In Her Mother’s Footsteps

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Rating 1¾


Directed by Farhad Mann

Written by Steven A Finly

Starring Emma Caulfield (Kate Nolan), David Orth (Bobby Nolan), Matreya Fedor (Emma Nolan), Daryl Shuttleworth (Detective Garcey), Jody Thompson (Gina Byrnes), Tracy Waterhouse (Janet Cuccini), Adrien Dorval (Lucas Portwell ) and Mackenzie Gray (Carl Brookes)


Kate Nolan learns that her estranged father, who she has not seen for many years, has died, leaving her a fortune worth eleven million dollars. He had also bought a large house for her, which he was in the process of renovating when he died. Kate moves into the house with her daughter Emma and husband Bobby, but soon she is having a serious of disturbing dreams and visions, suggesting a repeat of the breakdown she suffered when her first husband, Emma’s father, died three years earlier. Her fragile state of mind is further compromised when she accuses her dead father of committing several murders in the house and becomes the focus of the police investigation into the alleged crimes.

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‘In Her Mother’s Footsteps’, which is also known as ‘Deadly Inheritance’, is a 2006 psychological horror mystery film made for the Lifetime Movie Network. The story covers very well worn ground and is told in an instantly familiar style. There is nothing here that has not been done many times before. The narrative is somewhat unfocused and both the screenplay and the direction would have benefited from being sharper. The twists and deceptions in the story are not particularly accomplished and the dénouement, if given too much thought, is silly and implausible.

Having expressed these criticisms, the film has the merits typical of Lifetime productions. It is easy and enjoyable to watch, avoids the pandering and nastiness that blights some horror films and psychological thrillers made for cinema or DVD release, and boasts a competent and watchable cast. The lead role is taken by the likeable Emma Caulfield, who was memorable in the role of Anya in seasons three through to seven of Joss Whedon’s acclaimed television series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. She was also excellent in the under-appreciated 2003 horror film ‘Darkness Falls’.

You know what you are going to get with a Lifetime film and there are rarely if ever any surprises in store. As such, potential viewers are likely to already know if ‘In Her Mother’s Footsteps’ would be for them. I make no great claims for it, but I wanted to watch it and I am glad to have had the opportunity to do so.

Review posted 23 August 2009



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Riddles Of The Sphinx

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Rating impossible


Directed by George Mendeluk

Written by Brooke Durham and Jacob Eskander

Starring Lochlyn Munro, Dina Meyer, Emily Tennant, Mackenzie Gray and Donnelly Rhodes


A cryptographer unwittingly unleashes the Sphinx, a creature from Egyptian mythology, which then kills him. It is left to his estranged son Robert (Lochlyn Munro), the granddaughter he never met, Karen (Emily Tennant), and his son’s former lover, Jessica (Dina Meyer), to avert an apocalyptic plague by solving a series of riddles, while passing through portals found on the sites of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World into sacred chambers existing in parallel dimensions.

This film was made for broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. Lochlyn Munro plays a kind of bargain bin version of Indiana Jones and Dina Meyer is, as one fan review I read put it, “Laura Croft’s hot aunt.” It is a mix of ‘The Mummy’, ‘Stargate’ and ‘Indiana Jones’, seemingly made on a budget that probably would not buy a sandwich from the location caterers of one of those films. I have no idea what the production budget was, but it is tempting to surmise that they still had change left over from a ten-dollar bill once the shoot was completed.

This is the most hilariously bad film I have seen in a very long time, although that is not to say it was not enjoyable in its own preposterous way. It is not exactly so bad it’s good – more like, so bad it has to be seen to be believed.

The special effects, provided by the same company responsible for the new big-budget FOX network show ‘Fringe’, are minimal in the extreme. Clearly, the budget did not stretch far enough to allow for proper effects to be added. When various characters are battling the Sphinx, the creature is usually out of the shot, leaving the actor to fight nothing. Our heroes fly across the globe in a small jet airplane, which appears to carry enough fuel to fly any distance, no matter how far, but they never seem to actually land or take off, and each location bears no resemblance to the real thing. Olympia in Greece is a wet and wintry place (somewhat akin to the region of British Columbia where it was filmed, in fact) and the Giza Plateau turns out to be some kind of disused quarry!

The riddles are simplistic beyond belief and the supposedly deadly traps set in the various chambers they visit are so easily thwarted that they really should have been blindfolded at the time, just to even things up a bit. Although Robert is supposed to be, like his father before him, a genius with considerable knowledge of the ancient world, it seems to be his teenage daughter who makes several of the deductions required to continue the journey, apparently by using what appears to be a portable games console.

It is tempting to wonder what Dina Meyer did wrong for her career to have come to this, but in fact these kinds of films seem to be her stock in trade. Lochlyn Munro, like Meyer, might also be wondering what he ever did to deserve such a fate, although I cannot help but think of him as a kind of new Doug McClure. Emily Tennant was young Daphne in ‘Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed’ and had small roles in ‘I Robot’, ‘Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants’ and ‘Juno’.

‘Riddles of the Sphinx’ is laughably silly, but it is fun. I generally like films with this kind of theme and this one stars Dina Meyer, which is a plus. It is rubbish, but I am sure I could happily watch it again sometime.



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