User reviews

These types of movies do have their audience. The type that can sit down for that runtime and handle the back and forth. When done competently, anyone can get invested. In this film however, only few can withstand the tedium of it all. The movie itself isn't bad. You will go along with the ride and question her sanity as well. You will understand her frustration with herself and everyone around her. And then u just won't care and wait for the answer. I won't reveal anything here but stick with it if you started it, you might as well. But overall some will have a good time and others won't. I didn't, but that's just me.

I have to say that I was a little cynical even before i watched this movie. Having said that I found myself getting into it , and a little intrigued.

But really , Haylie Duff for the part? Not only can she not act, but she should seriously invest in some acting classes with regard to facial expressions . I could not bear to watch as she trundled along, looking pathetic and weak , and completely overreacting to everything!

At times, I just wanted to scream at her !!!

I did see it through to the end though, it was just ok, not blown away or surprised.

I have seen worse!

I don't even know what to say. I can't believe I finished this movie. I've rated a lot of movies on here but I think this is my first written review. The story/premise of the movie is promising and it could've turned out better, but the main character overacted too much. It just made it so unbelievable that a guy would be sticking it out with her when she can barely go outside without looking like a dog whose owner is holding a rolled newspaper over its head. That is what she looks like throughout the whole movie. Cringing and wide eyed and flighty or crying and breaking down for the whole movie. It was too much. Most people would try and act more normal than this in real life even if they thought they were delusional. I get it's a lifetime movie and I don't expect much usually as the storylines and acting are not up to par with most films - but go ahead and skip this one.

I think this movie could have worked if they had gone with a better actress. Or just any other actress. Haylie Duff is so bad that she´s in a category all on her own. From the first moments when she is on screen every facial expression she makes is awful and made me wish for something extremely terrible to happen to her. Yes, she was playing a character who looked like a horse with the worst personality you could imagine. It´s impossible to have any sympathy for such a person when the actress is this bad.

What have I just watched.

Nonsense to the extreme.

What is more disappointing is that a simply plotted film cannot be followed by some of the reviewers ??????

@lavatch Shane is dead. He has not risen from the dead. The guy at the end of the film is a completely different actor and not the same actor that plays Shane.

@nikeynike the girl that is leaving the psych unit is the next "victim".

Hope this helps. Please watch the film before leaving a review. It does help

Awful ending costly.

I was, somewhat, enjoying 'Deadly Delusion' at the beginning, with Haylie Duff giving a strong performance in the lead role. However, not through any fault of her's, the film gets weaker and weaker and weaker, culminating in such a shoddy and forced conclusion. The actual concept of the end isn't actually a terrible one, though the way it's just thrown together without proper explanation or meaning is poor.

The acting talent, including Duff, is actually pretty good - a vast improvement on a lot of made-for-TV productions at least. Interesting to see Teri Polo make an appearance, too.

If the writing was better then I may have liked, or at least not disliked, this. Unfortunately, that ending derailed everything.

I would have given this movie a 10 if it wasn't for the ending. Great plot and, in my POV, Haylie Duff delivered a powerful performance- one of the best. We had the boyfriend and real estate guy figured out early but never would have guessed the reason they were gaslighting her until near the end. In this computer age, a setup like that is very imaginable.

Haylie played the victim nicely- almost falling apart at times but holding it together at some important times. Guts and grit.

The ending let down everything the film had created. When the cops got the real estate guy and the boss and found all the computers and wiring and cameras in the house, they would have thoroughly investigated all the players, including the doctor (who we figured out was evil at her very first appearance.) Oh, but that's right, Lifetime always makes the cops into bumbling idiots, so the ring continues even though the bosses are gone and the doctor would have at least gotten spooked by the arrests and breaking up of the ring. Sad.

This movie shows the bitter but hidden and very much dangerous mentality of criminals. I was shocked watching its end.

I've probably seen all of HD's Lifetime flicks, and honestly, she's the same character in each movie. I always see her. Now I know you're saying, it's Lifetime, what do you expect, but I certainly think she could probably switch it up sometimes. If it's a "thriller," she's always a tightly wound, anxious, ball of nerves. Her Christmas movies have the same issue where it's always Haylie Duff and not any given character.

All that said...it's not a bad movie. The storyline is a bit dark and a stretch, but if one watches within the context of the universe they set up, you just gotta roll with it. The opening scene is very dramatic and sets the tone and you will question whether or not she's crazy or being driven crazy. I think the supporting cast (some of who I recognize from Hallmark) do a good job of enough ambiguity so that you can't tell if the movie is being played straight OR if she's being gaslit (like the movie Gaslight). Going back to Haylie Duff...after a while you're going to get annoyed by her because the character's mood is always on eleven.

I won't spoil the ending, and it's not a must watch, but like another contributor said...if you watch past a certain point, you'll feel compelled to finish the movie. It's one of those movies where it's either A or B, so on the off chance someone wants to guess what happens, I won't say much more. Even though the movie's old.

Teri Polo is wasted here, but her role is more or less a cameo so easy money I guess.

Well I liked the movie but at the end there's a young lady exiting the psychiatric ward and its a different face confusing. Was that supposed to be Haylie Duff?

Hailey Duff was absolutely cringeworthy in this. I'm not sure I've ever seen her act before, but girl, you were awful in this. To the point that if I ever see that she's starring in something I will avoid it like a plague.

The only way that I got through this was that I was playing on the internet and if it sounded like something interesting was happening I'd turn back to it. I just couldn't stand looking at Duff and her trying to act pathetic. Did I mention how horrible her acting was?

I suppose with a better actress this would have been infinitely better. It was kind of an interesting premise.

But it was practical TORTURE witnessing how terrible an actress Duff is.

A good plot twist is one you don't see coming but when it happens you find yourself thinking "oh, so that's why..." In other words, the pieces of the puzzle should be introduced over the course of the movie, but then be assembled in an unexpected way.

With this movie, we have nothing to go on until the final twenty minutes when they introduce a completely absurd premise out of left field. They may as well have blamed everything on space aliens or vampires.

The acting and production quality of the film are pretty good. Nonetheless, when you get to the end you will feel cheated. Don't watch it.

Julia, who had a good childhood until the murder of her parents, on, what seems, a spiral downfall in her adult life. When her boyfriend gets a well paying executive job at a movie studio, she and he lease a house in upscale Los Angeles. Julia and her boyfriend Shane hopes the movie to a new place will help Julie with her issues, mainly her delusions of someone always after her.

Julia (Haylie Duff, The Bachelor Next Door, Bad Twin, His Secret Family) has been suffering nightmare, both in sleep and waking hours, of someone after her. When she tries to tell her boyfriend Shane (Mike Faiola, Psycho In-Law, Awkward TV series, Bones TV series) he thinks she has delusions for the person she claims is after her can never be found. Shane has been supporting Julia with her delusions while Julia is seeing a mental doctor named Dr. Leary (played by Teri Polo, The Fosters TV series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Shane is able to obtain a nice house in upscale Los Angels through his boss while getting a promotion at work as an executive at a movie studio, as already mentioned. This house is in a new city for Julia, in which Shane hopes will allow her to focus on her job as a fashion photographer while giving her a new place to help with her recovery. Her doctor is just a video conference away, which Shane insists she contacts when she's feeling a bit off.

DIFFERENT PLACE, SAME DELUSIONS The delusions, or illusions, Julia has of someone after her don't slow down, but rather, seem to be getting worse. She constantly in video conferences with Dr. Leary and calling her husband at work throughout the day. The illusions aren't just of people after her, but of snakes in her bathroom and noises, she hears in the house.

Shane, being the ever loving boyfriend, tries to assure Julia that there isn't anything going on. When she tells him someone is in the house, he checks to find no one there. When Julia feels they are being watched, he proves to her that that's not true either, even when she begins pulling the Network cable from the ceiling claiming it's a cable to a hidden video camera. The cable, he tells her, is to the TV and he shows her. Everything Julia says or shows Shane, he is able to show or tell her the opposite

NOT EVERYTHING IS AT IT SEEMS As with Mistress Hunter, this movie had a lot going on as far as twists. When Julia does some snooping on her own because she knows she's not crazy, she discovers a lot of secrets, which only has us, the viewers, wondering what's going on. But the more Julia learns the more we think we're going to crazy.

The delusions or illusions (however you want to label them) are real for Julia, but not by way of her mind playing tricks on her. They are man-made illusions but the reason for the mind games is very surprising and makes you wonder about people as if I don't wonder about them as it is.

FINAL THOUGHT I love me some Haylie Duff, the older sister of Hillary Duff. Ever since I saw her in His Secret Family (2015), I have watched all of her psychological movies on LifetimeTV or Lifetime Movie Network. I think she's a fantastic actress and she doesn't disappoint in Deadly Delusion aka The Lease. Haylie brings her characters to life to where you feel what they are feeling and want to help. When someone wrongs her in a movie you want to help her get even with that person. This is the type of actress she is.

Haylie made this movie for me. It's one of the reasons I watched it. But when the twists started coming about and the final twist happened at the end, I put this movie on top of my list of another great movie from Lifetime. I saved this movie on my DVR, as I did with Mistress Hunter, to watch again.

Deadly Delusion aka The Lease is currently playing on LifetimeTV and must see.

I absolutely loved this movie. It had me on the edge of my seat. Never saw the movie like test with this type of story line. Terry Paulo played an excellent part, and so does Hailey Duff. I think from the beginning of the movie when you see her with that expression on her face that's all you need to know. Well thought out of Motive. I think Haley Duff is perfect for this type a part