Deadly Daycare is another fun example of taking a tired formula and super-charging it to create a film so utterly surreal that it works as thriller, and as satire of same.
The script is nuts, in a good way, with an implausible conspiracy wrapped around an impossible set of coincidences, defying credibility all the way.
Characters are overdrawn to the point of parody, and the casting director picked types that were themselves caricatures of familiar TV-movie types (warrior mom, spooky psycho-woman, fretful matriarch, etc).
Many of these new-breed TV movies have at least one standout performance to showcase, and Deadly Daycare is no exception. Christy Carlson Romano is a real knockout here, her portrayal of a slow-burn schizo nothing short of mesmerizing. There are single takes of Romano in which she fluctuates seamlessly between innocent and demonic, and these scenes are highly disturbing.
The script takes a dyed-in-the-wool cliche (woman wants to steal a baby) and modifies it to something almost comical, and the result is a wild, wild roller coaster ride of turgid melodramatic thrills.
The producers of these made for TV films figured out a long time ago that as long as you stick to the basic ground rules of such films, you can really have some fun with it, and take the audience on a bizarre thrill ride that almost passes as satire of its intended formula.
Deadly Daycare takes the TV movie formula to dizzying heights, it's bigger-than-life soap opera style merged to a traditional thriller template to create a true gem of melodramatic weirdness.
To recap: a wild script brought to life by good actors, with lots of soul-searching closeups and mind-bending plot twists = TV movie heaven.
The script is nuts, in a good way, with an implausible conspiracy wrapped around an impossible set of coincidences, defying credibility all the way.
Characters are overdrawn to the point of parody, and the casting director picked types that were themselves caricatures of familiar TV-movie types (warrior mom, spooky psycho-woman, fretful matriarch, etc).
Many of these new-breed TV movies have at least one standout performance to showcase, and Deadly Daycare is no exception. Christy Carlson Romano is a real knockout here, her portrayal of a slow-burn schizo nothing short of mesmerizing. There are single takes of Romano in which she fluctuates seamlessly between innocent and demonic, and these scenes are highly disturbing.
The script takes a dyed-in-the-wool cliche (woman wants to steal a baby) and modifies it to something almost comical, and the result is a wild, wild roller coaster ride of turgid melodramatic thrills.
The producers of these made for TV films figured out a long time ago that as long as you stick to the basic ground rules of such films, you can really have some fun with it, and take the audience on a bizarre thrill ride that almost passes as satire of its intended formula.
Deadly Daycare takes the TV movie formula to dizzying heights, it's bigger-than-life soap opera style merged to a traditional thriller template to create a true gem of melodramatic weirdness.
To recap: a wild script brought to life by good actors, with lots of soul-searching closeups and mind-bending plot twists = TV movie heaven.