Written By Dawn De Noon and Lisa Marie Petersen
Directed By Jean De Segonzac
A doctor is murdered and his wife assaulted, with his estranged son the primary suspect until new evidence comes to light of how dysfunctional the marriage really was.
Tropes
- Asshole Victim:
- Max definitely turns into this, despite sleeping with younger women, when the detectives discover that he planned to have his wife killed with his mistress.
- Also Vincent, who was stalking Lara and raped Peyton and killed her husband, but was being manipulated by Lara as he thought he and Lara were in love.
- And Lara herself. Vincent raped her via blackmail after he murdered her lover, but she was still badly manipulating him and killed him when she thought he might crack, not because he forced her to have sex with him.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Where the title comes from...Lara manipulated the mentally ill Vincent into believing they were in love so he'd kill Max's wife for her and Max to steal his money back. Then Vincent backstabs her and kills Max so he can have her to himself. Then Lara sets up Vincent so she can kill him and make it look like self-defense.
- Convenient Photograph: The detectives only figure out Vincent's significance because he happened to be lurking in the background of a photograph of Lara and Max.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Vincent. Admittedly Lara was manipulating him, but he still raped Peyton and killed her husband in order to have Lara all to himself.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The initial crime was planned by Lara and Max, who hired Vincent to kill Peyton and planned to move in together. Vincent instead killed Max and left Peyton alive so that he could be with Lara instead. At the end, poor Peyton has to learn all this from the detectives.
- The Dead Guy Did It: It turned out that Max and his mistress Lara had hired Vincent to rape and kill Peyton (and attack but obviously not kill Max) in that home invasion so Max and Lara could run away together. Unfortunately, Vincent was obsessed with Lara and killed Max out of jealousy, believing they would be together then.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: As it turns out, you have to be careful when hiring psychopaths. He might do the opposite of what he was supposed to do, and then turn on you.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Who would have thought that convincing a violent stalker to kill her lover's wife, when her lover is the only person keeping them apart in his mind, would have backfired on Lara?
- Manipulative Bitch: Lara, who knew Vincent was in love with her and used it to get him to rape and kill Peyton, then killed him when he backstabbed her.
- Sexual Extortion: Lara has to have sex with Vincent after setting up her lover's wife to be killed.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Lara pretends to be Vincent's stalking victim to kill him. At least partially deconstructed in that he did rape her, but only after she bullied him into killing her lover's wife for him.
