In Her Mother's Footsteps

Having inherited her deceased father's house, a woman's increasingly vivid hallucinations and visions around the house lead her to believe the ghosts of her fathers' victims are haunting the house and must solve their murders before it continues against her family.

This one was one of Lifetime Channel's most impressive and enjoyable efforts. What really helps this one is the absolutely creepy and chilling house here that enables for quite a fun atmosphere and sense of dread. The large, spacious rooms, exceptionally long hallways and wooden construction here all derive a really impressive feeling at being the kind of setting to hang the supernatural action here. That there is the best part of this one since there's a lot of really enjoyable haunting scenes throughout here, which also provide this one with another impressive factor in its strong pace as well with as much fun as this one features. There's a lot to like with these, starting with the simple gags of the shutting door gag or visions of people around the house that has some merit to their appearances for once. As good as these are, the bigger scenes are even better in this which starts with the electrocution accident in the bathtub which enables the hallucination of the first murder victims reaction in the moment, the later dream sequence where the ghosts of the murder victims appearing before her startling er awake and the big one here of being trapped in the basement and being witness to the recreation murder all come off nicely as really chilling, creepy ghosts scenes. As well, this one furthers the film into the final half where there's the big investigation into the incidents, from the field investigations that don't reveal anything to the dives that do uncover the bodies, there are some decent enough scenes here that help this one along as it slowly unravels a fine, entertaining mystery. These here are enough to hold this one up quite well though there are some minor flaws here. The biggest issue ere is the final minutes of this one, where the film's preponderance on settling for a human resolution to the supernatural happens forces a multitude of plot twists to occur at such a rapid pace that it's rushed and completely scattershot, dropping the father for the adultery angle, the switchover to the new killer and the return to the past of that individual which comes off as confusing and unnecessary to what's going on in the other story lines. This also brings the action to a half as well, but overall there's more to like here.

Rated UR/R: Language, Violence, extremely Brief Nudity and a mild, clothed sex scene.

I watched this movie on the Lifetime Movie Network (LMN). This appears to be ghost / psychic movie weekend on LMN.

It contains ideas that are consistent with real hauntings such as people seeing images of things that have happened in the past. Sometimes the things that are happening in that other dimension can reach across into this physical dimension.

Also the main character has certain psycho kinetic powers such as when she gets upset light bulbs explode, things start shaking, etc..

The star of the movie is nice looking and she dresses in really interesting outfits all through the movie.

However the ending was not exactly what I expected.

It's one of those movies where there isn't really too many characters and as people get bumped off you don't have too many choices left about who the villain should be I guess.

But in this case they really stretched the limits of plausibility.

Jeff Marzano

I found this movie to be too very flawed. Of course its a made for TV movie, but I've seen much better TV movies. The movie starts off with a young woman who has lost her father and inherits a wealthy mansion. The wealthy mansion is apparently either haunted or she is insane, because she has these really fake 'visions' throughout the movie. The ghosts look like people wearing halloween masks. And there is simply no jumpy scenes or scare the hell out of you looks from any of the characters. None of the characters in the movie make you want to save them, except the little girl who has acted pretty well. I most certainly started to predict where the story would lead to, but in the end, the movie had such a pathetic twist, that I felt like I had wasted my entire evening. Do yourself a favor and get some sleep. You didn't miss anything.

"In Her Mother's Footsteps" begins with Kate Nolan (Emma Caulfield) inheriting her wealthy father's house. She, her husband, Bobby Nolan (David Orth), and her daughter, Emma Nolan (Matreya Fedor) move into their new upper-class home. They seemed a well-suited pair. Kate was an attractive woman, with a daughter by a previous marriage. After her first husband died, Kate and Bobby were married, with Bobby adopting Emma as his daughter. Bobby was a good-looking man and appeared to be an excellent husband and father. It seemed as if the romance was still there in their marriage. It looked as if their family-life in their new home was set for a smooth run, but things did not work out that way.

Within a short time after their move, it seemed as though Bobby had begun to neglect his wife and daughter. He was almost always calling home because he had to work late. Kate didn't seem to complain, but was sometimes disappointed. During these times while Bobby was away, though, it seemed like the house was possessed. Kate was always seeing visions of murders, gruesome murders, that would not go away. No matter how much she tried to rationalize the situation, she no longer thought it, but 'knew' that the house was possessed. It had to be that, or else she was losing her mind. Bobby made her promise to see her psychiatrist, and she kept her promise, but it was like a waste of her time. These visions still plagued her. Her therapy sessions had begun after the death of her first husband, and she was still taking medication that the doctor had prescribed for her. When these visions kept haunting her, she would just take another pill, hoping that it would make everything normal again.

She hated that house! She didn't care about how much money it was worth; she just wanted it gone and to be rid of it! After a while though, it was like the house and the visions were trying to tell her something. From this point on, the movie entails every twist, surprise, factor, and character imaginable! Even though everything had to be crammed into a couple of hours, the movie was still put together with short scenes that left nothing missing. It still allowed the audience to know what was going on and made sense. "In Her Mother's Footsteps" is labeled Suspense/Thriller, but I think that you can also throw 'Horror' into that categorization as well.

In my opinion, the movie is fantastic! I'd say that it deserves a '10!' I've never before seen a movie such as this on LMN. When you think of LMN movies, you think of dramas, true stories, some suspense movies, and the like. The visions of these murders, in the movie, are very graphic. If you can't stand the site of blood, then I suggest you not watch it. "In Her Mother's Footsteps" is not for the squeamish! The movie is exciting, thrilling, very suspenseful, somewhat scary, gory, and it's alive! Selecting Emma Caulfield, as Kate, was a good choice. There's nothing phony about her acting; she's for real. The special effects were great. And the movie doesn't drag on before getting to know the characters and plot. The ending is a total surprise! It leaves you with all differing emotions. It's one of the best television movies produced lately!

Very cool TV movie. Far better than most, in fact.

Think "The Grudge" meets "What lies beneath", meets "CSI" and you'll have a good idea of the tone this pic manages to pull off. Genuinely scary in parts with a number of great JUMP scenes. At least as good as many of the horror flicks at the multiplex. The sexy Emma Caulfield, (Anye from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) looks great and acts very believably as the woman in "supernatural" peril. Keeps you guessing until the end.

I'd have no problem if this gets nominated for an Emmy. There are too few TV movies of this type and quality. No big message, just a scary good popcorn time!