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Lifetime Review: 'Dead at 17'

Teens, wealth, and murder mix into a dangerous combo in this Lifetime thriller that spawned a beloved series.

By Trevor WellsPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Having recently found out he was rejected from his dream college, 17-year-old Jason Harris (Matthew Raudsepp) turns to his best friends to get him out of his slump: wealthy siblings Cody and Gabe Masterson (John Bregar and Justin Bradley) and Ty (Kyle Switzer). While partying together, Cody surprised his friends by hiring stripper Becca (Ashley Jones) to entertain them. The party goes pretty well—until Cody demands Becca provide something more than sexy strip teases, a demand that Becca adamantly refutes is part of her job.

Enraged at being rejected, however, Cody fought Becca and sent her falling down the stairs to her death. Despite Jason's shock at Becca's demise, he and Ty are pressured by Cody and Gabe to help them cover up Becca's death to protect their futures. As the guilt eats away at Jason, however, Cody and Gabe decide to kill him in a desperate move to keep their secret hidden. While Jason's death is ruled a suicide, his mother Alyssa (Barbara Niven) begins to suspect there's more to her son's death than meets the eye, and works with her daughter Danni (Dani Kind) to uncover the truth—and bring her son's killers to justice, no matter the risk.

With the recent release of Murdered at 17, I thought it would be fun to go back a few years and see how far Lifetime's "At 17" has come throughout the years. Now, I'm not sure whether or not Christine Conradt or anyone else involved in Dead at 17 knew it would be the first film in a series, but as a stand-alone film, it's a fairly solid feature. The plot is far more unique than one would expect from a movie-of-the-week channel, and the story unfolds organically while leaving the audience wondering how things will play out.

Casting is also strong, with Dead at 17 starring several actors familiar with Lifetime. Barbara Niven and Dani Kind play well off each other in their mother-daughter relationship, becoming sympathetic characters that are easy to root for. Despite his relatively limited screentime, Matthew Raudsepp also makes a good impression, with his likable demeanor and intense guilt regarding Becca's death and his role in the cover-up making his inevitable murder at the hands of his "friends" (who he still trusted despite their actions) all the more tragic. Linden Ashby and Sophie Gendron also appear as Cody and Gabe's father and stepmother, giving frustratingly realistic portrayals of people willing to do anything to protect their life of leisure and privilege.

An overarching theme of Dead at 17, it appears, is the perils of having wealth and power, and how some who possess it feel it entitles them to get anything they want. Cody is the strongest example of this, as he pushes Becca down the stairs and kick starts the film's conflict by expecting her to concede to his demands because of his money. Cody (aided by Gabe) further shows his callous disregard for others in his speech that convinces Jason and Ty to reluctantly help him cover up Becca's death, making the completely baseless assumption that she was a prostitute and that her life was worth less than theirs by comparison. Later on, even as he is forced to kill his long time friend to cover his tracks and everything starts to fall apart around him, Cody's main focus is still on himself and how being caught will affect his life and future. It's an all too realistic portrayal of the dark effects of money and prestige, and John Bregar delivers the role with an understated menace that makes Cody an effectively frightening character.

As the beginning of a well-received series of films, Dead at 17 is a fine beginning to a relatively strong series. While its' biggest hurdle is the fact that the film's third act is mostly just a drawn-out "Expose The Truth" sequence, the good casting is more than enough to keep most viewers' attention. Dead at 17 may be the often overlooked beginning of the "At 17" saga, but it is certainly a movie that is worth checking out.

Score: 7 out of 10 strip club business cards.

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About the Creator

Trevor Wells

Aspiring writer and film lover: Lifetime, Hallmark, indie, and anything else that strikes my interest. He/him.

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Twitter: @TrevorWells98

Instagram: @trevorwells_16

Email: [email protected]

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