I Can Make You Love Me (1993)

Oh my... there's nothing freakier seeing the man who played the adult Bill from the 1990's film IT taking on the role of a pervy computer engineer! Laura Black is a beautiful, self-confident graduate heading to Silicon Valley (although the scenery in the background looks more Eastern United States than Western), to be a successful computer engineer. She immediately befriends her co-workers and landlord, and meets an awkwardly nice guy, Rich, who she at first really likes. When Laura makes it clear that they're going to remain just friends, Rich quickly changes for the creepy, and next thing you know he's shooting up the corporate office buildings and murdering Laura's colleagues one by one! The soundtrack brought to mind movies and TV such as The Tower (1993), The Secret World of Alex Mack (1995-1998) and The Brave Little Toaster (1987). The whole film was like a homage to 90's corporate culture. One could even consider it a slasher film with Rich's body count and creepiness; the actor pulled off the role extremely well. Laura's character was played well, as was the landlord's. Stalking Laura had a few sad moments, such as the poor guy who gets shot and hides in the bathroom, only to start bleeding to death and get shot to death when Rich discovers his hiding place. I wouldn't recommend it to kids, but for adults it's highly entertaining. It even has its comedic moments.I can see myself viewing this film again, for a Lifetime TV movie it was surprisingly amazing and freaky.

Nothing is scarier than seeing the man who played the part of Bill Denberough from Stephen King's IT playing the part of Rich Farley, a psychotic stalker creeping around with a machine gun in a computer research corporation. And what started his scary rampage? A woman named Laura Black. But it wasn't her fault. She was the victim.Laura has just graduated and is leaving her tacky little Virginia town to work as an engineer in Silicon Valley, a high-tech looking city with an introduction soundtrack that along with the powerful buildings really reminds me of that stupid animated kid's film, the Brave Little Toaster, for some reason. And when Laura arrives, she meets a friendly group of technicians, along with a kind of nerdy guy named Richard (Rich) Farley. And at first he seems like he could be a really good friend, but it begins to get creepy when he hangs around Laura's gym class watching her do aerobics, and when he shows up in her office very early in the morning offering her blueberry bread. When he gets creepily violent, slashing her car tires, sending her evil letters and sending her family spliced photos of him and Laura together, she tells her bosses, who automatically pin it on her. Soon she moves to a high-tech security home with her landlord friend, but Rich shows up in her garage, and threatens to murder her bosses, until they finally fire him.That's when he snaps.He buys a trailer and a bunch of guns, watches several influential crime-type drama movies, then shows up in the morning shooting up the whole corporation, killing or injuring many of Laura's friends. Her best friend from work tries to rescue one man who's been shot but it still alive, but Rich arrives standing on the toilet in the bathroom where they're hiding. Can Laura make it out alive, or is she finally his victim? Well, I'm not going to tell you, that'd ruin the ending. So here's my review and rating.I love Lifetime Network movies, and this one I just had to see. I thought after the first few minutes of Rich's pathetic and weird love attempts that it would be humorous, but it got dramatic and creepy. It was based on a true story, too. The actors did a great job, it had kind of a late Eighties/early Nineties soundtrack that I really liked, and it was suspenseful. However, it had a dumb ending, being that Rich surrenders to the police over a sandwich! That's right, a sandwich! Because of course, this criminal isn't just a dork, he's also willing to give himself up to go pick up a sandwich the police have brought him. Still, good that he gets arrested in the end, but what a lousy way to go! Either way, that's my only complaint. 8/10 is my rating!

This reality-inspired TV thriller was never meant to be too suspenseful. Still the story was carrying itself on the shoulders of Richard Thomas. In several places he did pull off nice earnest expressions. Brooke Shields looks gorgeous but her acting is rather too flat. All the other actors were quite awful, I must say.The story got obstructed once the mass murder started. I found the whole situation rather boring and even hilarious the way the filmmakers portrayed it. All the killer-police conversations and that thing about sandwiches got me just tired. The overall screenplay was not entirely impressive. Sorry, I can't rate it more.

This is a truly frightening story of a real stalking case. In fact, the story this movie revolves around pioneered the anti-stalking law in California and likely inspired other states to do the same.Richard Farley (played by Richard Thomas, in a role at the other end of the spectrum from his role in The Waltons) is an office nerd-of-sorts who thinks he has a shot with Laura Black (Brooke Shields), a new co-worker at a Northern California high-tech firm. Farley ruthlessly pursues Black in spite of her rejections. In spite of Black's protests, Farley keeps up his pursuit, even sending letters to her at her parents' home in VA. (This event actually happened).*SPOILER FOLLOWING*Farley continues his pursuit until, after threatening the HR people at his company (another real event), he is fired and banned from the property. However he still pursues Laura until he is served with a temporary restraint order keeping him away from her. What follows is a terrifying attack against his old employer. In a sequence that shatters actor Thomas' wholesome image, he goes 'postal' and ruthlessly guns down several people, including Laura, who managed to escape. This segment seems to follow the real story almost right down to the last detail, including those surrounding Farley's surrender.I have heard of the story surrounding Laura Black, and this movie fit most of the particulars almost to a T. The depth of the writers' attention to the details of the Laura Black stalking made this movie that much more frightening. It is better than most TV movies which take a fair bit of dramatic license with their writing. Unlike those, this one sticks very close to the actual story.