Twisted Desire
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Jennifer Stanton (Hart) is a rebellious teen who constantly argues with her parents. She feels that they are overly protective of her and that they are exceedingly strict. Her father William (Baldwin) disapproves of her clothes and friends. William's aggressive attitude has a negative impact upon his daughter's relationship with Brad (Lascher), the captain of the high school football team. When Jennifer tells Brad that she is unable to attend a concert with him because her father refused to give her permission, Brad decides to break up with her. He feels that William is exerting too much control over the relationship. Although Jennifer is shocked, the fact that Brad chooses to display interest in another girl at school makes her feel even more frustrated.
After meeting Nick Ryan (Jordan) at a gas station, they soon form a close relationship and begin going out with one another. Nick is infamous in his neighborhood for having spent time in jail on an assault charge. When Jennifer's parents decide to spend a weekend away from the house, Jennifer uses this as an opportunity to get closer to Nick. Her parents decide to return early and she is caught in her parents' bed with Nick. William is unable to contain his fury, threatens Nick and chases him out of the house. She claims she loves Nick and decides to see him secretly. She applies makeup to her own eye to make it appear bruised. When Nick notices her "black eye", he expresses concern and asks Jennifer to stay with him. Although she refuses, she is touched by Nick's concern. Back at home, Jennifer is caught by her mother, who is disgusted by the fact that her daughter had sex in the parents' bed. Jennifer's mother tells Jennifer that she will no longer protect her from her father, nor take her side.
Nick visits Jennifer's house, and states that he loves her. He also warns William not to treat Jennifer in such a harsh manner. William is shocked by Nick's audacious behavior and threatens to sue him for statutory rape. The next morning, William is shocked to find his car vandalized. A furious William contacts the police and Nick is soon questioned. He, however, claims he didn't have anything to do with the damage. Jennifer overhears her father saying he is determined to get Nick behind bars. Fearing her father, she tells Nick they can't sneak around any longer. She convinces him to use his grandfather's pistol to shoot and kill William. While he is planning the murder, she goes back to her normal life. She tells her friends that she broke up with Nick. She also presents herself to her parents as someone who has changed and wishes to embark upon a more truthful life. On the night of the murder as Jennifer and Nick walk towards Jennifers' parents bedroom, Nick changes his mind and is adamant that he is unable to go through with the murders. Jennifer vehemently encourages him to complete the task he promised to perform.
After the killing, Jennifer is sent to live with her grandparents, and the police presume the murder was motivated by a robbery. Nick becomes the prime suspect and is constantly harassed by the police. Jennifer rekindles her relationship with Brad. She calls the police anonymously with information that leads to the discovery of the murder weapon implicating Nick. The police think, with Nick in custody, that the case is now closed. However, Detective Daniels (Eric Laneuville) suspects that Jennifer is more involved in the case that she led the police to believe when she was being questioned. Upon confronting her, she claims that Nick was angry at Jennifer's parents for not letting him see her, thereby giving an explanation of what might have motivated Nick to commit the murders. Meanwhile, Jennifer's best friend Karen (Sisto) finds her diary, in which she admits her involvement and that she used Nick to get her parents out of the way so she could have Brad.
Karen decides to visit Nick in jail, trying to convince him that Jennifer set him up. He later talks to Jennifer about it, but she gets mad at him, blaming him entirely for the murder. Upset, he admits to the police that he killed her parents, but that it was Jennifer's idea. Not much later, the police claim her diary, but she has rewritten it in the meantime, preventing an arrest. Frustrated about the injustice, Karen sneaks into Jennifer's house to collect evidence, but she is almost caught. Meanwhile, a trial against Nick has started. Jennifer gives false testimony, claiming that Nick harassed her. Karen is determined to stop her, but Jennifer threatens to give false proof that she was also involved with the murder. Eventually, Brad manipulates her into admitting that she is responsible for the murder. Having recorded their conversation, she is soon arrested for murder. In the end, it is announced that she was tried as a juvenile, and would be released from prison at age 21.

Review: (hey there has to be some down time in the hotel, right?) I was initially surprised to see Melissa Joan Hart in any feature length film on TNT.
Melissa plays her role as the psychotic Jennifer excellently.
The supporting cast (Nick, the ex-con boyfriend; Karen, her best friend; and her life-controlling parents) all added a great degree of believability.
The twist at the end was a nice closure to this tale of the girl who always seemed to be one step ahead of everybody.If you get a chance, check it out!.
Based on a " true story " the script is far better and involving than something like MURDER BETWEEN FRIENDS as Jennifer Stanton manipulates boyfriend Nick Ryan into murdering her parents .
The REAL story involved a girl and her boyfriend, and how they plotted together to kill her parents.
The girl and her boyfriend had both ended up in prison and served time, but her boyfriend was eventually executed.
I personally don't like it when "true crime" books TV shows and movies change the facts.
This movie does not give you the real story.
Besides, Melissa Joan Hart's acting was just awful..
First of all it was fun seeing the star of angsty-but-nice teen programmes "Clarissa" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" playing a MURDEROUS PSYCHOPATH!!!!
I'm not awfully sure if she was completely suited to this role, but maybe I was just biased after being used to the full extent of Melissa-Joan Hart's evil being a proclamation of "Ferguson you dork!" followed by an imaginary dream sequence in which she's the President and he's not.
Or something.Back to the movie itself, apart from the fact that the plot twists tended to stand on the not-to-distant horizon wearing flashing signs that read "I AM A PLOT TWIST", the course of events at least made sense and actually turned out to be rather credible.
To his credit, the bloke playing her father almost made me want to murder him myself, especially when he showed up to the party and dragged her off before she could make it with that guy.
He was annoying, over-bearing and probably the father from hell (for an American teenage girl).I won't give away any more of the plot in case Melissa-Joan's many adoring fans want to watch this film without knowing what's going to happen; though I challenge anyone not to work the whole thing out by about 15 minutes into the movie!Overall, I saw the beginning, kept watching and didn't switch it off.
I have to say that this TV movie was the work that really showed how talented Melissa Joan Hart is.
We are so used to, now, seeing her in a sitcom and I really hope that a TV station will show this TV movie again soon as it will show the Sabrina fans that MJH shines in a drama.
Seen as we have watched her on Sabrina now for now 5 years and so to give the viewers a taste of her much unused talent would be a plus.
Melissa plays her role so well in this wanting her parents "done away" with so she can be with the guy she loves.
One thing that all Sabrina viewers will notice, Melissa works with David Lascher in this, well before he took the role of Josh on Sabrina.
Hopefully MJH gets some good roles in movies or even in more TV Movies, sort of like Kellie Martin who has always shined in TV Movies.
Lots of unused talent waiting to bust out when it comes to Melissa Joan Hart, you shine always Melissa!!!.
I thought this movie was exciting because it was a true story.
hi, im scott (A.K.A woody7739)  i Love the film Twisted Desire, And i love watching Melissa Joan Hart on the t.v as i think she is fine.
I am a real fan of sabrina the teenage witch too, so this helped my watch it (don't ask).
i love the way that nicole plans out her parents murder very carfully, as she makes sure that someone else pulls the trigger and practices on the bottles, so she wont give away her fingerprints (a very well planned out idea), back i guess it all backfired on nicole as she got caught as her old boyfriend comes along and puts a hidden camera under his shirt.
I caught this movie from the murder-scene and watched it from there.
Looking back, I miss that hour and a half of my life.The acting is pretty bad.
Melissa Joan Hart (who I really liked in "Clarissa Explains It All" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch") was insanely horrible in this.
Besides MJH, the rest of the acting was pretty atrocious also (especially by the kid who pulled the trigger, the guy who played Nick).
I have seen it & i like it Melissa plays her part well.
My brother in law saw it with my sister & i and when i mentioned to my sister that i forgot it was based on a true story (i had seen it a few years ago.) he said just because its on lifetime you think its true & both my sister & i were like it was so anyway i was wondering if anyone knew what murder it was or like who was really involved was because i want to prove it to him.
I love lifetime movies especially the ones that are true, or just the ones that teach a good lesson.
I watched this movie not to long ago.
I am a Melissa Joan Hart fan.
Twisted Desire is the second best movie ever.
I like the movie.
Melissa Joan Hart is a good actress.
I've seen most of her movies but all of Jeremy Jordan's.
The thing i dislike about Twisted Desire is when "Nick" gets arrested and "Jennifer" rats him out.
Twisted Desire is my second favorite movie.
It's really great to see MJH in a different role than her Sabrina character!
This is a mediocre, made-for-TV diversion, in which Melissa Joan Hart is miscast as an evil, psychopathic teen.
Her engaging and charismatic personality is much better suited to her ironic role as Sabrina, the teenaged witch, on ABC Friday nights, although at twenty-three she should be getting her PhD instead of playing a high school girl, witch or otherwise.
However, by the time Lyne got around to casting for his film, she was way past sweet sixteen, and much more a young woman than a nymphet.Had they shown her smashing that car window with a baseball bat, I might have believed this movie a little.
I had the sense that her mother was watching every detail of the production and didn't want Melissa to look bad, even though the character she was portraying was very bad indeed.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
There have been many, many TV movies about amoral, angry teenagers who lash out and kill their boyfriend's girlfriend, their parents, whatever.
Unfortunately, these films are usually based on true stories.
I'm not sure of the actual facts of the case, but in the way this story is told, the Melissa Joan Hart character is being totally suffocated by a too-strict father.
She's interested in one guy but makes another guy (an ex-con) think she's interested in him and then gets him to kill her parents.Melissa Joan Hart is a very good actress, and she portrays the manipulative teen very well.The sad part about this is, the boy who committed the crime, 17 years old at the time of the murders, was executed for this.
The Hart character spent some time in prison and was released when she was 21, though she instigated the murders.
The movie was okay, Though there were still some questions not answered, towards the end in the boys car (movie spoiler sorry) you kind of knew what was going to happen.
I felt really sorry for the guy she had dated, he was deceived even though he pulled the trigger.Towards the end I found out it was based on a true story, Jennifer should be out by now because the movie was made in 96', it said she'd be out by 21 so she's probably 26 by now.
"Jennifer Stanton" (Melissa Joan Hart) is a 17-year old girl who is totally obsessed with her boyfriend, "Brad" (David Lascher).
At the same time, a new guy named "Nick Ryan" (Jeremy Jordan) appears on the scene and shows some interest in Jennifer.
Wanting to get Brad back, Jennifer decides to use Nick to solve all of her problems.
Be that as it may, for a made-for-television movie which was supposedly based on a true story this particular film wasn't too bad.
Twisted Desire (1996) was a TV movie starring Melissa Joan Hart.
Melissa's character, Jennifer Stanton, a seventeen-year-old seduces her current boyfriend Nick Ryan into murdering her two parents.
The movie is based on the 1990 murders of the parents of 14 year old Jessica Wiseman.
Jessica had her 17 year old boyfriend Douglas Christopher Thomas shoot and kill her parents!
When I was flicking through the TV Guide, and came across "Twisted Desire" on the movie section, I read it's description.
Three words caught my eye "Melissa Joan Hart" ...I find her role in "Sabrina: The Teenage Witch" absolutely vile, I hate those kind of programs, so I was just thinking that it was going to be a boring old, love story starring her...Little did I know.It finally started on the television, I had my bucket ready in case I were to puke over it's cheesiness or soppiness, you know what I mean.
At first, you think she's just a nice, ordinary girl who's in love, but has mean parents.
Then when you find out she's manipulated her boyfriend into killing her parents, so she could be with her TRUE love, you're like "Whoa".
She played her role very well in my opinion, I never expected her to be able to act like such a bitch, and voilà, she did it perfectly!
Congrats to her, the movie was very good, I'd definitely watch it again and recommend it to others..
The movie that i am going to review is a little television movie made in 1996 and it starred Melissa Joan Hart and Daniel Baldwin.The main protagonist/antagonist Jennifer Stanton (Hart) is a typical all American teenager who is feeling the pressure of having such a controlling father (Baldwin).
However, when she meets an ex con called Nick Ryan (Jeremy Jordan "Never been kissed") they instantly 'fall' for each other, but Jennifer has a different idea on where to take their relationship.
she manipulates him to kill her parents, to protect their 'love' but she just used him to get rid of her parents so she can be with Brad (David Lascher future 'Sabrina' cast mate for Hart).
Melissa Joan Hart actually really surprised me with her role as an evil manipulator and she carries the movie well by using her friends and Nick so she can literally get away with murder.
I also found it interesting that this film was made and released the same year, Hart, began portrayed Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and this shows she can act in my genres of film and television.Although the film has dated somewhat it stills stands out as some of her best work that involves drama or thriller and i am looking forward to 'Nine Dead' that comes out in November because it shows she can seen as other people that are not called "Clarissa Darling " or Sabrina Spellman"I recommend this film to anyone that is a fan of Melissa Joan Hart or Sabrina.
At the beginning i truly thought her dad did deserve to die and that she was being true to Nick and the windshield thing was him, but it wasn't and how she pinned it on Nick made me want to kill HER.
I'm glad she got caught.That was where i was like "Ha, bitch".It was great.
It made me want to look up the real case, which i found out to be different names, and also a little different in case wise.
It certainly held my attention; I didn't know until the ending that it was based on a true story!
The guy she used to do the dirty deed came out looking like a seriously nice guy who just got his head twisted around by a devious girl; I have to question how true to life that portrayal is.
The movie didn't show us that, and it seemed a bit too convenient absent the explanation of how they were persuaded to do it.I think the way they handled that was done for dramatic purposes, as the omission of the explanation lent an aura of suspense to the crucial scene which otherwise wouldn't have been there (we would already have known what the scene was about, and what was going on with Brad in it).Otherwise, this is a pretty good film; I give it 7/10.
Now I'm interested to find out the facts of the real case.One more thing: the movie was done in 1996.
Some of the reviews here seem to be treating it as a more recent movie.P.S. Meadow Sisto is lovely.
Okay i will comment on a couple of things: I love how this is based upon a true story but still isn't totally boring us and adding some spice that isn't all the way true(spoiler) I would have to say i felt bad for nick because he truly loved her.
Okay i will comment on a couple of things: I love how this is based upon a true story but still isn't totally boring us and adding some spice that isn't all the way true(spoiler) I would have to say i felt bad for nick because he truly loved her.
At the beginning i truly thought her dad did deserve to die and that she was being true to Nick and the windshield thing was him, but truly it wasn't and how she pinned it on Nick made me want to kill her.
Jordan i think........is hotter then hell and i cant wait to see more movies with him, OUCH!
Jordan i think........is hotter then hell and i cant wait to see more movies with him, OUCH!
:) Melissa is better being the good guy, but seeing her bad was awesome.
:) Melissa is better being the good guy, but seeing her bad was awesome.
The girl was 14( i thought in the movie she was older) and the guy 17, different names, and also that she got out at 21........even though many heard her confess after.
The girl was 14( i thought in the movie she was older) and the guy 17, different names, and also that she got out at 21........even though many heard her confess after.
I think its real dumb how people can laugh and say its OK to murder your own parents.
I think Melissa Joan Hart did a good job with the acting but the movie had a bad plot, bad acting job and the parents weren't even believable.
The ending was so predictable, Daughter's boyfriend offs the parents and they are arrested, how predictable could that be?
The guy who played her boyfriend in the beginning was a total jerk and he was naive.
He thought that Melissa was innocent and wouldn't go to such lengths just to be free of her parents well he was wrong and the phony balogna act she put on was as phony As the day is long.
I don't know how people could watch this movie and praise it.
There is no connection between the children and the parents, total hog wash and what made them think that killing the parents would end their problem?
Jennifer Stanton(Joan Hart) is initially what can be best described as a modern high school girl in hyperdrive.
Jennifer is in love with a jock named Brad.
At about this time, she starts to date a guy(Nick) that she can fashion into her tool; he's not Brad and so he's very expendable.
The guy stands up to Jennifer's dad, as if a married couple.
Obviously, Jennifer trashes her daddy's car(unseen) to make it look like Nick had done it.
He kills her parents the only thing in the way of her and Brad being together.Jennifer goes to stay with her grandparents.
The cops find evidence that she made sure they'd find(examples: watch, reports of his trashed car, gun, etc.) and arrest Nick.
Her best friend, Karen(having a minor role until the last half of the movie), finds a diary that very coldly outlines Jennifer and Nick's murdering of her parents--as if it were a comedy.
Jennifer goes in and does damage control with the still disillusioned Nick.
I won't spoil the end, but it is very possible from what you know about the story..
Some films are so bad that they're good.
Based on a true story, this film was about as true to the story as Pinocchio's chances of becoming a real boy.
It was as if the director just wanted to get it over and done with and go home.Nor did Melissa Joan Hart ever strike me as a talented actress, but then every film she made was pretty low-budget anyway.
Like most of her other films, she lets down her characters by hamming them up too much, talking too quickly as if speeding up her words is going to make her more dramatic.
It pretty much lets down the whole film, and any leg that it may have had left to stand on, is ruined.Probably the only good thing about the film is when she got nailed in the end.