Stoshie

"Girl in the Basement" was already taken, having been the title of another movie shown on Lifetime. So I guess they had to fudge the title of this movie a bit, even though a closet only plays a small part in the movie, while most of the action takes place in a basement.

As for the movie itself, it is just another typical formulaic "girl(s) held captive" movie. There is nothing exceptional about this one.

I do kind of wish they would stop with the "based on real-life events" notations for these movies, though. These movies are so fictionalized that they bear little to no resemblance to the "real-life" stories they are based on.

I'm pretty sure I saw this when it was first broadcast on Lifetime. But there were references to scenes that were not shown. That is not normal for any kind of movie, though Lifetime does sometimes cut scenes from movies on subsequent airings. Just not as obviously as was done here.

At one point "Joanna" says she accidentally dropped the stepmother's urn; that is never shown. Then she says the family had an uncomfortable dinner that night. That was not shown either. I even went back and scanned the movie on my DVR to see if I missed those scenes. Nope; they weren't there.

This was a Tubi original movie; maybe those scenes were cut for broadcast on Lifetime to fit the time requirements. If so, they should have been more careful with the continuity when choosing what to cut.

As for the movie itself, we've seen it all before. It is one of the formulas Lifetime (and I guess Tubi) uses often. A long-lost daughter or son appears, ingratiates themselves into their new family, and then tries to disrupt the family they just joined for one reason or another. Details may differ, but the premise is basically the same. Even the twist at the end, while unexpected, is not surprising. This has been done before, too.

So, if you are looking for something original, you won't find it here. But then, if you are looking for something original, you wouldn't be watching a movie on Lifetime, would you?

I did record the sequel, "The Stepdaughter 2", and I will watch it. My expectations will be low, and I'm sure the movie will match my expectations. Which begs the question, why do I watch these movies?

This isn't a terrible movie, but it isn't going to become a classic kid-oriented horror movie. All I could think of while watching this was that the writers were trying to create a Stephen King or Steven Spielberg style of story, and failing. Especially King; the setting, the characters, the plot, were all very derivative of his writing.

Of course, kids seeing this won't recognize those obvious influences, so will enjoy the movie. But I doubt if it's one that they will want to see more than once.