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James Franco adds lesbian vampires to the new ‘Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?’

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Tori Spelling stars in James Franco’s in-name only remake of Mother, May I sleep With Danger?.
Trae Patton/Lifetime/Sony

Two stars

Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? June 18, 8 p.m., Lifetime.

Although it actually premiered on NBC in 1996, the Tori Spelling TV movie Mother, May I Sleep With Danger? has become a cult classic thanks to its multiple airings on Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network, and is often regarded as a template for Lifetime’s cheesy women-in-peril thrillers. So as part of the network’s efforts at expanding its brand, Danger has gotten an in-name-only remake to celebrate its 20th anniversary, courtesy of human smirk James Franco. Like A Deadly Adoption, the 2015 Lifetime movie starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, the new Danger is a sort of half-parody, although Franco (credited with the story and as executive producer) and his collaborators (director Melanie Aitkenhead, screenwriter Amber Coney) have trouble balancing the humor with a level of seriousness.

Unlike A Deadly Adoption, which was completely straight-faced from beginning to end, Danger isn’t afraid to get ridiculous right away. The plot has virtually no connection to the original, which starred Spelling as a college student whose seemingly perfect boyfriend (Ivan Sergei) turns out to be a deranged stalker. Franco’s version of Danger is about lesbian vampires, which were definitely nowhere to be found in the original. The main character, Leah (Leila George), is still a college student, although her love interest is a gothy young woman named Pearl (Emily Meade) who also happens to be a “night walker,” the movie’s term for nocturnal bloodsuckers. Spelling shows up as Leah’s overprotective mother, while Sergei plays a literature professor whose entire class conveniently revolves around works related to the main themes of the movie.

While the original is beloved for how unintentionally funny it is, the new Danger is far too self-aware for actual camp, and instead aims mostly for trashy fun. Sergei’s professor spouts theories about how vampires represent sexual deviance, but despite Franco’s well-known interest in academics, it’s hard to view the movie as a sophisticated story of gay or female empowerment. The lesbians in the movie are all heavily made up and scantily clad, and the big sex scene between Leah and Pearl (which takes place, of course, in a cemetery) is virtually indistinguishable from a sleazy exploitation movie.

Still, parts of the movie are entertaining. Meade gives a pretty decent performance as conflicted vampire Pearl, who, unlike Sergei’s character in the original, is a well-meaning and sensitive partner, not a homicidal maniac. Leah stars in a school production of Macbeth that provides Franco the chance to snark his way through a few lines in a small role as the director, and gives Pearl’s three devious vampire sisters (one played by screenwriter Coney) a forum for their evil sexiness. The story, whether Franco or Coney is ultimately responsible for it, is a bit of a mess, and the rushed ending makes little sense (as does the mythology of the night walkers). Overall Danger is a bit more fun than A Deadly Adoption, but it’s not nearly the subversive deconstruction that Lifetime probably hoped for when they hired Franco in the first place.

Tags: Television
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