Point Of Entry (aka Panic Button)

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Rating 2¼


Directed by Stephen Bridgewater

Written by Nathan Atkins

Starring Holly Marie Combs (Kathy Alden), Roark Critchlow (Richard Alden), Patrick Muldoon (Caleb Theroux), Richard Roundtree (Detective Miles Porter), Traci Lords (Brianna Fine), Max Burkholder (Sam Alden), Ella Thomas (Monique), Ronald Hunter (Captain Schell) and Deren LeRoy (Juan)


When she is attacked in her own home, Kathy Alden moves with her husband and young son to a new house in a gated community with round-the-clock security. They quickly become acquainted with their neighbour Caleb Theroux and Kathy begins work to restore an old antique wardrobe for him. In the meanwhile, veteran police detective Miles Porter takes early retirement so that he can continue to pursue his obsessive investigation into the unsolved murder of his goddaughter.

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‘Point of Entry’, which is also known as ‘Panic Button’, premiered on the Lifetime Television Network in 2007. It looks like a television movie, plays like a television movie and conforms to the comforting levels of predictability that are expected of a television movie. Richard Roundtree’s role in the film as the retired police detective still trying to crack the unsolved murder of his goddaughter ultimately lead nowhere very much, but Patrick Muldoon (‘Melrose Place’) is suitably creepy as the seemingly innocuous and friendly neighbour and Holly Marie Combs (‘Picket Fences’, ‘Charmed’) does her patented Holly Marie Combs thing. She is nothing if not likeable.

Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the Lifetime oeuvre will know exactly what to expect.

Review posted 2 November 2009


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