Unwanted Guest (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

Dutch Oven on the top shelf.

[trickymutha · 5/10 · 5 February 2019]

Who puts a Dutch Oven on a top shelf ten feet off the floor? Unwanted Guest does. And like a dangerous thud from a plummeting Dutch Oven this film hits the floor early and keeps going down. I highly recommend if you like cheese. Especially cooked in a Dutch Oven.

It held my interest

[tomfsloan · 5/10 · 13 August 2018]

The most troublesome aspect to me was Amys pointless evil motivation that was not explained very well. Lots of great acting. In particular, when the girl first passes out. Many scenes looked like they were never rehearsed, which is entirely possible with these budgets. The hamster scene was gory and stupid. The stool scene was dumb. When or if you ever see this movie, you'll understand what I mean. Impressive corvette scene for a movie of this type. Probably stock footage but nevertheless impressive. The kitchen fight scene was stupid too. TV Movie Rule #1: Don't defend yourself when you see your adversary pick up a frying pan in a threatening manor. The actual end was reasonably well done. Somewhat predictable, but still a nice ending.

The Hostess

[lavatch · 5/10 · 18 August 2020]

Miss Amy Thomas wants to feel needed. After being invited home for the holidays to stay with the family of her friend Christine Roberts, Amy takes over, worming her way into the role of permanent caretaker and hostess. Within days, the mother Anna has a broken leg and Christine is being drugged into a stupor. Miss Thomas has her sights set on Charles, her friend's step-father. The Hostess has shifted into high gear and has moved into action.

While the cast did an admirable job with their characters, "Unwanted Guest" was far too unpleasant from start to finish. We learn early in the film that Miss Thomas had struck young Alan Kerwood with a blunt object, then pushed his down a lengthy set of outdoor stairs at the college campus. But was it really necessary for Alan's girlfriend to be murdered as well?

The moment arrives when Miss Thomas is able to prepare a grand meal for one of Charles' clients. She cooks the supper and makes lively conversation for the lavish occasion. But the scene culminates in yet another death when Miss Thomas somehow finds the time to drain the brake fluid from the Corvette belonging to Charles' colleague Ken, and he takes a fatal plunge off the road.

The parents and Christine were so kind to Miss Thomas that it was painful to see them duped by the deranged Miss Thomas. And, it even turns out that Amy Thomas was not even her real name. Was there a murder #4 prior to the untoward madness that is unleashed on the poor characters in the film who seem to be filled with nothing more than the milk of human kindness?

I wouldn't have trusted this girl from the moment she lost the glasses and let her hair down.

[CranberriAppl · 1 February 2019]

She's clearly not who they thought she was.

These people are DUMB. She started acting creepy asf almost as soon as she got there. These movies are not TCM quality and I typically give them a wide berth, but I absolutely hate when the characters are too stupid to live. It's one thing if the villain is sneaky, but this chick is very bold IMMEDIATELY and there is simply no reason for them to either have not questioned her about her parents (mysteriously on vacation yet failed to invite their daughter who is also on break) OR asked their daughter who the heck she brought home. Like I cannot abide the dumbness and it makes it hard to root for the "good guys."

The girls don't even particularly seem that close, so it's not like Christine is oblivious to the actions of a best friend she's known all her life. The "mousy" act is the worst I've ever seen. Someone mentioned Bette Davis in Now, Voyager and I don't see it at all. Charlotte wasn't evil. Not only is this girl evil. She's rude and way too forward.

I'm at a part where she comes downstairs (after opening the window to make her friend sick) and she's in her newly purchased nighty and ol' step-pop comes downstairs in nothing but his bottoms....and they are both drinking. CRINGE. If you have a guest in your house, can you find your robe? If you ARE a guest in someone's house, can you find a robe? This movie is a mess. I see a reviewer mention that we won't find out the why, which thank you to that person bc without knowing ahead of time, I'd be pretty ticked. But that said, we are 15 minutes away from the end and there has been ZERO clue as to what causes this girl to be this way. They couldn't pen a one-scene flashback to a jacked up childhood of abandonment?

She causes the mother to fall and break her leg, all the while she's poisoning the daughter. They even acknowledge that the daughter is getting worse, but no one suggests a doctor? No one tells this chick, "hey our family is in rough shape right now....maybe call your folks?' I hate dumb characters. The father is dumb as bricks. This girl is clearly coming on to you and you don't tell her to back off? Why am I watching this?! These parts are the worst of the movie.

I actually recognize the parents in this movie from other stuff and I am embarrassed for them. I guess easy money and a paid for trip to Canada makes junk like this worth it.

I've watched three of these flicks on this snow day and this was by far the worst.

Predictably predictable

[bsuncana · 2/10 · 13 February 2018]

I just watched this movie and could tell what would happen literally from the beginning. The plot has already been seen too many times and the title of the movie is basically the its summary. In the beginning of the movie we are shown a crime site where a young man has been killed and are introduced to 2 girls, Amy and Christine. The actress who portrayed Amy, the antagonist and the subject of the movie was obviously very convincing since you can immediately see that she is going to be the unwanted guest, even before she is even invited to stay at her friend's place. We follow an ugly but smart duckling who lets her hair out of a ponytail and becomes a sex bomb and gains confidence in a minute Amy through series of murders that, I guess, she had some reason for. Basically she is obsessed with Christine's stepfather, an average looking middle aged man (literally she could've found a better looking middle aged man in any bar ever) and tries to seduce him by preventing his wife and daughter from getting between them? How does she do that? Oh, by pushing his wife from a stool which results in her breaking a leg or something and later drugging her all the time, and leaving a window open so that the daughter gets sick (?). She then assumes the role of a housekeeper and a(n) (evil) nurse. However, the still-not-that-hot father is still not that into her (even thoufh they kiss once) because he, like, loves his wife. Of course, what feels like hundred years later than it was painfully obvious that there is something weird about this girl no one knows anything about and who likes to oddly stare at people with a creepy smile on her face, the mother finally realizes that it would probably be a good idea to, like, remove her from the house. However, when they try to do that she goes all nuts and tries to kill her friend. The friend is of course saved in the last minute when the mother injects something in Amy's neck (even though she was pretty drugged up and just broke her leg in two places, she heroically stood up from her bed, WALKED through the whole freaking huge house just in time to save her daughter. Ok.) The father and police come back at the same moment as Amy's dying and pathetically apologising to the love of her life, that average dumb dude. The worst part of the movie (maybe after the fact that every time Amy's obviously about to do something bad, very dramatic music plays for about a minute, just in case someone didn't realize that something's about to happen) is that, in the end, when she dies and everybody else doesn't, we expect to hear what's her reason behind, like, murdering and torturing random people. HOWEVER, we NEVER hear that because the police DOESN'T KNOW AND YES YOU JUST WATCHED A COMPLETELY POINTLESS MOVIE THAT WASN'T EVEN REMOTELY GOOD! YES!

Pretty bad on all accounts.

[mrtlly · 1/10 · 9 January 2017]

Just started watching on TV and what could've been good, went down hill fast. The plot was good, but the construction was hopeless. If they'd have worked on putting a 'real to life' spin on it, rather than reading off the back of the cereal packet, it could've been half decent. It didn't even pan out to much. If you choose to watch after this warning, I cannot help you get that wasted time back. The only thing I can add to this without putting in spoilers is, common sense and high end vehicles never let you down.

I don't normally comment of movies. But this was just on TV and just awful!

Take it for what it is.....

[chruko · 2/10 · 4 April 2021]

Don't expect great things from this movie, but it really helped me complete my workout, so it's a movie you watch if you want to get your mind off something. It's a time waster.

I will compile a list of 3 pros and cons for fun:

Pro: 1. I don't know why but the hamster part was interesting to me. The story chose to show her demented mind in different ways so it's good to have a few weird things like that in there.

2. The actress is pretty good at having very large pupils and having a soulless look about her. Sometimes it was a bit over the top, but for the most part she nailed the part of looking like a complete psychopath.

3. The mother actually figured out the psycho. Thanks to the writers for letting one of the clueless victims start getting a clue. They built up to this a bit with the dad but didn't really go very far with it. I liked that there was inconsistency about the dutch oven story and you could see he pondered about it a bit but then well, never went anywhere with it. Just a look on his face like, "Huh! That's weird."

Cons 1. Needless killing. The most needless was the business partner. What was the point of that? He didn't prevent her from achieving her psychotic goals so not sure what the point of that was. She might as well kill the neighbor and the neighbor's dog and the mayor of the town while she's at it.

2. Dad not seeming phased by his wife fallen half over, passed out, hanging half way off the bed with her food plate on the floor scattered everywhere. He just casually picks her up a bit, straightens her, tucks her in her bed. Real life: Holy crap! Cal the police!

3. Not enough backstory to her psychotic behavior. We get a little mention of it at the end: "Maybe she wasn't ever loved." I need more than that, writers.

Just try not to be too critical and try to enjoy it for what it is---a crap B movie thriller.

As usual, not the best, not the worst. Love to hate villain though.

[alruhi-1 · 4/10 · 8 April 2018]

Honestly, this is just typical Lifetime stuff. There's worse out there, so this is basically a middling sort of movie. I think it was badly acted (felt wooden/phoned in for the most part), but I don't deny the actors' talents. The "psycho"(really, she's just plain evil) is basically pretty damned obvious just by LOOKING at her. Well, for the viewer, that is. The "mousy" thing is an act as, imo, she's a con artist. People complained about the anti-climatic ending, but I don't think it was. Fridge logic tells me that it's poetic justice. She died the way she lived: with drugs. I wish the targets got more shots on her as she is one of those vile people who deserve to suffer as she had NO redeeming qualities, but they just wanted her gone and they got what they wanted.

As for her motives, I think they were plainly obvious, just like it was with Iago, which is why neither one of them never had to say anything. She didn't get a chance to and you KNOW she would have because she had excuses for everything and always saw herself as the victim, but Iago felt like he shouldn't have to say anything because you should have already figured it out.

Anyway, by the numbers formula movie. Great for die hard fans of tawdry stuff/Lifetime stuff. For every one else, eh, there are plenty of other options and this will be one of the many "psycho" movies that end up piled under better movies.

Because its always a splendid idea to confront the live in psycho when she's slicing veggies ...

[beausquest · 3/10 · 27 September 2018]

The girl who moves in and starts wrecking your family while everyone involved is clueless. The temptation given in to by Daddy. The police {who in most communities can have a presence in a moment or two} who take an eternity to show up to save the day. And yes, the criminal who has to recite a verbal manifesto before killing -- which in Hollywood's view, all of them do, it seems.

Yes, all your favorite parts are here. And less.

Another formulaic "thriller" you've seen a few dozen times before that you could write in your sleep. Which apparently the writers do. Tune in for the latest version next week.

***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 12 September 2016]

Amy is plain, very plain, an ugly duckling if ever there were. At the beginning of the film, her demeanor and looks remind me of Bette Davis at the beginning of the memorable "Now, Voyager."

Alone for the holidays, she is taken in by a friend and the two go to the latter's home where the friend's parents welcome her with open arms.

At once, Amy literally lets her hair down and turns into a gorgeous young lady, but at the same time she begins to wreak havoc on the family that she has become obsessed with. For starters, she starts slowly poisoning her friend leaving her bedridden and then conveniently arranges for the mother to fall off a ladder. With all this going on, Amy becomes their care-givers while trying to make it with the husband of the mother.

This typical theme of entering lives and shattering them is commonplace in Lifetime films and it is well done.

So many pieces in so many places.

[DocJD · 4/10 · 5 September 2017]

TV movies aimed for the midday viewer don't have to be masterpieces but they don't have to be unwanted guests when the script writing is so poor. The performances are acceptable with some exceptional scenes from the main cast. There are no plot surprises and the ending is predictable and that's OK. Unfortunately it's hard not to feel a little robbed when one characters asks in closing, what was this all about? And then we're told, "So many pieces in so many places"...it's so corny it's memorable.

Another lousy movie

[geoffox-766-418467 · 2 November 2017]

They keep coming from LMN. This one I got impatient for it to end and our young evil one demise. I kept looking at the clock and it seemed time went slower than usual. There was nothing rewarding about this horror. What annoyed me most of all was the family being so stupid as to not realize the girl was just plain evil. The father being the worst of all. An idiot with no sense at all. And the mother was clueless until too late and the girl friend from school who gets sicker throughout the film hasn't a clue. All the time this nut case is taking care of them. I remember this actress from another LMN film called The Boyfriend Killer, where she was just as bad and just a nuts.

Teleplay seems unfinished. So many unanswered questions

[Leparsdon · 3/10 · 24 January 2022]

This movie was just bad. The acting was laughable and the plot even more so.

**Spoilers***

Amy is implied at the beginning of the film to have killed another classmate, although we never see his face and that plotline is barely touched upon. Amy goes to stay with her friend over 'the holidays', despite there being no indications that any holiday of any kind is taking place during this time, and everyone is still working as normal.

Amy immediately becomes fixated on her friend Christine's stepfather, and I guess her whole motive is to concoct a plan to get with him. The movie is so laughably awful beyond this point. Amy starts drugging her friend at night for reasons unknown, I guess so her friend won't be around when Amy starts prowling on her stepdad. Amy also kills the girlfriend of the classmate that she killed, and that incident is never brought up again and plays no relevant part for the rest of the movie, other than to show us how crazy Amy is I guess.

So onward we go, and Amy and Christine spend a lot of time doing nothing, Amy drinks a lot of wine and makes passes at stepdad. Christine's mom and by proxy the actress that plays her, seem to sleepily go through this film barely making a facial expression that isn't one of extreme boredom and apathy. Amy causes mom to break her leg, so she spends the rest of the film in bed which I find hilarious considering the actress's performance up to this point. This movie also laughably wants us to believe that Christine can somehow get seriously ill to the point where she is bedridden for the rest of this movie, simply because Amy keeps leaving the window open on purpose. WHAT?!

Anyway, stepdad and Amy get a little familiar and share a kiss, although if the sexy-sex happened is not really expanded upon. At this point, Amy needs to help stepdad with a dinner party for some big client, the wife expresses her suspicions about Amy and wants her gone to which stepdaddy begrudgingly agrees.

In between all this the cops call and ask about Amy at Christine's house, to which Amy answers the call and tells them she isn't staying there and left to go somewhere else. This is a big nothingburger that didn't even need to be included.

Amy helps stepdad land this client account or something and had invited a business partner to the dinner who heavily flirts with Amy and also mentions that the cops called the office asking about Amy and he said he didn't know any Amy. The business partner leaves, and Amy cut his breaks or something, I guess? Because the partner gets into an accident, and I kid you not this movie never mentions this man or this incident again.

By this point we are at the end of the movie and stepdad asks Amy to go, and she doesn't like that idea. Stepdad stupidly immediately leaves Amy alone with the two women she has been trying to kill this whole movie, and as she is being asked to leave, she is enraged and decides to end them both.

Amy, Christine and mom get into the funniest cripple/sick person fight I have seen, as mom sticks Amy with a syringe which I guess was filled with a tranquilizer. The cops finally catch on to Amy and barge in with stepdad after talking to him at his office and it is here where we get one of the most unsatisfying endings to the cheap movies ever. The cops hurriedly exposit that Amy isn't really Amy and took the identify of a student who died 2 years earlier. Stepdad asks "What did she want" cops reply, "we don't know but we will find out" as Amy goes down from the tranq and then that's it. MOVIE OVER. We find out nothing about Amy, if she really had parents in Europe, or if they found any of the other people she killed. Also, Amy killed Christine's pet rat earlier but that's also irrelevant.

WHAT?! Lmao.

WORST. MOVIE. EVER.

Ick

[roneshaholloway-67526 · 1/10 · 8 February 2022]

You know it's bad when you come here before the movies even over to see how bad others thought it was. The story makes no sense but the worst part is the villain is not even sexy and even if she were, she's so blatantly out there with her games, the dad should have cut her off from the start. Even the mom had suspicions and did nothing about after she acknowledges it's weird that her child is so sick and she's injured! Awful!

A decent popcorn thriller

[nightroses · 2/10 · 28 September 2019]

I don't get why so many reviewers hate this film so much because I enjoyed watching it while scoffing snacks! It was really good, and I was hooked but at the end the film felt dead. There is something unfinished and incomplete. Yes it had unanswered questions, like who was this evil girl and why did she do those things, why did she kill all of those people and where did she come from? The film never made her a three dimensional character so they just put Amy there as a just pure evil character and that's it. Now there had been moments when I really wanted the police to find Amy long before they did. I hate seeing it when innocent animals are killed in movies as Amy did. That was a leaf from the film history books. Whenever there is an evil woman in movies that is just completely nasty, she always has to target the loving pets of families who she wants to break up. The bunny burning from "Fatal Attraction" and the puppy killing in "Single White Female" are examples of what I mean. I couldn't believe the stupidity of the man who slept with this depraved Amy monster after what she did to his wife and daughter. Already he appeared suspicious of Amy but all was forgotten when she put on that dress! How very unreal and moronic of him to leave an angry Amy in the house alone with his vulnerable wife and daughter. It was poor judgement of him. This character isn't acting like a normal person who loves his family.

Can You Unzip Me???

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 3/10 · 9 March 2022]

They keep making movies along this same plot line like every year or even two a year. I don't get it. If you want to see a good one see THE CRUSH. Anyhow, daughter brings creepy friend home from school for break and creepy friend proceeds to poison the house and seduce step daddy. It's pretty much par for the course except it didn't quite hit par with me. 3/10.

Thriller ?? Really ???

[rajaccie · 5/10 · 3 March 2022]

Casually browsed Amazon and found this movie . I accept its a drama genre ... but thrillerrrr ??? Nahhhhh. From scene 1 , the story is quite obvious and one can easily predict the whole story , just looking at first 5 mins . All actors performed well. Loose screenplay and overall an average movie.

Basic made-for-tv melodrama...

[vnssyndrome89 · 4/10 · 11 April 2024]

UNWANTED GUEST (TV Movie) 3.7 out of 10 stars Time to Read: *WARNING: ANIMAL CRUELTY AS A PLOT DEVICE (see below)

BASIC PLOT: Christine's (Valentina Novakovic) a college student who's about to return home for winter break. She's decided to take her new friend Amy (Kate Mansi) home with her. Amy's parents are in Europe, and she has no one to spend the time off with. But as soon as they arrive home, and Amy meets Christine's stepfather, Charles (Ted King), things take a dark turn. Amy has decided she must have Charles, and she's not going room let anything stand in her way. Can Christine, and her mother, Anna ([link=nm0514719)Beth Littleford[/link]) uncover Amy's sinister motives in time to save themselves?

WHAT WORKS: *IT'S A FAIRLY FUN RIDE, IF YOU DON'T THINK TOO HARD There's lots of plot holes, and blind corners, but it's not supposed to be a deep, complex story. If you go into it with that attitude, you'll enjoy it a whole lot more.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *USING ANIMAL CRUELTY & DEATH AS A PLOT DEVICE IS NEVER JUSTIFIED There are many other ways to show a person is violent/mentally disturbed/evil. Showing us a precious little hamster, and then having us watch while it's put down the garbage disposal lowers my rating 1.5 stars. It's time to let writers know this is unacceptable!

*AMY'S TRANSFORMATION WITHOUT HER GLASSES IS A BIT LIKE WONDER WOMAN... Totally unbelievable

*CHARLES IS A BIT OF A LETCH He's staring, very obviously, at Amy's legs, not half an hour after meeting her. I get there are problems in his marriage, but leering at young girls does not make him very sympathetic.

*THIS MOVIE MUST HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY A MAN There are lots of misogynistic overtones here, like Anna (Beth Littleford is not a good wife because she doesn't wait on Charles (Ted King hand and foot. And because she doesn't, this gives Charles permission to cheat on her, while she's injured, in the same house! C'mon! Also, why is it Anna's responsibility alone to get the spark back in their marriage, and how is "making breakfast" a euphemism for something sexual?

*CHRISTINE'S DIALOG IS NOT BELIEVABLE These girls are supposed to be 21, but Christine chatters on like she's in junior high. Her dialog is ridiculously banal.

*WHEN DOES AMY HAVE TIME TO CUT THE BREAK LINES ON KEN'S VET? The implication is that Amy messes with Ken's car so he won't tell Charles the police are looking for her. When would she have time? Did she do it in her cocktail dress?

*MODERN GAS RANGES HAVE SAFETY FEATURES Amy wouldn't be able to just flip a switch, and stick Christine's head in the oven. The oven would light automatically, it wouldn't spew gas.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *This is a very basic melodrama. If you like & understand the art form, then you might like this. If you like complex, intricate plots and characters, then look elsewhere. I'd recommend this to fans of Ted King & Kate Mansi

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a made-for-tv movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.