Copy-cat Serial Killer Movie
As a child Jeannie Joyce (Teri Polo - Domestic Disturbance) suffered the horror of witnessing the serial killer, known only as BPS, murder her mother in order to taunt her father, the detective who was working the case. It not only led to her father driving himself insane trying to catch BPS but also led to Jeannie becoming a detective herself, carrying on his work to catch the man who murdered her mother and destroyed her father. When 30 years after the last murder by BPS Jeannie attends a murder scene she is shocked to see the murder having the same MO as the serial killer. But when another body is found in the woods Jeannie believes that instead of BPS there is a copy-cat who is targeting her, leading to her not only becoming obsessed with the case but alienating her colleagues.
In the word of a movie reviewer we come up with labels to categorize movies from "police procedurals" to "May to December romances". When it comes to the Lifetime movie "Legacy of Fear" we are in the "serial killer" group and this one doesn't really stray far from the same formula as many of those other serial killer movies. As such we have Detective Jeannie Joyce dealing with a copy-cat serial killer who is taunting her and that leads to her becoming obsessed when it comes to capturing him. The one real difference in "Legacy of Fear" is we have history as Jeannie is not only following in her father's footsteps with a serial killer to deal with but she also witnessed the killer murder her own mother.
What this actually means is that the majority of "Legacy of Fear" is us wondering whether one of Jeannie's friends is behind the murders and as such trying to guess who it might be. But truth is it is not enough and it almost feels like the makers of "Legacy of Fear" knew this as we have needless scenes of nudity thrown in to try and spice things up but in doing so coming across as desperate. And to be honest even the talented Teri Polo can't make this anymore than just typical as she plays Jeannie as quite a generic detective who is driven by her obsession to catch the killer but more importantly to get some sort of closure on her mother's murder.
What this all boils down to is that "Legacy of Fear" is simply a routine made for TV serial killer thriller which in order to try and spice things up relies on some needless nudity.
