'Ruthless Realtor' Review: A classic tale of delinquency that commands attention despite its predictable twist
Spoilers for 'Ruthless Realtor'
Lifetime’s movie ‘Ruthless Realtor’ is like a dream that turned into a nightmare. The crime thriller will leave you with a gut-wrenching feeling right from the first scene. It revolves around a couple in which Annie Savage is a lawyer (Lily Ann Harrison) and Ralph Savage is a photographer (Brian Ames). They are lured by an isolated house being sold by real estate agent Meg Atkins (Christie Burson).
The couple opts to buy the property seeing it as their dream home. After the purchase, the delighted couple is all set to start a new phase of life where they are expecting a child. However, what bothers them is the off-kilter and nosy attitude of Meg who just looks for chances to keep a check on them. She tries to get extra cozy with them and invades their privacy by often landing at their house in an uninvited way. This boggles the couple who feels she is interfering too much into their lives. Indeed, there is an air of mystery around the weird attitude of Meg. She is a lonely, middle-aged woman portrayed as always prying on the couple and drawing the viewers' attention.
Meg unnecessarily apologizes to the couple, offers them handmade gifts and even goes to the extent of commemorating Annie’s pregnancy tester. For? Just to befriend them which builds our curiosity over her odd actions. In an awkward camaraderie, she even makes Ralph click her photos and steals the moment to become intimate with him only to be told that Ralph is not thinking anything near to that.
She often trespasses near the couple's house at night and even lands at Annie’s office that further spooks the couple who wants to get rid of her. When Annie and Ralph thrash her saying they want her out of their lives, Meg tries to explain to them that she cares for them and wants to be around making us wonder why so? Anyhow, annoyed by her, Annie calls Lynette who is later revealed as the daughter of a couple named David and Rose who were long back the owners of the house but were reportedly kidnapped when Lynette was 15. Later the house was given to Peter Logan who met a similar end. Lynette, who is introduced to the couple by Meg only in the initial part of the story, tells the couple that Meg got obsessed with past owners and intruded in their lives much like she is doing now. She tells that Meg has a troubled history and has behavioral issues and even been to rehab before.
When Meg does not stop following the couple, they get her arrested. Just as we are having a sigh that the trouble is over, Meg tells Annie in jail that there is a deadly prowler behind them who can be possibly behind the past kidnappings of house owners. However, Annie blames Meg for killing the past owners. What next? Meg escapes prison and a city-wide search takes place with policemen patrolling near Annie and Ralph’s home fearing Meg could attack them. But in the climax, it is finally revealed that it's not Meg who is behind the killings. The couple is taken aback to know the shocking reality much as the viewer is. As the climax unfolds, the film turns out to be a gory tale of crime manifesting greed and lust for material possessions tearing apart personal and family relations.
The story, though tightly woven, lacks a cliffhanger kind of ending as most of the suspense is already revealed in the first scene with the revelation of a deadly prowler. But overall, the layer of mystery around Meg’s mystical character engages the viewer. Indeed, she is the lynchpin in driving the suspense element in a straightforward plot. To sum up, ‘Ruthless Realtor’ is a classic tale of delinquency that commands attention despite its predictable twist.
‘Ruthless Realtor’ is premiering on Sunday, August 23, on Lifetime at 8 pm ET.