Advance Review: Iris Johansen’s THE KILLING GAME

Based on [easyazon-link asin=”0553581554″]the book[/easyazon-link] by New York Times best-selling author Iris Johansen, The Killing Game is a murder mystery set around the dark world of a serial murderer whose helpless victims were children.

This made-for-TV movie set to debut on the Lifetime Movie Network at 9 PM on Sunday, October 30 stars Laura Prepon (That 70’s Show and October Road) as Eve Duncan, a forensic sculptor and mother of Bonnie, one of the young victims of the serial murderer.

As the movie opens, Eve is seen in a prison speaking to the murderer who is now on death row, mere hours away from his execution. In the hopes of finding out where her daughter is buried, she begs Robert Frazier to tell her what he did with Bonnie. As you can guess, she leaves the prison without the location of her daughter’s gravesite.

The time line then jumps ten years later and then the real story begins. Her long-time friend, Detective Joe Quinn (portrayed by actor Ty Olsson of Men in Trees and Defying Gravity), pulls her into a case of numerous bodies found buried near a lake that could be linked to Frazier.

Without giving too much of the plot of the movie away, suffice it to say, Eve is drawn into this case, working to identify the children who were found, in the hopes it may lead to more answers about her daughter.

What makes this case even more difficult for Eve are the mysterious phone calls she begins to receive from a man calling himself Dom who has too much knowledge about her daughter’s disappearance and death – information that was never released to the press and only the now dead serial killer, Frazier, could have known: unless he had a partner.

As Eve and Joe work together to protect a young girl in foster care who seems to be Dom’s next victim of choice, they learn more about Bonnie’s death and the twisted mind of this newly revealed serial killer who may have been hiding in plain sight.

This telefilm moves along at a steady pace with a slight 24-like picture-frame style to it and while some of the acting is a little bit stilted at times, the viewer will begin to care about the little girl, Jane (played by young actress Jamie Bloch), whom Eve is protecting and will easily get caught up in the cat-and-mouse game played out by Dom.

Fans of Eureka should note they will have a moment of “Hey, it’s Deputy Andy” because not only, as mentioned earlier, is actor Ty Olsson in this movie but so is actor Kavan Smith (from Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis), playing a local newspaper reporter who helps Eve. Both actors have played Deputy Andy in the fan favorite Syfy series.

Other actors appearing in the telefilm are actress Teryl Rothery (from Kyle XY and Stargate SG1),who plays Sara, a friend of Eve’s who performs search and retrieval with her cadaver dog; actor Brian Markinson (from Caprica and The Killing), who plays FBI Agent Spiro, the lead investigator in the case and actress-singer Naomi Judd, who plays Eve’s mother.

The Killing Game debuts Sunday, October 30 on the Lifetime Movie Network at 9 PM.