Killer Assistant (2016 TV Movie) User Reviews

OKAY

[Kristamw · 6/10 · 30 November 2019]

A typical obsession story containing a psychotic villain, David, with a twisted plan. The best part of this movie: Arianne Zucker (Nicole on Days Of Our Lives).

Writing Quality: OK, but the focus was on the protagonist, Suzanne, and her anger issues and stress rather than on the psycho and his plotting, which would have made for a better story. The husband needed to step up as a father and defend his wife, Suzanne, who the daughter constantly disrespected. Between the one night stand and the next day at the office, there needed to be a transition as Suzanne went from enjoying the fling to being cold and distant for no reason. Had David's questionable behavior showed up right then, she would have had a valid reason for her sudden behavior switch.

Scare Factor: The psycho assistant isn't really scary until near the end when he surprises another character by killing them and then his tactics in the finale as the truth of who he is becomes revealed. Again, seeing him behind the scenes, putting his plot points into place, would have compelled us more into the story.

Content (sex, language, & violence): There is a long scene with a couple engaging in a sexual rendezvous that is erotic, though no nudity. Mild language. One scene of quick brutal shocking violence. The end scene contains violence that is moderate.

Values & Themes: The wife is desperate to be believed (about David's instability) and to bond with her family. A married couple getting help for his past indiscretions. A mom protecting her daughter from making bad choices in boys.

A decent script that could have benefited from seeing the killer assistant stalking, watching, video taping, etc, instead of discovering it all in hindsight later.

Leave Her on the Couch

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 7 August 2016]

Before the opening credits, a preteen boy watches his babysitter scramble to hide a sexual encounter with her male companion. The young man vacates before the boy's father catches the copulating couple. The small boy receives attention and a piece of jewelry from his adored babysitter. Many years later, we are introduced to voluptuous blonde Arianne Zucker (as Suzanne), in bed with her neatly bearded musician husband George Stults (as Robert Austin). We assume this couple are the older, married and still sexually compatible teenagers from the opening. They have a daughter of their own, rebellious teenager Natalie Lander (as Callista). That leaves the preteen boy unaccounted for, but we'll get there...

Clearly the breadwinner in the family, Ms. Zucker is a big shot managing editor at the fashionable "Style Harmony" magazine. She wears fancy clothes and looks sharp in red bikini underwear. Zucker gets the "Killer Assistant" we are promised in the title. A "killer assistant" can be excellent on the job or, literally, a murderer. You will be able to determine which line of thinking is appropriate. Remember, this is a "Lifetime" TV movie...

Exuberant, handsome and muscular (you'll see him doing chin-ups in tight shorts) assistant Brando Eaton (as David Barinas) tells Zucker he is available "day and night." The latter proves to be an asset because Zucker is high strung and needs help to unwind one evening. Their story is fun to watch, with director Danny J. Boyle and everyone performing competently. Strongest are Mr. Boyle's scenes with Zucker and assistant Eaton. The pace is quick, which helps cover up the inability of the characters to figure out what is actually wrong and do something to prevent the next incident. Much appreciated.

***** Killer Assistant (4/1/2016) Danny J. Boyle ~ Arianne Zucker, Brando Eaton, Natalie Lander, George Stults

The assisting assistant

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 21 November 2016]

***SPOILERS*** You can see right away that things were to go straight down hill as "Style Harmony" manager Suzanne Austin, Arianne Zucker, got the clean cut and sure of himself David Barinas, Brandp Eaton, as her top assistant in the company. Rght away David got to work on Suzanne by trying to charm her out of her pants and into bed with him with his boyish good looks. This not only disturber Suzanne but later her scuzzy looking husband,who seems to refrain from or had completely given up shaving, Robert,George Stults, a has been guitar player who's been out of work, and living off Suzanne's money, for the last 12 years. There's also the couple's rebellious 15 year old daughter Calista, Natalie Lander, who's on the outs with her strict parents in not letting her hang out with her pot smoking hippie-like, some 30 years after the end of the hippie movement, friends.

David soon starts to turns the screws on Suzanne as well as screw her in getting Suzanne to fall in love with him and even worse taking care of those close to her so he can keep Suzanne all to himself. This goes so far in him knocking off Suzanne's best friend at "Style Harmony" Mary,???, as well as her husband Robert who threatened to call the cops on him or even punching him in the nose for terrorizing his wife. It's when David tried to seduce Suzanne's daughter Calista that she finally put her foot down but it wasn't really Calista who David was after but Suzanne herself. And that had to do with him feeling that she deserted him when he needed her most some 15 years ago and thus turned him into the dangerous psycho that he was soon to become.

***SPOILERS*** Shocking ending in what turned out to be a case of abandonment of affections for the crazy David who in fact turned out or was exposed to be the former 7 year old Curtis who Suzanne as a teenager was his babysitter. Curtis/David never forget what Suzanne did to him after he found her having sex with her boyfriend, on top of a washing machine, in the laundry room. Wanting to get Suzanne back as his grown up girlfriend not teenage baby sitter David/Curtis planned to murder anyone who stood in his way to Suzanne's heart! Even Suzanne's 15 year old daughter Calista! With David/Curtis now gone completely nuts it's both Suzanne and Calista in fighting him off finally put an end to his jealous madness with a pair of Louisville 34 once sluggers by taking batting practice against his thick skull!

Awful acting other then one character

[djsdumesh · 1/10 · 2 August 2016]

Just awful, I don't know how this movie got a 6 star rating. It hurt my brain watching this film, as it just is not fine acting, the story line and directing does not help them in any way, so I wouldn't necessarily put the blame on the actors themselves, but just ...... Not worth watching. Simple as that.

They jump too quickly from one scene to another, and the way they go about it is not great at all.

Way too predictable overall, if you have any form of intuition. There is just zero mystery in this movie, I guess it's not supposed to have any?

From the start it's so obvious, when her friend gets her Achilles tendon slashed, on David's first day.... How is he not suspect number one. How is there no traces of DNA at any time when he kills, for example when he kills the husband with a pipe, and then throws it on the ground, he was bare handed.. not even a finger print? his blood should have also been on the scene, but .... nothing... just not very well written at all....

Then You Left Me Just Like My Mother!

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 2/10 · 11 March 2022]

Where do these movies come from?? This must be another Lifetime movie. Man gets job as assistant man starts killing people and being a general nuisance to his female boss. Terrible acting. Terrible script. Just bad all the way around. 2/10.

David the smug!

[haroot_azarian · 3/10 · 4 August 2021]

Frankly I haven't seen anything else of Brando Eaton, but he did a good job playing a smug psychopath. He was very easy to hate. And in the end that smug was permanently removed from his face by Arianne! Yaaay! I'm sure he's a nice guy in real life and what not but still, sorry dude I hated you in this! Arianne is just gorgeous plain and simple. And Natalie Lander did an excellent job playing the dumb clueless rebellious daughter. Just about an average LMN movie.

American Grotesque

[lavatch · 7/10 · 15 February 2020]

"Killer Assistant" develops an obsession theme based on a new male assistant assigned to Suzanne Austin, the high-octane editor of a women's magazine. The young man, David Baranis, brings a good skill set to the job. He also brings a psychopathic dimension that Suzanne is slow is recognizing with fatal consequences.

The main drawback of the film is its unpleasantness. There is far too much violence and too many good people who are murdered. Another shortcoming was the scene in the middle of the film when Suzanne has a one-nighter with her assistant. In the logic of the film, it was not credible that Suzanne would be attracted to David or that she would be unfaithful to her husband David, despite his own womanizing.

The result is a film in which Suzanne turns into a kind of Mrs. Robinson, a married woman who has a superficial erotic connection with a younger man that drives the narrative. The performances were uniformly excellent with the dynamic Suzanne, who has a problem with her temper, and young David, who is quite the charmer on the outside and a total nut case on the inside.

The production values of the film were superb with the outstanding California coastline locations, good set-ups, and an interesting variety of camera angles. There were all-around good performances from the cast. The only drawback was the unpleasantness due to the high body count. Some of the situations in which the deaths occurred were grotesque. Couldn't the screenwriters have developed more of the cat-and-mouse game between Suzanne and David with out such a high mortality rate?

Yet another of the same

[golfer_08807 · 3/10 · 5 October 2017]

Successful wife with weak husband sleeps with another man.....lover proceeds to lose his mind.....lover murders husband....wife and child team up to kill lover....we will not all feel sorry for the unfaithful wife and we will see no tears shed for the husband. The end. I never cease to marvel at how many of these movies, all with identical plots, will be made and put on television. The acting was pedestrian, the plot utterly predictable and the ending a foregone conclusion. A twist on this tired narrative might be helpful.

***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 26 June 2016]

How come this film is listed in the papers and on screen as Killing Assistant? There are certainly enough killings in the film to justify that word being kept.

That being said, the premise here is rather difficult to take. Obviously, a disturbed young child never got over the fact that his baby-sitter left and therefore wreaks havoc years later.

The editor of the Fashion Magazine where our heroine is the CEO looks just like Olympia Dukakis.

The begins to form around the typical Lifetime themes of someone entering a group of family's life and then the mayhem begins.

The guy is off-the-wall crazy but there is fine acting throughout and as this sick man, Brando Eaton shines with that smirk and effeminate way about him.

This director is money laundering

[scrogginman · 1/10 · 19 September 2021]

The CIA plays this movie at 0.25x speed to torture prisoners.

A Good TV Thriller, With A Psychological Twist And Intrigue...

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 6/10 · 10 February 2018]

Love is eternal.

Suzanna Austin (Zucker) is a successful magazine editor. Used to working by herself, her boss, Janet McAlper (Baron) assigns her an assistant, David (Eaton), after noticing how stressed she's been getting. David appears too good to be true and as time progresses Suzanne begins to believe he's got an ulterior motive...

I really liked this story for its characterisations. Tilson and Wakefield have created a well structured and ingenious tome. Suzanne is a strong career-minded woman, who can be relied upon to get the magazine out... but not to be a great mother or wife, as she spends most of her time at work. Then when David's character enters the story we get to see how the stress of her work and family life help her to become suspicious and paranoid. This starts off small but builds up fast, to the point she's worrying about her own sanity. Add the element of her family getting to know David and actually trusting him, into the mix, and this keeps the story interesting... at times, actually engrossing.

The good thing is, both the lead actor and actress are great in their performances and bring their characters to life; giving the film and story strength.

Though Boyle does add a couple of nice shots the filming is pretty standard, which is okay when you have a good cast and an even better storyline. However, it would have only strengthened the movie to make it more engaging for the audience. Thank God, he's better at manipulating the pace. Boyle is good at building the tension and atmosphere from a simmer to a full boil. This starts right at the beginning with the "Years Earlier" scene up to the climax. He also throws in a couple of peaks along the way, giving the audience a rollercoaster ride.

I'd recommend this to all Mystery Lovers and Armchair Detectives worldwide.