CRIME STORIES ON LIFETIME CHANNEL

During the month of September, the Lifetime Channel delivers three new “Ripped from the Headlines” movies for Saturdays, kicking off on Sept. 13 with “A Husband to Die For: The Lisa Aguilar Story (working title).”

This first film follows Lisa Aguilar (Keana Lyn Bastidas), a bright and loving woman who is newly married and expecting her first child with husband Darren (John McLaren).
   
Life seems picture-perfect as Darren, who dreams of becoming a professional golfer, appears devoted and driven. But Lisa soon discovers he’s living a dark double life. When she is viciously attacked in her own home, she and her unborn baby are left for dead.
   
Yet, Lisa miraculously survives and begins to unravel a horrifying truth: the man she trusted most may have tried to kill her. A cheating husband who doesn’t want to be a father may go to extreme lengths.
   
With the help of her grandmother Gabrielle (Marilu Henner), her devoted parents, and a determined legal team, Lisa embarks on a courageous journey to protect her child, seek justice and rebuild her life from the ground up.
   
Darren ultimately pled guilty for attempted murder. The biggest surprise for this film, however, might be Marilu Henner playing a grandmother to an adult woman. It’s a credit to the actress that she does not seem to be of that age.
   
A week later, on Sept. 20, the based on a true story “The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story” trails 15-year-old Alina Thompson (Brielle Robillard), an aspiring model in Los Angeles during the ‘80s, who gets caught in the dangerous web of a serial killer.
   
Without the knowledge of her parents, Carl (Sam Trammell) and Nancy (Ashley Jones), Alina sneaks off to attend an amateur photo casting call to meet up-and-coming photographer William Bradford (Steve Byers). 
   
Unbeknownst to Alina, William is a serial killer hiding in plain sight, using his charms to lure aspiring young women into secluded photo shoots that end up in unspeakable violence.
   
After their meeting, William becomes obsessed with Alina and her beauty and ultimately sets his sights on her as his next victim. But thanks to the protective instincts of Carl and a series of fateful twists, Alina manages to survive, where many others did not.
   
Though other young women were not so fortunate, “The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story” has a happy ending for a teen saved by a caring father’s quick instincts.
   
For the final Saturday of September, “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story” movie is part of Lifetime’s provocative I WAS/I AM franchise which spotlights the untold stories of women reclaiming their narratives.
   
“The Courtney Stodden Story” dives into the controversial story of Courtney Stodden (Holly Barrett), a teenager catapulted into international notoriety after marrying 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison (Doug Savant) at just sixteen years old.
   
Narrated by the real-life Courtney Stodden and told through her perspective, the deeply personal biopic chronicles the controversial and emotionally complex journey of Courtney.
   
Encouraged by her mother Krista’s (Maggie Lawson) dreams of fame for her, Courtney was thrust into the spotlight when she married an actor who is more than three decades her senior.
   
The movie is a story of resilience and survival of a young girl coming of age under a harsh public eye whose voice was nearly lost, despite her mother’s own fractured dreams and decisions that shaped the unfortunate path Courtney was pushed to follow.
   
More than a retelling of sordid tabloid headlines, “I Was a Child Bride: The Courtney Stodden Story” is an exploration of child exploitation, trauma and transformation.
   
Hulu streams the ABC News “IMPACT x Nightline: Confessions of a Child Bride: Courtney Stodden’s Story,” which relates that now she’s divorced from Doug, she’s claiming to be a crusader for other young vulnerable women.
   
The Hulu program features interviews with Courtney and snippets of stories about how a sophomore in high school in Ocean Shores, Washington ended up meeting Doug Hutchison.
   
Courtney’s mother signed over consent to allow marriage to a man three times her age, and more astonishingly that the nuptials took place at Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas only two weeks after they met when Courtney wanted to take acting lessons from Doug.
   
Clips from the time Courtney was getting married revealed a young girl who looked much older than her age with the physique of a buxom Hollywood starlet like Pamela Anderson when she modeled in Playboy magazine.
   
Courtney also pushed back on being described as a “child bride,” preferring instead to being a “child who was exploited.” She also revealed being a virgin when married to a man older than her father when the marriage was consummated. 
   
Not surprisingly, the Hulu program takes note of the “morbid curiosity” that everyone had about her wedding night at the Chateau Marmont hotel on the Sunset Strip.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.