In "A Killer in My Home" (a.k.a., "A Family's Nightmare"), Ryan and Allison Wright seem to have the perfect family. At a special fundraising event, their lovely daughter Hollie is playing the piano. She is joyous about her acceptance to Porterville University. Then, their world collapses as Ryan is felled by a heart attack.
While dying in the hospital, Ryan is visited by apparent strangers. But it turns out that Ryan had sired a son with another woman. After his death, the surviving widow Allison must make some fateful decisions about whether or not to provide financial support to the strange interlopers, Jenna and her son Joshua.
Joshua is one of the more intriguing characters ever to trod the boards of a Lifetime movie set. Abused at the hands of his monster mother, Jason has been in trouble with the law. A shortcoming of the screenplay was that it was never made clear if Joshua killed Oscar Barbosa, the chef at the events planned by Allison as part of her business called "Perfecto Event Planning." Or, did Jenna do the dastardly deed herself?
The psychological nuances of Allison's character were effectively portrayed by one of our favorite actresses, Bree "Lifetime" Williamson. Allison was simply too full of the milk of human kindness in her trust of Jenna. This flaw was recognized by Allison's bestie, Melissa, who wound up in the hospital with a coma after she snooped in the home of Jenna's evil boyfriend Travis.
The most interesting relationship in the film was that of Allison and young Joshua. Allison was the mother Joshua always wished he had. The introduction she gave him to the horses at the family stable was the most moving scene in the film. The ending may be too pat with Joshua joining the family and being welcomed even by Hollie, who had heretofore been a prissy and standoffish princess.
It is significant that Allison wants to contribute financially to the Heart Foundation in memory of her philandering husband. That gesture says more about Allison than the womanizing Ryan. It was Allison who had an essential goodness that was apparent in the film's theme that "the heart is the only thing that matters."
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