Film / Psycho BFF

Psycho BFF (also called American Psychos) is a 2019 Teen Drama Thriller, produced by The Asylum but aired on Lifetime, directed by Jared Cohn and written by Andrea Ruth.

Deandra (Juliana Destefano) is a high school student and talented writer who dreams of living in New York with her father but instead moves to the suburbs with her mother Renee (Kate Watson). As soon as she arrives at her new school she's bullied by Alpha Bitch Adele (Paige McGarvin), but gets rescued by the somewhat Emo Teen-ish Olivia (Alexandra Doke), and Deandra quickly becomes her best friend. Olivia gains Deandra's sympathy by telling her about the rough life she has: her father died, her stepfather abuses her, and her former BFF Liberty died. But as Olivia starts to become more controlling of Deandra, goading her into mischief, Deandra discovers a much darker side to Olivia.

Psycho BFF contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Olivia tells Deandra that her stepfather hits her. Renee then learns that this is a bald-faced lie, since Olivia has no stepfather, but a stepmother instead.
• Alpha Bitch: Adele is about as exaggerated an example as there can be, a narcissistic blonde glam girl who pours a whole bucket of Sugary Malice over Deandra.
• Arc Words: "I trusted you!" from Olivia.
• Based on a True Story: There's a "based on true events" banner at the start of the movie, but no one seems to have identified what exactly the true story might have been that inspired the movie. If anything, the plot is basically Mean Girls crossed with the Lifetime chestnut Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?, with a Gender Flip performed on the villain and the Yandere being a best friend rather than a lover.
• Batman Gambit: Olivia's loosen-the-bleacher-railing prank depends on Adele always sitting at the top of the bleacher, and she ultimately does.
• Beta Bitch: Lilith plays the role for Adele, right down to telling her "nice one, Adele!" when she insults Deandra. But their relationship is on shaky ground, with Adele briefly dumping her.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The story revolves around this trio, with blonde Adele, brunette Deandra and redhead Olivia.
• Bully Hunter: Olivia wins Deandra's friendship by confronting Adele, most memorably at Adele's party.
• Bully Turned Buddy: By the end, Deandra and Lilith have become friends.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Olivia steals a wrench from the school custodian and keeps it with her for the rest of the film, to help commit various pranks, to break the sink in the girl's room when she throws a fit about Adele, and it ultimately becomes the proof that Deandra has run away with Olivia when Renee finds it on Deandra's bed.
  • Olivia's "insurance policy" when they run away turns out to be a gun.
• Consummate Liar: Olivia flagrantly makes up false stories to gain sympathy.
• Covers Always Lie / Never Trust a Title: The alternate title (American Psychos) and The Asylum poster (which depicts two pairs of legs that have left behind bloody trails of footprints) suggest that the movie will be about a pair of psychotic best friends.
• Darker and Edgier: The final act is very much more in the wheelhouse of The Asylum than Lifetime, with violence, suicide and attempted rape becoming themes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Olivia makes sarcastic quips to everyone throughout the story.
  Security Guard: (after catching Olivia and Deandra wearing their shoplifted clothes underneath the ones they wore to the store) Ladies, your shirts look a little fuller.
  Olivia: Rude!
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: It's ultimately revealed that Olivia's mother, who she idolized, committed suicide, with the implication that her possessive friendships are an attempt to fill the void.
• Death by Falling Over: In the opening scene, Olivia kills Liberty by pushing her off a bridge during an argument.
• Didn't Think This Through: Deandra calls out Olivia for planning to run away across the country with only $300. It's revealed that the running away story was a front for Olivia's proposed Suicide Pact.
• Dirty Cop: Olivia gets out of the shoplifting charge by slipping drugs to a police officer she already knows.
• Drama Queen:
  • Even by Alpha Bitch standards, Adele is a pretty extreme example. She has a near-meltdown when Deandra bumps into her and causes her to spill juice on her shirt.
  • Olivia is a more subdued, menacing example, prone to fits of Suddenly Shouting.
  • Renee isn't immune to this. She claims that "someone could have died" when Adele fell maybe four feet onto the gym floor and broke an arm. She's also startled enough by an alarm clock to drop a glass of water on the floor.
• Dramatic Irony: We know from the opening scene that Olivia is dangerous, so the suspense is waiting for Deandra to figure it out. Problem is, Deandra is very easy to manipulate, so even when she does, she's still susceptible to Olivia's scheming.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Adele's childhood nickname was "Smelly Delly", which Olivia uses to taunt her.
• Five-Finger Discount: Olivia drags Deandra along to a clothing store and they try to sneak out while wearing shoplifted clothes underneath their regular ones, but a clerk catches them.
• Gambit Pileup:
  • A running thread throughout the movie is that Olivia and Adele are clashing because they're both targeting Deandra for mental abuse, but in different ways—Adele is the Alpha Bitch using her as a punching bag, while Olivia, despite her more supportive front, is really The Svengali looking for someone to dominate.
  • In the final act, Deandra is ultimately trying to see her dad in New York, the guy who picked them up and his buddy obviously want sex from her and Olivia, while Olivia wants her and Deandra to kill themselves and "go out in a blaze of glory".
• Good-Times Montage: Featuring Deandra and Olivia after they cement their friendship.
• Halfway Plot Switch: After being a dark Mean Girls-inspired Dramedy for its first two acts, the final acts ramps up the Thriller element, with Deandra grappling with Olivia turning psychotic, and fending off the sexual advances of the guys who picked them up.
• Has a Type: Olivia craves the friendship of shy girls with long, dark hair, with Deandra and Liberty both fitting that type, as does the girl at the mental hospital she befriends in the final scene.
• Here We Go Again!: In the final scene, Olivia is a patient at a mental hospital and approaches a brunette who resembles Liberty and Deandra to make friends with.
• Hypocritical Humor: Ultra-narcissist Adele mocking Deandra with "impressed with yourself much?"
• Informed Ability: Deandra is supposed to be an amazing writer, but we only hear one rather mundane short poem she wrote in class.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Pleasant, level-headed Deandra (Light) befriends intense, moody Olivia (Dark).
• Literal-Minded: In her fight with Liberty at the beginning, Olivia seems to view Liberty calling her a BFF as some kind of loyalty pledge on Liberty's part.
  Olivia: I thought you were my friend! "Best friends forever!" You said it: "best friends forever!"
• Magic Feather: Olivia invokes Dumbo to explain that she took the gun out of the handbag before she gave it to Deandra, to make her brave.
• Malicious Misnaming: Adele constantly calls Deandra "Dial-Up", based on her older cell phone. She also calls her "Deidre" at one point.
  Adele: It's a dial-up phone for a dial-up girl!
• Manipulative Bitch: Olivia uses "you're so amazing" flattery, guilt trips, and sympathy ploys to keep Deandra under her thumb.
  Olivia: (to Deandra) I hate everybody! I hate everybody in this world! Except you.
• Naïve Everygirl: Deandra is sunny and good-natured, but is totally outclassed by Olivia, falling for her manipulations constantly, even long after she should've caught on and run the hell away.
• The Oner: A whole bunch of uninterrupted SteadiCam shots in the movie.
• Replacement Goldfish: Olivia uses Deandra as one for Liberty. Emphasized in the scene where Deandra reads Olivia's poem (about Liberty) aloud, and Olivia pictures Liberty in her place.
• The Runaway: In the final act, Olivia convinces Deandra to run away with her, with the goal of visiting Deandra's father in New York.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Liberty only appears in the opening, where she gets killed by Olivia, then briefly reappears when Olivia pictures Deandra as her.
• Shrinking Violet: While not especially shy, Deandra is very self-conscious going to a new school, and Adele's bullying turns her into one of these, which makes her easy pickings for the confident, edgy Olivia.
• Stalker Shrine: Olivia's stepmother Solange shows Olivia's bedroom to a horrified Renee. She's taped up dozens of pics of Deandra on the wall.
• Suicide Pact: In the climax, Olivia proposes that she and Deandra kill themselves, along with lines suggesting that she's been plotting Hereditary Suicide for a while, and that the altercation that led to Liberty's death started when Liberty rejected a similar suicide pact proposal.
• Teens Are Monsters: Adele and Olivia provide contrasting examples, with Adele as the conceited, merciless bully and Olivia as the disturbed petty criminal.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Olivia gets Deandra in trouble for shoplifting, causing a disturbance at a party, and being an accessory in her plot to injure Adele.
• Villain Over for Dinner: Deandra is horrified to see Olivia palling around with Adele after the party.
• Watch Where You're Going!: On Deandra's first day, Adele purposely positions herself so that Deandra bumps her and Adele can whine about this and generally start getting on Deandra's case about everything.
• We Used to Be Friends: Olivia and Adele were friends in elementary school, but now (mostly) antagonize each other.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After falling from the bleachers, Adele disappears from the movie.
• Wild Teen Party: Olivia climbs into Deandra's bedroom late at night and convinces her to sneak out to one. Unfortunately, it turns out that it was hosted by Adele at her house.
• World of Ham: As you might expect when The Asylum and Lifetime converge, there's a distinct lack of subtlety here. Deandra is the only somewhat subdued character in the main cast. Everyone else hams it up, especially Adele and Olivia in her unhinged moments.
• Yo Yo Plot Point: Olivia, the Former Friend of Alpha Bitch, briefly takes over as Adele's Beta Bitch after Adele accuses Lilith of trying to steal her boyfriend, but Adele drops her when she reconciles with Lilith.