Deadly Daughter Switch (as known as Deadliest Switch) is a 2020 Lifetime Made-for-TV Movie directed by Ben Meyerson.
The story focuses on two mother-daughter pairs: Brooke (Lindsay Hartley) and Hailey (Tu Morrow), from a wealthy family, plus blue collar single mom Alexis (Hannah Barefoot) and Breanne (Jane Widdop). Their lives get thrown into turmoil when it's discovered that the girls, born in the same hospital on the same day 16 years earlier, were inadvertently switched. As the girls spend time with their respective biological families, Alexis, who has a few dark secrets in her life, grows fearful that she's losing both Breanne and Hailey to Brooke and grows increasingly psychotic as a result.
The movie also stars Matt Pohlkamp, Gib Gerard, Eric Callero, Allison Mc Atee, and Austin Trace.
Tropes for the film:
- AB Negative: Hailey not being the biological daughter of Brooke and Carter is discovered because the blood donor card Hailey got at the school blood drive (which she organized to begin with) doesn't list her type as—yes, AB negative, which is also Carter's type and which Brooke thought was Hailey's type, but O Rh positive instead.
- Batman Gambit: Alexis does a hit-and-run on Brooke's assistant Viv, injuring her, on the hope that Brooke will hire her to fill in while Viv recovers. It works.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as Alexis is planning something sinister for Brooke, we learn that John, Hailey's birth father, has been keeping tabs on Alexis, then he warns Hailey and Breanne and they rush off to the rescue.
- Car Fu:
- The prologue shows a young Alexis running over Hailey's biological father with her car after having an argument over them being too young to have a child.
- Alexis does it again when she injures Viv (with flashbacks to the earlier incident).
- Contrived Coincidence: Alexis and Breanne just happen to be watching TV when the news report about the hospital daughter switch happened.
- Disappeared Dad: Hailey thinks that her biological father is dead but it is revealed that he is still alive and shows up towards the end.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: As the movie closes, Brooke has successfully avoided becoming a victim of Alexis and has custody of both the daughter she raised (Hailey) and her biological daughter (Breanne), the girls have formed a close sisterly relationship, Carter survived his gunshot wound, Viv recovered from her hit-and-run, and John is back in Hailey's life.
- Happily Married: Brooke and Carter, in contrast to Alexis and her turbulent relationship with her live-in boyfriend Nick.
- Hollywood Law: In real life, courts would get involved with the accidental switching of the two girls, but the hospital is presented as the one to help determine the situation, on where the girls stay where they are or decide where to live. Then, on top of that, the hospital ultimately decides to let the girls themselves make the choice.
- I'm Not Hungry: Said word-for-word by Hailey at the restaurant after her parents reveal that her blood type doesn't match the one listed on her birth records.
- Manipulative Bitch: Alexis loves to use sob stories about her life to get people to do what she wants for her.
- The Mockbuster: The movie lifts the premise of the series Switched at Birth pretty much wholesale (two 16-year-old girls—one rich, one poor—learn they were switched, after the rich girl finds out her blood type doesn't match her parents), but adds a Thriller element involving the moms to the Teen Drama baseline.
- Rom Com Job: While it's not a RomCom, Brooke being a landscape architect and having a handsome husband is in the ballpark for this.
- Sacrificial Lion: Alexis killing her boyfriend Nick establishes her as evil once and for all.
- Single Tear: Shed by Hailey after the hospital reveals that the DNA test shows she's not the daughter of Brooke and Carter.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: An undercurrent throughout the movie, with the contrasting socioeconomic statuses of blue collar Alexis and white collar Brooke.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Nurse Cameron is never shown onscreen, having passed away a few years before the film's events. But her actions result in Hailey and Breanne getting switched at birth and sets the movie's entire plot in motion
- The Sociopath: Alexis counts. She's a Consummate Liar, she steals money from her co-workers without remorse, and also has a violent streak, going all the way back to trying to murder her boyfriend when she was pregnant.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: Conversational Troping, as Hailey is embarrassed for using the word "totes" and Breanne notes that she herself used the equally corny "I'm down".
- Sticky Fingers: Alexis steals tip money meant for the other members of the waiting staff at the coffee house.
- Struggling Single Mother: Alexis works at a coffee shop and has trouble making ends meet.
- Switched at Birth: Hailey and Breanne are discovered to have been accidentally given to different parents and now the daughters have to figure out what where they want to live.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Alexis became pregnant with Hailey via an affair with John, an assistant coach for her college volleyball team.
- Time-Shifted Actor: 18-year-old Alexis is played in the flashback scenes by Paris Smith.
- The Unreveal: With the nurse who was on call the day Hailey and Breanne were born having died years before the switch was discovered, it's never revealed how the incident unfolded.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Brooke's search for the identity of Hailey's father leads to the death of the dean at the college, at the hands of Alexis.
- Viv suggesting that Brooke designate Alexis as guardian for the two girls if she and Carter happened to die leads Alexis to plot the murder of the couple, and to Alexis killing Nick when he figures out her plans.
- Villain Protagonist: Lindsay Hartley (who also co-wrote the screenplay) gets top billing as Brooke, but Alexis ends up getting developed much more as a character, and Alexis is responsible for all the plot developments in the latter half of the story.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Alexis killing her boss and the dean at the college are never mentioned again, despite the obvious law enforcement investigations they would provoke.note
- Sky, Hailey's friend, gets an emphasized character trait (a social media obsessed teen), leading you to think she'll be important to the story, but she's forgotten after a couple of brief appearances.
