Face of Evil
April. 09,1996Using her girl-next-door looks to her advantage, Darcy Palmer is a calculating thief and murderer. After killing a young college student and taking her identity, Darcy enrolls in the victim's New England school in her place. At the university, Darcy gets to know her new roommate, Jeanelle, and her handsome father, Russell Polk, who soon play into her next scheme. When Darcy has to alter her plans, both Russell and Jeanelle become quite expendable.
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Reviews
Wonderful Movie
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Probably need to add "spoiler" caveat to conform to this site's parameters; however, there really isn't much to "spoil" for this flick, since the only suspense is wondering how precisely it will end.Tracey Gold's character (Darcy/Barbara) is sociopathic to the point that, compared with her, Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates would need only routine psychological counseling.Further, given all the deceptions and mayhem she originates, a person with the organizational skills of, say, Donald Trump or Warren Buffet, would be taxed just completing all these nefarious tasks.However, Tracey not only juggles all of the necessary deceptions, she is able to assume the identity of one of her victims in matriculating (under her identity) at a swanky New England college, plus offing or beating the hell out of some additional fellow cast-members, when required. Not only that, she totes the victim's body, via suitcase, while flying to the college, and then carries it into her room, where it remains - miraculously with no odor or seepage - until she has the opportunity to dispose of it.To imagine simply assuming this bogus identify alone, let alone completing all the ancillary deceptions and crimes along the way, stretches credibility beyond all belief. But no problem for Tracey, who also seduces her roommates widowed father in her spare time.Ms. Gold is quite attractive, which is to be expected in such a role. However, her acting talents seem about on a par in her profession, say, with those of a .240-average utility player on a baseball team.Despite all this, the movie is a fascinatingly trashy, campy example of this genre. An added fascination is her roommate's clueless father. But then the male leads in these Lifetime flicks are usually successful professionally, often wealthy (as here), but otherwise total doophuses.Give this one 7* for its thoroughly campy quality.
Tracey Gold makes for a good psycho by killing people and stealing their identities. She does a good job of fooling people into thinking shes a sweetheart, well except for the people she killed, but they are dead so who cares right? then she seduces her roommates dad, first by unbuttoning her blouse, painting his picture and cutting off his ponytail. the dad wasn't hot or anything, but he was loaded and the roommate was mad. she was all leave my dad alone. wah wah wah really for a movie this unrealistic , it was quite an enjoyable story. the moral of the story is : If you kill a violin student and steal her idenity, make sure you play the violin. And when you keep her body in a suitcase make sure to bring some lysol.....
Tracey Gold,(Darcy Palmer),"A Crime of Passion,TV",'99, showed her great acting abilities and was able to have the audience actually hate her for this role in which she plays a very BAD BAD GIRL! The real star of the film is Shawnee Smith,(Jeanelle Polk),"Never Get Outta the Boat",'02, who plays a very rich boring and depressing rich girl who has everything and a dad who lives in a home like the White House! Perry King,(Russell Polk),"Her Married Lover",'99, plays the role as a depressed man who lost his wife and at the same time loves his daughter Jeanelle who becomes friends with Darcy. Don Harvey(Quinn Harris),"She Hate Me",'04, plays a mean bad guy who has great interest in Darcy Palmer. All the actors gave great performances and made this TV film very entertaining.
I was drawn into this movie and probably enjoyed it more than it deserved. It is hard to be objective when you're watching a eerily accurate depiction of one of your former girlfriends. The writing, acting and direction were superb. The three main characters - Tracey Gold (the psycho artist), Perry King (the gullible dad), and Shawnee Smith (the prescient daughter and roommate) played their roles with intensity and realism. It is interesting that Tracey Gold's character bares some resemblance to the real life singer/actress Madonna (minus the violence) noting that director Mary Lambert also directed several Madonna videos. This movie has a great plot with some nice turns and an especially, creepy and Hannibal-like ending. Woman as predator is always unnerving and counter intuitive but it reinforces the truth that all people are capable of doing the nastiest things to get what they want. Fortunately most of us are not intelligent and resourceful enough to pull off the level of deception portrayed in this movie.