Vanessa Redlynn

**Vanessa Redlynn**, born **Amanda Redlynn** (Jessica Lowndes), is the main villainess of the 2012 Lifetime film *A Mother's Nightmare* and its 2018 sequel *A Father's Nightmare*.

## Backstory

Amanda is the daughter of Zofia Redlynn and Matt Carmichael; when she was very young, her maternal grandmother abducted her out of pure spite, only for Zofia to regain her and then rename her Vanessa. Even so, Vanessa's mother succumbed to intense anger and frustration she was feeling over having to raise her as a single parent—driving Zofia to plot a murder-suicide which was meant to have her kill her daughter and then herself. Before she could do so, Vanessa was rescued and placed into foster care.

Believing that Zofia successfully committed suicide and that she was abandoned by Matt, she bounced around various foster homes, gaining a habit of cutting herself. Vanessa eventually grew up to be a deranged manipulator who targeted her athletic peers. Her modus operandi was influencing them into first using drugs, doing various other things they would usually not do, and then killing themselves.

## *A Mother's Nightmare*

The opening scene of *A Mother's Nightmare* (airdate September 29, 2012) had her attempting to attend the funeral of her second victim—a 16-year-old guy. She only managed to feign tears and deceitfully claim that she loved him before she was forced to leave, after which she enrolled at Fairview Heights High School and gained the attention of track athlete Christopher "Chris" Stewart, whom she charmed rapidly. However, the first official sign of her deranged villainy came in the form of her threatening Chris' vindictive ex-girlfriend Cheryl into staying away from him. Seducing her latest target into becoming her newest boyfriend, she then revealed her troubled past to him, including her history of self-harm. His relationship with her came to involve him skipping his classes and track practices, which concerned Chris' mother Maddie; confronting her son along with his father (and her ex-husband) Steve, they convinced him to try to end things with Vanessa.

However, in response, Vanessa plotted revenge against Chris by befriending Cheryl and cheating on him with his rival Jake. After that, she called Chris during an alleged breakdown, prompting him to rush over to the pet store where she worked. The unstable 17-year-old girl got him drunk and then prepared to have sex with him once again, only for Maddie to burst in and force Vanessa to allow for her to take her son home. After that, Vanessa accused Chris of raping her, turning his peers against him; he was also left in crutches in the aftermath of a gang attacking him, presumably under Vanessa's orders. In spite of all her twisted deeds, Chris called his girlfriend on Skype, with the latter manipulating the former into believing he *was* in fact her drunk rapist before arranging for them to meet up at an isolated park.

The film's climax had Maddie finding out more about the depths of Vanessa's true personality, with the villainess bringing a metal box along with her and meeting up with Chris just as they planned. Giving him a drink that she laced with phencyclidine, she watched as she began to feel the drug's effects, which was followed by her goading him into cutting his left wrist; the result was him losing so much blood that he passed out. Intending to leave Chris behind to die, she claimed to him that he was just like the other men in her life—more likely than not alluding to her father. Before she could complete her plan, Maddie arrived and found her bleeding son, pushing his ex-girlfriend aside to tend to him.

Figuring she now knew the truth, Vanessa attacked Chris' mother, resulting in a brawl that ended with Maddie hitting her with the aforementioned box and choking her out of anger. The police arrived at the scene and stopped her before arresting the delusional teenager. The ending displayed Chris as having ultimately survived while Vanessa was institutionalized; she was last seen in the process of attempting to seduce a young male nurse by talking to him about her past like she did with her ex-boyfriend.

## *A Father's Nightmare*

After spending over five years at the mental hospital, the events of *A Father's Nightmare* (airdate July 22, 2018) had Vanessa—who was around 22 years old—being released from the facility. However, she remained as crazed as ever, having found out about her father's identity and the fact that he had another daughter, Lisa Carmichael, with another woman who he went on to be married to until she died from cancer. With that in mind, Vanessa began her plan to exact revenge against her father by enrolling herself at Southwestern Washington University (where Lisa was a freshman living on campus) and maneuvered Jim—who was in charge of assigning roommates and other things—into having her become Lisa's roommate.

After befriending Lisa, Vanessa convinced her that Katie (Lisa's intended roommate and a high school friend of hers) and Sasha, two of her fellow gymnasts, were secretly talking badly about her behind her back; she even went as far as to convince the freshman to end her friendship with Katie. The supposed revelations caused Lisa to have a bad performance on the mat, with Vanessa tightening her stranglehold over her by influencing her into taking Adderall (a mixture of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine) she obtained from Jim, which initially improved her performances. However, it came at a cost: she relied on other drugs to stay awake and fall asleep, which her twisted roommate and Jim (who Vanessa began a sexual relationship with) willingly provided to her.

All the while, Matt noticed his younger daughter's downward spiral into strange behavior and correctly deduced Vanessa was responsible; he made attempts to tell Lisa the truth, but his words fell on deaf ears. Additionally, Vanessa continuously seduced Jim into extending her stay as Lisa's roommate, with the latest incident including blackmail; she showed him a video of him giving drugs to Lisa. In response, Jim called Vanessa crazy, which she proved to be true by cozying up to him and then "accidentally" sending the video to campus authorities.

Lisa missing her English classes prompted Vanessa to offer to cover for her, only for their English teacher to fail both of them for submitting similar papers. To make matters worse, the former went into a deep despair after being reported as being a drug user by Katie, meaning that she would have to report for a drug test the next morning. Subsequently, Vanessa gave her roommate vodka spiked with pills and talked her into writing a suicide letter to her father. The film's climax took place the next morning, with the vengeful criminal walking Lisa to a tightrope linking two trees near campus that she had walked on earlier. Vanessa tied one end of an extra rope she brought with her around her half-sister's neck, after she which tied its other end around one of the aforementioned trees; filming her handiwork with a camera, her intention was to murder Lisa, stage her death as a suicide, and then send the video to their father in order to make him emotionally suffer.

Matt arrived at the scene, with the psychotic woman's response being to threaten to kill Lisa in front of him; when he pleaded for his daughter, Vanessa reminded him that she was *also* his daughter. Matt completed his reveal as Vanessa's father by calling her Amanda, with Zofia and Laney (Lisa's high school gymnastics teacher) appearing as well. Confirming that she was the mother of Amanda/Vanessa, Zofia sincerely and tearfully expressed remorse for her past villainy. The police then arrived and arrested the villainess for her latest crime spree; she was then put in a mental hospital once again. In the film's final scene, she was shown cowering in a corner of said hospital and eagerly accepting a letter from Matt which stated that he hoped that not only did she get better, but that he also wanted to reconcile with her.

## Alternate Endings

When *A Father's Nightmare* was aired again on July 27, 2018, two alternate endings were shown. The first alternate ending featured the reveal of Matt and Zofia as Vanessa's parents playing out the same way as it did in the official ending; however, Laney was not present. Having been separated from her mother for most of her life, Vanessa embraced Zofia and broke down into tears as the latter sang "Love Me Til You Die," which the former sang as an anthem to her psychotic deeds; this implied that when Vanessa was very young, Zofia sang the song to her as a lullaby. Additionally, Vanessa was arrested and institutionalized, with the only difference being that Matt visited his older daughter, much to her pleasure.

The second alternate ending had Matt being the only person to confront Vanessa; moreover, he had to save Lisa's life after she slipped from the tightrope just as her unstable half-sister intended for her to do and came close to dying. As that happened, the villainous schemer made her escape, after which Zofia and Laney arrived at the scene; the former asked her ex-boyfriend where their daughter was. The last scene of this ending revealed that Amanda/Vanessa had fled to a different city in the United States.

## Trivia

* In the nearly six-year time period between the two films, Jessica also portrayed Bridgette Gibson/Joni Mathers in the 2015 Lifetime film *A Deadly Adoption*.