Accused at 17
| Accused at 17 | |
|---|---|
| Written by |
Ken Sanders Christine Conradt |
| Directed by | Doug Campbell |
| Starring |
Cynthia Gibb Nicole Gale Anderson Janet Montgomery Stella Maeve William R. Moses Barbara Niven Lindsay Taylor |
| Theme music composer |
Michael Burns Steve Gurevitch |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Robert Ballo Michael Burns Christine Conradt Steve Gurevitch Ken Sanders |
| Editor(s) | Keith Croket |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Distributor | Lifetime Network |
| Release | |
| Original network | Lifetime Network |
| Original release | May 1, 2010 |
Accused at 17 is a 2010 American television crime drama film directed by Doug Campbell and written by Ken Sanders and Christine Conradt. It stars Nicole Gale Anderson, Cynthia Gibb, Janet Montgomery, Barbara Niven, and William R. Moses. The film was released on May 1, 2010.
Plot
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Miller (Nicole Gale Anderson) has just found out that her boyfriend cheated on her with Dory Holland. Her friends Fallyn Werner (Janet Montgomery) and Sarah Patterson (Stella Maeve) suggest that the three of them teach Dory a lesson. Fallyn and Sarah go to Dory's house and claim they want to take her to a party with college boys and she agrees to come with them. However, the girls drive Dory to a remote location, where she and Bianca get into a fight. Later on, Bianca gets in her car and leaves. Fallyn and Sarah threaten Dory by saying they will make her life a living hell if she tells anyone what they did. As they are walking away from her, Dory throws a rock that hits Fallyn's back. Enraged, Fallyn leaps at Dory and attacks her, killing her in the process by smashing her head with a rock. Horrified, Sarah tries to call 9-1-1 but Fallyn stops her, saying she will take care of it and that everything will be okay.
The next day, Dory is absent at school. Fallyn convinces Sarah to keep the murder a secret and not to tell Bianca what happened. Others, including Bianca, start worrying about Dory's disappearance. Two hikers eventually find her dead body. Bianca's mother, Jacqui (Cynthia Gibb) hears a news report on her car radio about Dory's body being found and comes home and reveals to Bianca that Dory is dead. Bianca is horrified and wants to go to the police. She tells Jacqui, the details of the prank, but Jacqui refuses to believe that Bianca had anything to do with Dory's death. Jacqui and Bianca meet with Claire, Michael and Fallyn, saying that the girls need to go to the police and confess to the prank. Claire lies and says that Fallyn and Sarah were with her at home the day of the murder. It is assumed that Fallyn got her mother to lie for her, to help Fallyn cover the whole thing up. When Bianca calls her a liar, Claire demands that they leave. When Bianca turns to Sarah, Sarah also denies involvement and says she was at Fallyn's and hangs up on Bianca.
Fallyn is afraid that if Bianca goes to the police, she will be implicated in the murder of Dory. Fallyn chooses to frame Bianca by planting Dory's hairclip in Bianca's car. Police arrive at Jacqui's home with a search warrant. During their search they locate the hairclip in the back seat of Bianca's car, and Bianca is arrested.
Claire has told Rita that Jacqui and Bianca had accused Fallyn for Dory's murder and that they will accuse Sarah, as well. When Jacqui tries speaking to Sarah about what really happened, Rita forbids her from contacting Sarah. Jacqui leaves a note in Sarah's car with her phone number urging Sarah to call her. Fallyn, who is supposed to be on her way to tennis practice, sees Sarah when she finds and reads the note. Sarah drives home, unaware that Fallyn is following her. When Sarah arrives home, she calls Jacqui and they talk, with Sarah eventually admitting that Fallyn murdered Dory and that Bianca wasn't involved. Sarah gets cut off when Fallyn appears behind her and so Sarah screams in shock and horror. Fallyn then angrily accuses Sarah of dooming them both. She demands that Sarah tell her what she told Jacqui but Sarah refuses. She chases Sarah around the house until Sarah collapses in the yard from exhaustion. Sarah pulls out her inhaler, but Fallyn prevents her from using it, by pumping the medication out of it, and putting it way out of Sarah's reach.
Jacqui arrives at Sarah's house to check on her and finds Sarah lying on the patio. At the hospital, it is revealed that Sarah has died and Rita blames Jacqui for her daughter's death. Jacqui later voices her suspicions about Fallyn to Chad, Bianca's boyfriend and Coach Tennyson's assistant, when she stops by to ask him if Fallyn showed up at tennis practice the day before. Chad tells her that Fallyn never showed. Jacqui goes home and calls Fallyn's father Michael and voices her suspicions about Fallyn to him as well. Michael agrees with Jacqui and begins to suspect his daughter. Fallyn and Claire then enter the house and confront Michael about letting Jacqui in their home. Fallyn asks Claire, 'what's going on?', but Claire tells her she'll take care of it. Fallyn angrily accuses Michael of plotting against her, suggesting to him that Jacqui murdered Sarah because she was the one who found her. However, Jacqui sets a trap and Fallyn falls into it; she hadn't mentioned to Fallyn that she had found Sarah on the patio.
Thus, Fallyn is revealed as the murderer of both Dory and Sarah, much to both Michael and Claire's shock. Michael calls the cops, but at that point Fallyn reaches for a gun, and threatens to shoot him, stating that her own father wants her to go to jail. Eventually, she breaks down and cries in Michael's arms. Admitting that she murdered both Dory and Sarah, Fallyn is arrested and Bianca is freed. Fallyn has most likely been sent to juvie to serve time for both murders. The movie ends with a somewhat happy ending, when Jacqui drives Bianca home from juvie, amongst Bianca being freed. Bianca accepts Trevor as Jacqui's boyfriend, and Bianca goes upstairs to her room and puts on the new star fish ear rings that Trevor gave her as a gift.
Cast
- Cynthia Gibb as Jacqui Miller, Bianca's mother
- Nicole Gale Anderson as Bianca Miller
- Janet Montgomery as Fallyn Werner
- Stella Maeve as Sarah Patterson, Rita's daughter
- William R. Moses as Michael Werner, Fallyn's father
- Barbara Niven as Claire Werner, Fallyn's mother
- Timi Prulhiere as Rita Patterson, Sarah's mother
See also
- Betrayed at 17, a similar drama film