yourself in the victim’s shoes. However, Girl in the Basement is not like anything you have ever seen before.
The events in the Lifetime movie are inspired by the true story of Elisabeth and Josef Fritzl. On 28 August 1984, Elisabeth, the 18-year-old girl, was held captive by her own father for 24 years in their basement. If you think this is twisted and awful, wait until you hear the rest of the story.
After locking his daughter in the basement, Josef Fritzl sometimes raped Elisabeth on a daily basis and often multiple times a day. The continuous raping resulted in seven children who were born in captivity and brutal conditions. However, there are many changes that Lifetime added to the movie to dramatise the story a little bit. The first change here is the change in names. The real character is called Elisabeth; in the movie, she is called Sarah.
The second change here is the number of years she was held captive. In reality, she was imprisoned for 24 years, while in the movie, there were 20 years of captivity.
The real Elisabeth had seven children from her so-called father; one of them suffered from respiratory problems and died immediately after childbirth, three were kept in the basement with her, and three were sent upstairs to live with her mother, who had no clue of her daughter’s whereabouts. Josef Fritzl simply obliged Elisabeth to write a letter to her mother with every child, and then he would take the babies and put them in front of their house.
In the movie, they also mentioned some failed attempts to escape that were not done in reality. Moreover, to spice things up, the movie features a love story between Sarah and her boyfriend that started before she was kidnapped. It also mentions that this love story is what kept Sarah alive and gave her the needed motivation to fight for her life and her children’s freedom.
However, the happy ending scene of the movie doesn’t do justice to what Elisabeth had to endure in reality. She didn’t have a boyfriend who was waiting for her; she gave birth to seven children without medical care or assistance, and she and her children will live the rest of their lives coping with their trauma. Nevertheless, Elisabeth’s story is one of strength and will, and Girl in the Basement definitely delivered the pain and cruelty she and her children had to face, so don’t hesitate to give it a go.
Among the previously mentioned Lifetime horror movies, true stories are undoubtedly the most chilling of all. Now that we have explored all of these LMN movies, let us know which one is your favourite!