"The Twisted Son" (a.k.a., "Thicker Than Water") was a well-scripted and well-performed melodrama. If there was a single image that ran through the film, it was fire. And the underlying theme was the destructiveness of fire.
Young Brandon Wilson was reared in an abusive household. At the time, he was known as Christopher. At the age of eight, he torched the family home, killing his parents and sister. Now, years later, we see Brandon casually playing with a cigarette lighter. He has his sights set on a new family, especially a new mother.
Andrea "Lifetime" Roth is outstanding in the role of Paige Decker, the psychologically fragile and grieving mother, who lost her boy Zach to a drug overdose a year ago. Brandon now enters her life as a renter. Consumed by neediness, Brandon will stop at nothing to win the affection of Paige.
For a while, Paige bonds with Brandon. Some of the best scenes are the connections made between the two characters whose lives have intersected at the points when they both are empty and desperate to fill a void in their souls.
One of the most interesting characters was young Addie Decker, the little spitfire of a soccer player, who gets wise to the antics of Brandon from the outset. With the assistance of her friend Kara, Addie is able to research the background of "Christopher" to discover the truth about the "weirdo" border.
Unfortunately, the film's ending was clumsily staged in the fight choreography as the ghoulish grand finale unfolded around the outdoor barbeque. But the filmmakers remained true to the major visual image that conveys the simple moral lesson: Don't play with fire!
Plot summary
It has been a year since Paige and Nathan Decker tragically lost their teenage son Zach to an overdose. Nathan and daughter Addie have slowly been putting their lives back together. Paige, however, just can't seem to let go. She is still consumed by grief, withdrawn, and unable to work. In order to supplement Paige's lost income, the family decides to rent out their spare bedroom. Surprisingly, life starts to look up for Paige once their charming new tenant, Brandon Wilson, enters the picture. A student at the local university, Brandon eerily resembles everything that Zach stood for in the family, and he brings Paige out of her shell. At first, Nathan and Addie are thrilled to see Paige acting more like her old self, but as Brandon insinuates himself further into the family, they start to see a darker, and more dangerous side of their tenant. Soon, Addie uncovers a secret about Brandon that is about to shake the Deckers to their core. Can a family in crisis hold themselves together in the face of an evil genius?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Playing With Fire
Zippos don't kill people, people kill people.
Nathan (Tygh Runyan ) and Paige (Andrea Roth ) lost their college age son a year ago to an overdose. Nathan and their daughter Addie (Katie Douglas) have moved on while Paige, a lawyer still needs time off. Without her income they take in a border, Brandon who has a heavy creep factor and a past.
This is a made for TV film that will give you deja-vu for every other TV film. Not terribly bad unless you paid for it.
Below average
Thriller of this kind with story is good attempt but I think it is hard to met audience appetites and this kind of horror just too not horror.