The Stranger Beside Me
The Stranger Beside Me
PG-13 | 17 September 1995 (USA)
The Stranger Beside Me Trailers

When Jennifer marries Chris, it seems she can finally let go of her tragic past. But behind the perfect facade lies a violent, possessive dark side--and a past filled with secrets. As she begins to suspect his involvement with a string of rapes, Jennifer sets out to expose the horrifying truth about her husband...before he strikes again.

Reviews
CheerupSilver

Very Cool!!!

... View More
Teringer

An Exercise In Nonsense

... View More
ChampDavSlim

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

... View More
Logan

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

... View More
kapelusznik18

***SPOILERS***Were shown here how the unregulated use of metabolic steroids can turn into spousal as well as, in the case of Patty Yuklich played by Hoilary Swank,child abuse. It's the man of the house decorated undercover policeman Dennis Yaklich,Brad Johnson, a body building freak who went hog wild into pumping himself up on steroids that eventually lead to his demise. His wife Donna, Jaclyn Smith, after taking all she could take from him hired these two mentally challenged, instead of processional Mafia hit-men, neighbors to do her husband in and ended up getting a 20 to 40 years sentence for her effort.Dennis who at first was a perfect gentleman towards Donna later turned into a Frankenstein monster when the steroids, that he took by the handful, took control of his brain. It's also hinted that his first wife who died from an overreaction to her medication was herself murdered by him who, with the help of the local police department, had it covered up. As for Donna here biggest mistake was in hiring these two goof-balls the Greenwell brothers Eddie & Cjharlie,Ramsey Midwood & Jason Kristofer, to do her husband Dennis in. And do it on the cheap, for beer and hamburger money, that made it, Dennis death, a case of premeditated murder not a crime of passion thus having the book thrown at her by the judge.***SPOILERS**** Whatever feeling you have for Donna you have to remember the story or movie is told from her point of view not her husband who's not around to tell it. The guy was an exercise freak but his mind being warped due to the use of steroids and being abusive to Donna and his step daughter Patty is to be taken with a grain of salt. Still Donna going so far as to hire someone to do the guy in instead of just leaving him makes his case, in being innocent, not hers, in being abused by him, that much more believable. That with the fact that Donna's lawyer John Giduck was suspected of having an affair with Donna while at the same time he was defending her for her husband's murder!

... View More
sol

**SPOILERS** You begin to wonder just how true the events that inspired this movie were within the first ten minutes. We get to see this kooky but nice guy wearing a guerrilla suit, when he's first unreduced in the film, Chris Gallagher (Eric Close) making a monkey out of himself as he goes completely ape sh*t over Jenniffer or Jen, Tiffani Thiasen, whom he met at a Memorial Day picnic.Not wasting any time Chris gets in tight with Jen's crippled landlord Dave Morgan, Gerald McRaney, who set both him and Jen's up on a date. Moving at breakneck speed Chris get Jen to quickly fall in love with and then marry him in what looks like less then 24 hours. It's at her wedding reception that Jen's get some disturbing vibes from Chris 17 year-old cousin Dana, ALyson Harrigan, that there's something very screwy about him that has to do with his very overactive libido. That fact about Chris should have been very obvious to Jen from his very strange and unorthodox, to say th least, love making habits!It also turns out that Chris a nut about being in the Navy washes out of the service in his fear of being in an atomic sub for three months at a time without shore leave as well as without his gorgeous wife Jen. What really comes to the surface about the boyish and lovable, when his manic depression doesn't set in, Chris is that he's a triple "A" sickola in his behavior when he comes in contact with beautiful but unsuspecting, in what he has in store for them, women. Chris is not only suspected by the cops of spending his free time, when he's not with his wife Jen, snooping around the neighborhood spying, through their bedroom windows, on women undressing but even at times breaking into their homes and raping them! When these mental aberrations about Chris become known to Jen she's already pregnant with his, and her, child and leaving him isn't an option! Especially when the guy, who's also a hyped up control freak, threatens to murder her if she does. It's hard to take the action that Jen at first does, which is next to nothing, in her knowing that she's living and sleeping with a man who's at least four cans short of a six pack upstairs in his head. When the couples, Jen & Chris, child is born Dana lays it on Jen about how her older cousin Chris molested her as a young girl and what he's now capable of doing to their new born daughter, when she grows out of her diapers, Molly. Meanwhile there's this rapist running around town attacking women at gun point that not only fits the description of Chris but does his "thing", raping and robing women, when Chris is not at work or at home making him, in Jen's mind, the number #1 suspect.With no one believing Jen that her husband is a psycho rapist and can very well graduate to murdering his victims Jen's has no choice but turn him over to the police and let justice, in the fact that he's is the "Woolcap Rapist", decide his fate. Having no evidence to have her sick but very clever, in knowing how to cover his tracks, husband brought to justice Jen plans to catch him in the act and then get the cops to put the pinch on him. That was very brave on Jen's part but the big question is what if her suspicions about Chris are wrong and backfire on her! That would not only break up her marriage but have Chris get custody of Molly with Jen being, by the court, declared an unfit mother! But if in fact Jen is right about Chris how could she not be sure that he'll turn on her, before the cops can come to her rescue, knowing that he's not only a danger to all the young women in town but also to her and her infant daughter Molly as well!

... View More
whpratt1

Gerald McRaney,(Dave Morgan),"War Crimes",'01 TV Series, was like a father to Tiffani Thiessen,(Jennifer Gallagher),"A Kiss Before Lying",'03, who experience a very bad situation in her life and it caused Jennifer to be withdrawn with people and young men. Dave Morgan tries desperately to get her out of the house and manages to introduce Jennifer to Chris (Gallagher) who falls madly in love with her at their very first meeting. In almost one or two dates later, Chris asks Jennifer if she will marry him and she agrees. It is not very long after the Wedding that things start to happen, Chris is in the Navy and does not like working in submarines and things start happening to young gals in the neighborhood. This is a very excellent TV film and it sometimes makes you wonder if the guy or gal I want as a Soul Mate is the Perfect PERSON !

... View More
Nilblogette nilblog.typepad.com/nilblogette

The characters do ridiculous things that no one in real life would ever do, but if it saves me from a boring second act, realism shmealism. This one is about a woman who has been raped, who marries a guy who is peeping tom! (He is also briefly a gorilla.) When he is arrested for peeping, he and Tiffani start keeping a journal together of where he should be every day, to keep him on track so that he won't peep again, but instead he turns into a rapist, as they all do on Lifetime. While I was a little disappointed to lose the unique peeping plot, I was thrilled when he basically kisses her on the cheek and tells her he's dashing out for a jog and a rape. Be back in a jiff, hon! She knows he's the rapist, he knows she knows, and he keeps rubbing her face in it by, for instance, laying his gun and rope on the table in front of her. It got a little dark when Alyson Hannigan confesses that he molested her when she was a kid and warns Tiffani to protect her new-born daughter from him (!), but it was played for suspense instead of misery. Gerald McRaney is quite likable as a paraplegic, and country music singer Lorrie Morgan plays one of the navy-men's wives. If you want a true-story message Lifetime movie, this one won't butter your bread, but if you like 'em fluffy like I do, give this one a shot.

... View More