'The Girl Who Wasn't Dead' Reviews: "The Girl Who Wasn’t Dead falls squarely in the middle of Lifetime’s TV movies on the scale of Awful to Excellent. It’s not terrible, it’s not great, it just lands in the category of bland"

         On October 5, 2024, Lifetime premiered 'The Girl Who Wasn't Dead', which has earned a predominantly positive reception from critics. In the film, "15-year-old Erica vanishes, believed a victim of a serial killer, but emerges at her murder trial 3 years later, having run away to live secretly with her older boyfriend near her mother's home, banned from seeing him." The ensemble cast includes Bronwen Smith, Ricardo Ortiz, Lyndsy Fonseca, Emma Tremblay, and Paul du Toit. But what did the critics say?

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        Chuck Duncan of Hotchka notes, "Lifetime serves up another ‘Truly Unbelievable Movie’ from its ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ series of TV movies based on a true story that’s been completely fictionalized for television. Good luck on finding the actual source for this story." Adding, "In The Girl Who Wasn’t Dead, things kick off with 15-year-old Erica (Emma Tremblay) being discovered at a local motel with 21-year-old cutie Andrew (Kyle Clark), resulting in Andrew’s arrest and Erica being returned to her mother Carrie (Lyndsy Fonseca) with a warning from Detective Richards (Bronwen Smith) to get her daughter under control since this is the third time Erica has run away and police resources are needed for actual crimes (not that a 15-year-old shacking up with a 21-year-old isn’t a crime). After meeting up again with Andrew and him telling her that they need to put the brakes on because his relationship with a minor is going to hurt his future, Erica storms off and assures her mother that the two have broken up.A month passes and Erica is a new girl, helpful at home and much happier in general so Carrie believes that they’ve finally turned a corner and Erica will not run away again. One day after school, Erica goes bowling with her bestie Liam (Richard Ortiz), and her behavior leads him to jokingly tell the shocked attendant that he’d ‘like to kill that bitch.’ Well, Erica doesn’t come home that night, or the next, etc. and Carrie has no choice but to go to the police again. This time the matter is more urgent as another local girl has also gone missing. In fact, there are several local girls now missing as the story spans three years. During that time, the bowling alley employee comes forward to the police (two years later and wearing the same outfit) after he remembered what Liam had said. The poor guy is brought in for questioning but Carrie ultimately bails him out, assuring the detective that Liam is like family (in fact, it was Liam who initially ratted out Erica at the beginning of the movie, fearing Andrew might kill her). Out of the blue, a prisoner comes forward with information about a man who claims to have killed all the missing girls including Erica, and provides the police with a map to the bodies. They find them all except for Erica, and at the murder trial the defense suddenly announces there has been a change and his client is not guilty of the murder of Erica as she enters the courtroom, stunning everyone including her parents.That’s all in the first hour!" Overall, the reviewer was somewhat impressed though, stating, "The Girl Who Wasn’t Dead falls squarely in the middle of Lifetime’s TV movies on the scale of Awful to Excellent. It’s not terrible, it’s not great, it just lands in the category of bland. That is mainly thanks to the film’s title which tells us right away that the girl is alive. Most of the tension in the story comes in the second half when we wonder if Erica’s isolation and Andrew’s growing distance — resorting to having a beer in the driveway just so he can have some ‘me time’ — will ultimately tear them apart and force Erica to reveal her ruse. Of course she also panics a little when everyone believes she’s dead, which Andrew thinks they can use to their advantage, but it doesn’t sit right with her. Another issue that works against the movie is the time span. Emma Tremblay, who is 20-years-old, has to play Erica from 15 to 18 … but she never convincingly looks like a 15-year-old. No one else in the film ages (or apparently changes clothes) during that three year span except little brother Joey, who experiences a major growth spurt and goes from Logan Pierce to Everett Andres. Of course as adults, we really don’t change that much in three years unless there have been some major influences on our lives, but in a TV movie they really need to do something to make the characters look three years older instead of three days. The only real passage of time comes when Carrie is driving Erica to school on a lovely Autumn day, and when they arrive it is clearly Summer."