Ariande Conniver (The Serial Killer Seduced Me)

**Ariande Conniver** (Kristi Murdock) is the hidden main villainess from the 2023 Lifetime film, *The Serial Killer Seduced Me* (originally titled, *Picture Her Dead*; airdate August 20, 2023).

## Backstory

Ariande Conniver is a blogger for an art magazine, though her backstory revealed that she actually served as a model for Julian, who painted her portrait. Ariande relished in spending time with Julian, thinking of herself as Julian's muse and developing apparent romantic feelings for him, but after discovering that Julian had been using another model, Diana Marsh, with the same purpose, Ariande became furious with jealousy.

## Heel Turn

    After Julian finished his second portrait, Ariande turned heel by killing Diana, doing so by bludgeoning her to death with a candlestick. As Julian continued his artistic methods, the maniacal villainess continued to stalk and murder the models involved, stabbing Emma Lang to death with a fire place poker, and strangling Sophia Allegra to death with a cello wire, before fatally stabbing Marissa Glass with a hair comb in the film's events. Her main quest was searching for Julian, who had been going by his middle name, Luke, and it included hiding out in a senior care facility and murdering his mother, Lillian, who had Julian's fifth painting before giving it to main protagonist Chloe Cochran, a practicing artist.

The painting ended up displayed in a gallery by Chloe's agent, Chase, with the claim that Chloe painted the portrait, and it was during the gathering that Ariande introduced herself to the pair and attempted to get an interview, only to be brushed off. Following her introduction, Ariande ran down Marissa's husband after he recognized Marissa in the painting, and the film's progression saw Chloe being approached by Luke, leading to a relationship. As for Ariande, she continued to press Chloe for an interview, with one encounter seeing Ariande reveal Chloe's role in taking credit for someone else's painting. After being brushed off by Chloe once again, the evil Ariande bludgeoned Chase to death with a vase, doing so after Chase stole Chloe's keys and attempt to take all the other paintings after Chloe found them.

## Reveal and Arrest

    Chloe later met with Ariande and gave the whole truth about the fraud, while promising another interview later on, only for Ariande to tell Chloe to allow her to make the interview public before she goes with Chloe to the police. The film's climax saw Chloe meet with Luke, only to find a portrait of herself in the house, revealing that Luke was Julian. A confrontation saw Chloe fight off Julian and run off, only to find Ariande, after which Chloe identified Julian as the actual killer. Ariande wanted to go back inside to get the paintings, with Chloe reluctantly following her, only for Julian to appear and state that Chloe was in danger. Chloe stabbed Julian with an arrow, and after Ariande came out from her hiding place, she suddenly pulled out a gun and pointed it at Chloe.

Chloe realized that Ariande was Julian's first model, and it was followed by the insane villainess referring to herself as Julian's muse before revealing that she killed his other models out of deranged jealousy, as well as killing Lillian and Chase in her quest to find Julian. Ariande voiced her plan to kill Chloe and set her up as Julian's last victim, but just as she was about to fire her gun, the villainess ended up knocked out by Julian, and was later arrested for the murders.

## Victims

* Diana Marsh (bludgeoned to death with a candlestick)
* Emma Lang (stabbed with a fireplace poker)
* Sophia Allegra (strangled to death with a cello wire)
* Marissa Glass (stabbed with a hair comb)
* Lillian (smothered to death with a pillow)
* Steven (ran over)
* Chase (bludgeoned to death with a vase)

## Trivia

* This was Kristi Murdock's first villainous Lifetime movie role.