Death Clique (2014)

Why so much hype?

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

hyped garbage

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

In the opening minutes a woman stumbles, apparently drunk, and tongue-teases the final droplets from a tilted bottle of cheap wine. She knocks over a lamp and falls down. Another woman appears, and reveals herself as a bratty daughter. She won't help her mother get off the floor. Later, we learn the very beautiful young blonde is Tina Ivlev (as Ashley Tralman) and her alcoholic single mother is Michelle Clunie (as Tina). As the credits roll, we switch to a campus setting in the Los Angeles area. High school seniors Brittany Underwood (as Jade Thompson) and Lexi Ainsworth (as Sara Cowan) are best friends forever (BFF). Into their Spanish language classroom struts Ms. Ivlev. She is attracted to Ms. Underwood and quickly maneuvers herself into the BFF twosome. Very quickly, the three have formed the "Death Clique" of the title and we wait to see who is going to die, if anyone...This story, written by Barbara Kymlicka and directed by Doug Campbell is supposedly "Inspired by true events." Hopefully, anyone connected to the actual individuals who "inspired" this TV movie have received apologies. The crime does not ring true...Of the main cast, Ms. Ainsworth does the best; helped by her smaller stature and youthful looks, she is able to appear convincing. Ivlev resembles a young Michelle Phillips with Faye Dunaway's attitude; she needs a star-making role. Underwood does her best with the part. Dependable mom Barbara Alyn Woods (as Lana) is routine but effective. Of the minor cast, Connors' Clayton and Weil are well-cast. The scene where Mr. Weil tries to undo Ainsworth's jeans is most memorable. Weil wiping her kiss off his mouth to end the scene was a nice touch. Director Campbell also helps the young women send subtle Lesbian signals; other than one bed scene, it's too shy for the millennium. And, there is no getting over the inadequacies herein. When police detectives walk into a classroom to make arrests, instead of having an administrator call suspects discreetly, you just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.*** Death Clique (4/12/2014) Doug Campbell ~ Tina Ivlev, Brittany Underwood, Lexi Ainsworth, Barbara Alyn Woods

There was some good acting here, and the movie moved along fine. In the end, though, I was left disappointed that the movie was too "based on a true story" to be good fiction, but too fictionalized to be a good docudrama. It kinda slipped into the crack in between.Tina Ivlev is absurdly sexy, but her character here is so obviously psycho that it's hard to even try to warm up to her. Right from the start she's disturbingly flippant and manipulative. There's never a moment of horrifying realization for the audience, here; the outcome seems telegraphed from the very early going. With no mystery, it seems that the only thing we're watching to see is everybody's reactions to what we know is going to happen.Despite those and other flaws, the movie-making quality level is decent here, for the most part. It's really just the script that needed some work, I think. I give this 5/10 for being watchable but forgettable.What I did take away from this is that I will eagerly look forward to more from both Tina and Brittany, two lovely and talented young actresses. (If they make a movie about Helen Hunt's life, I vote Tina to play her. Eerie resemblance, IMO.)

In 2012, Skylar Neese was murdered by two of her friends; in 2014, her story was murdered by Hollywood. Some films are so bad they are good; this one is so bad it gives Below Utopia a run for its money.My ongoing prayer that Lexi Ainsworth won't make me look stupid by making my prediction of an Oscar for her within a decade or so just took a slight hit, but through no fault of her own. The fate of her character in the film appears a metaphor for the actress's true opinion of the material. Given absolutely atrocious writing, and a nearly-as-atrocious supporting cast, she did her best to save it, but the patient died anyway. In this film, Lexi is like the slow kid stuck at the doorbell after her friends rang it and ran way, leaving her to account for the sins of her peers.Sara Cowan (Lexi), Jade (Brittany Underwood), and new-girl Ashley (Tiina Ivle) form the titular clique, with one meeting the titular fate. The unattractive Ivlev chews the scenery as if she'd smoked six joints on an empty stomach on her way to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Her impact on the film is that of a nuclear weapon. The exceptionally hot Brittany Underwood reveals that she is a much stronger television actress who comes much more into her own with a long-term role. Her take on Jade seems to be that of "submissive lesbian stoner." As Sara, Lexi mails it in, but does so with first-class postage for a script she could easily have performed in her sleep. The best she could give is what she gave: an absence of even minor mistakes. Having seen both Underwood and Lexi on soaps for years, I know what each are capable of. The emotional range she displayed in the scene she turned in on GH when Mac killed Warren could have won film awards. With compelling material, and a competent cast, she'll shine, but this film has neither.Ideally, a world-class actress should be able to sit and wait for that killer script, but in the real world the bills have to be paid, and films like this have their place in the profitable true-crime niche, where the confines of the story tend to suffocate an actor's ability to take over a film. Rarely has this been made more apparent to me than here.

Very good film where a girl moves into a town with her welfare collecting mother who is always drunk. The girl is manipulative, vicious and quite disturbed at that.She soon becomes friends with two other girls from their local high school. Jealous of their friendship, she turns one girl against the other and lures one of the girls to her death and then makes sure to make it appear that the friend was the killer.Amazing that the alcoholic mother soon woke up and realized what was going on as well as the victim's mother. The film also shows how the mother of the dead girl never believed that her daughter's friend from grade 6 was the killer.Film proves that there has to be more of a trusting relationship among parents and their children. After all, the murder victim was good, but upset with the thought of her father being transferred and moving to another state. Our murderer came from a dysfunctional house but took advantage of the situation to rule over her mother at will. The framed girl came from a home where the father was moving in with his girlfriend and the mother was non-existent.