Naman Shrestha
With Adrian Langley occupying the director’s chair, Lifetime’s ‘Locked in My House’ is a thriller drama film that follows Caris who claims that she was sexually assaulted by Dr. Marrick during her appointment. In order to get justice for herself, she asks for the police’s help, but in vain. One night, she finds Dr. Marrick intoxicated on the train tracks, gets him in her car, and brings him to the basement of her house. When she asks him to confess his crime to the police, and he believes that he did nothing wrong, she keeps him hostage while she searches for evidence against him to get him behind bars. However, when Caris’ friend Renee abducts him to get rid of him for good, Caris finds herself in a difficult situation. Now, she has to save the person who wronged her, turn him over to the authorities, and get justice for herself. Filled with several twists and turns, the narrative is brought to life by the impressive onscreen performances of Natalie Brown, Damon Runyan, Lora Burke, Lara Amersey, and Morgan Kelly. It touches upon some prevalent societal issues and realistic themes, such as sexual assault and how people get away with it, and abduction, which is unfortunately quite common.
Locked in My House is Not Based on a True Story
Even though abduction and sexual crimes are common occurrences in our lives, it doesn’t make the Lifetime film, ‘Locked in My House,’ a true story. Having said that, there certainly have been real life cases that are alarmingly close to what happens in the Lifetime movie. For instance, in July 2023, a renowned gynecologist named Robert Hadden was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing his patients for more than two decades. One of the many victims, Laurie Kanyok, claimed that when she visited Robert at Columbia University for a post-partum checkup six weeks after giving birth in 2012, she was assaulted by him. She was just one of hundreds of his victims. Thus, it is possible that the screenwriter Lauren Greenwood formed the base of the narrative after getting inspired by such cases of sexual assaults by doctors.
Similar themes and elements, as portrayed in the Lifetime film, have been explored in many movies and TV shows over the years. But one of the examples that stands out is the 2003 drama movie ‘I Accuse,’ which stars Estella Warren, John Hannah, John Kapelos, Tom Butler, and Cavan Cunningham. Based on the real-life case of John Schneeberger, who used to drug and rape his patients, the John Ketcham directorial follows a single mother named Kimberly Jansen who makes an appointment at a hospital for the treatment of a physical wound.
What is supposed to be a simple procedure turns into a nightmare as Dr. Darian drugs Kimberly and rapes her. Just like Caris in ‘Locked in My House,’ Kimberly attempts to press charges against the doctor but in vain. Although ‘I Accuse’ doesn’t involve other elements, such as abduction, it is similar to the Lifetime film in many different ways.
Read More: A Model Murder: Is the Lifetime Thriller Inspired by a True Story?
