Plot: Katie (Sunny Mabrey) seems to have it all, a loving husband, two great kids, and a booming plastic surgery practice. All the hard work has paid off and she is grateful for how her life has turned out, but she is about to receive a visit from her past from someone that isn’t so grateful. When Liz (Lindsay Maxwell) arrives with a referral from a trusted colleague of Katie’s, she wants some updates to her previous surgeries, though Katie is convinced she looks perfect. A few minor procedures later, Liz wants more, but Katie isn’t comfortable performing more work, so tension grows between them and unknown to Katie, Liz already had a vendetta. As it turns out, Liz has an ax to grind with Katie and begins a campaign to discredit her practice, break up her marriage, and ruin her life as much as possible. Even as Katie realizes what is going on, can she somehow clear her name and prove Liz is a psycho, or will she lose the life she has built to this unstable stalker?
Entertainment Value: Now this was a fun one, an intense, melodrama laced thriller like only Lifetime can craft. Killer Body, also known as The Wrong Patient, packs in all the usual Lifetime style elements and while it is by no means the wildest thriller the channel has delivered, it has ample craziness. The narrative is competent and while some of our characters lack basic common sense at times, such chaos is required for this kind of stalker tale, after all. I appreciated how the story focuses on how things resolve, rather than a mystery over the psycho’s intentions, as it allows for a much more open game of cat and mouse to unfold. The movie hands us a terrific villain in Liz, who is ruthless and plays some fun mind games, while dialing up the melodrama and nuttiness, as you’d expect from a Lifetime psycho. There’s some mild violence and a decent body count, so Liz isn’t just all talk, so if you prefer a more tame, grounded style thriller, this might not scratch that itch. But it is never dull, moves at a brisk pace, and keeps you tuned in, so it does what it needs to and then some. I wouldn’t have minded a few more unhinged moments that really turned Liz loose, but I had a lot of fun with Killer Body and Lifetime fans should check it out.
The cast here is a couple notches above the usual made for television movie, with our leads in particular in impressive turns. Lindsay Maxwell shines as Liz and as Lifetime fans know, how good the psycho is can make or break this kind of thriller, so luckily Maxwell delivers. She brings enough craziness to be a genuine threat, but she is a woman of action and doesn’t rest on her laurels. No, she breaks out lethal chemicals in a small spray bottle, ala The Iceman, the infamous mafia hitman that was featured in those HBO specials. Her method might not be super exciting, but it fits her no fuss, no muss persona and she is indeed ice cold about her kills. Maxwell also brings the melodrama and histrionics we want from such a wild stalker, so a terrific Lifetime villain that is immense fun to watch. Killer Body also has a capable heroine in Sunny Mabrey, who turns in a solid effort that rises above the typical clueless victim, even if the role does dip into that well as needed. She brings a lot to the role and her exchanges with Maxwell are some of the movie’s best sequences. The cast also includes Daniel Bacon, Abby Ross, Peter Benson, and Ashley Ross.
Marc Fusion 