LMN - Nightmare At The End Of The Hall

So I was lucky because this movie was on right after "You Belong To Me". This is probably one of the best LMN movies I've ever seen. But that's not really saying too much, since most of what LMN plays is just absolute garbage.

So the ultimate spectacular star of this wonderful horror/thriller jaunt is Sara Rue, whose only role I can vaguely remember is the slightly overweight girl in the failed teen drama series, Popular. So the movie is told in a rather confusing sort of way with series of flashbacks happening as the plot moves forward, letting the viewer know more about the past as the story progresses. It makes it hard to ultimately re-tell the story without completely giving it away right from the beginning.

But alas, I am indeed charged with this burdensome task, so I will do my best. Okay, so Sara's character, Courtney, is a some-what famous novelist. She wrote a book based off her experiences in college. In college, she had two friends, who were boyfriend and girlfriend, Jane (played by Jacqueline Wood) and Brett (played by Kavan Smith). The film is largely based around the fact that Jane mysteriously committed suicide (I think there's suicide in every Lifetime Movie somewhere in the film...) without leaving any type of suicide note or reason why she did.

So Sara, twenty years later, decides to go back to the college to finally face her demons and become fine with her friend's death. She gets a job at the school, teaching a writing class, but when she finds out where she's going to live, it's in her old dorm room from her college days. Now she's the Resident Adviser in the very dorm where her friend committed suicide, just down the hall (WHERE THE NIGHTMARE HAPPENED... *scary laugh echoes through your mind*). So she's getting all the rooms prepped for when the students arrive when she walks down to the room where Jane committed suicide (which was a storage closet when Jane died, but now has been renovated into a dorm room) and a girl opens the door who looks exactly like Jane. Freaked out, she learns the girl's name is Laurel (also played by Jacqueline McInnes Wood) and that Laurel has a lot of problems.

Later, she runs into Jane's old boyfriend, Brett, at the store, who immediately dispenses with the pleasantries and starts hitting on Sara right away. For some weird reason (which is explained later...), Sara ends up running away.

Anyway, the next hour of the movie kind of just drones on. Throughout the semester, weird things keep happening with Laurel. She apparently sleepwalks, often coming into Sara's room, quoting Jane. Sara sees visions of Jane at school parties and keeps having more and more problems with Laurel, often times relating to Jane. At one point, Laurel, who's actually in one of Sara's classes, turns in a paper that Jane wrote when Sara and Jane were in school together. Sara begins to suspect that Laurel has done this and all the other things just to be cruel to her throughout the semester, trying to undermine Sara and make her look crazy.

As all of this is happening, romance is also blossoming, very strangely, I might add, between Sara and Brett. As revealed in the flashbacks, we find out that not everything was so peachy-keen between Brett and Jane back in college. We find out that Brett was actually cheating on Jane with Sara, who Brett was actually terribly in love with. So this is where the love triangle is introduced and it's explained why the romance between Sara and Brett has been so hard all this time.

So Brett is the star of the entire college. He gets good grades, plays every sport, his dad is a a teacher at the school and he's also Jane's counselor. We find out Brett's dad has a lot to do with Brett's activities, as he is constantly pushing Brett to be the perfect son and be the best. Jane is widely regarded as being the prettiest girl in school, also with the best grades. So the dating romance started between Brett and Jane seemed like the "perfect match". Later on, however, we find out that Brett falls deeply in love with Jane's best friend, Sara. He doesn't want to be with Jane at all, but feels pressured by his dad to be with her, as they make the "perfect couple".

So, when she was in college, during the time she's cheating with Brett, Sara fills out an application to go to Oxford so she can further her writing. Later, Jane tells her that she has also applied for Oxford (alluding to the apparent struggle between the two for Brett). Sara is surprised by this and then even more surprised to find out that Jane has apparently got in and that Sara hasn't. This is even furthered by the fact that Brett's dad, Jane's counselor, lets Sara know that Jane has indeed been accepted to Oxford.

So back in the present, while Sara and Brett's romance is being furthered along, they make a pact never to mention Jane again, as it is too disturbing to their present romantic involvement (which is really just a continuation of their relationship that they had in college). But Sara has already contacted Oxford to find out if Jane really did attend Oxford. Later, Oxford contacts her back and lets her know that Jane never really attended Oxford, she never even applied.

This is where the movie has it's biggest twists, which really aren't that big. Sara starts to question Brett about him having contact with Jane while she was at Oxford and realizes that Brett never once contacted Jane, Jane only contacted him. All this was happening while Sara and Brett had their most amorous romance, because of the absence of Jane. Sara then begins to realize that something must have happened to Jane for her to fake going to Oxford. She then remembers that when Jane was supposedly back from Oxford, she was going to tell Sara some big news, right before they graduated. But three days before graduation is when Jane committed suicide and she never got to tell Sara the big news. Sara asks Brett if he ever found out, but he tells her he was unable to because the day Jane was going to tell him, he was in the locker room fooling around with Sara (yikes!).

So this is all realized as the stupidest/most unrealistic part of the movie happens. In a possessed-by-Jane sleepwalking stupor, Laurel sleepwalks into Brett's dad's house in the middle of the night (where Brett's dad was is never explained) and finds Jane's old journal. She then comes out of her trance and reads that (gasp!) JANE WAS PREGNANT! The reason she faked going to Oxford is because she was pregnant with Brett's daughter! Just as she reads this, Brett's dad comes in, explaining (DUN DUN DUH!!!) that he killed Jane! He killed her because she was pregnant with his granddaughter and he couldn't allow Brett to father this child because it would have messed up his plans for his son's life (remember how Brett's dad is possessive over him, wanting him to be perfect?). So while Sara and Brett had their last night of romance in the locker room, Brett's dad was killing Jane, staging it as a suicide. He then took his granddaughter and put her up for adoption.

As Laurel is hearing all this, Brett's dad goes into a psychotic trance, believing Laurel to be Jane, and starts to say "I'm going to kill you again, Jane!" Now here's another ridiculous part of the movie, Laurel escapes and runs back to the college, somehow. She runs to her room, where Sara has just figured out the mystery and checks a phone message she got from Laurel which says, "Jane was pregnant and Brett's dad killed her! I know the truth and now Brett's dad is after me!" Sara freaks out and runs to Laurel's room (where Jane supposedly hung herself) and finds that Brett's dad is now hanging Laurel. She gets him off of her, but Laurel passes out. Then Brett's dad starts to hang Sara, when Laurel is possessed again (for the 50th time in one movie) by Jane and gets Brett's dad off Sara. He then takes her down and luckily Brett comes running in, saving Laurel and Sara from his dad.

The movie ends with Brett's dad being taken away in a cop car and Sara explaining to Brett that Laurel is indeed his daughter, the daughter of him and Jane, which explains why she looks exactly like Jane. The movie ends with an embrace of Sara, Laurel, and Brett.

Awww..... the perfect family.