Schlocky Fatal Memories Trivializes Abuse

The best I can say about Fatal Memories (1992), a telefilm about recovered memories, is at least Shelley Long doesn’t have multiple personalities in it— watching her cry for 90 minutes as just one person is exhausting enough. (Masochists who want to see her grapple with that contentious diagnosis can consult the 1990 miniseries Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase.)

Based on a controversial true story, Fatal Memories follows suburban homemaker Eileen Franklin Lipsker (Long, porcelain-skinned and chin quivering bravely throughout) as she recovers long-buried memories of an abusive childhood. The triggers can be as mundane as bathing or opening the refrigerator. Whatever your take on repressed memories, a once-popular concept that has since been scientifically discredited, I think we can agree this movie is best forgotten.

Eileen’s abuser was her father, George (Duncan Fraser), a character so thinly written that Fraser’s performance consists mostly of exaggerated facial expressions suggesting that even George can’t believe the vile details of his alleged misdeeds. To family, investigators, and eventually a packed courtroom, Eileen graphically recounts physical, psychological and sexual abuse that culminated in the murder of a childhood friend.

The screenplay, by Audrey Davis Levin (Shattered Vows), is an utter mess. One of its most glaring inconsistencies involves George’s supposed drug use. Though Eileen confidently tells investigators he was an alcoholic who occasionally smoked pot, in court she testifies that he savagely killed an eight-year-old in a drug-fueled frenzy. It’s one of many murky reversals that Fatal Memories can’t explain.

Eileen’s distress is genuine, but nothing about George committing the murder adds up. The rush to incarcerate him feels a lot like satanic panic, and the real-life George was eventually exonerated. Despite a dearth of evidence, Eileen has the unwavering support of nearly everyone she encounters—including the filmmakers—from start to finish.

“At first they were pictures I didn’t understand,” she says of her memories, which resurface during a stressful period in her life. She’s raising two young kids with a workaholic husband, Barry (David McIlwraith), and feels neglected. The family is preparing to move to Switzerland for Barry’s job, which Eileen (or Levin) occasionally forgets, as when she frets—possibly in a nod to Long’s Troop Beverly Hills—about whether she’ll lose a leadership position her daughter’s Brownie pack if her past comes to light.

“You seem jumpy and nervous. I’m worried,” Barry says of his wife’s worsening anxiety. She clunkily replies “You’re a brilliant man and terrific father. And when I married you, I thought I turned my life around. So why isn’t everything perfect?” Later, in a scene with the noble Detective Robert Morse (Dean Stockwell), Eileen’s turnaround is better explained: she was previously a prostitute and drug addict. “Would that make your key witness less credible?” she asks.

Morse assures her it’s fine; an expert told him that Eileen’s trajectory wasn’t uncommon among survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This segment of the film is problematic for more reasons than I care to tally (yeah, sure, our legal system is renowned for believing women, especially drug-addled hookers), but I rolled my eyes the hardest at Eileen’s explanation of why she enjoyed prostitution: “I was in charge. If I didn’t like the terms, I said no. That was a luxury I didn’t have as a child.”

It’s an overly simplistic take, offensive in its disregard for the realities of sex work (which is rarely as empowering or lucrative as Jezebel commenters, Redditors and OnlyFans influencers suggest). As with everything else in Fatal Memories, viewers are meant to ignore it and applaud her bravery. Remarkably, the least believable aspects of the story, including Morse’s reassurance that her past won’t be mentioned in court, were based in reality.

The only time Eileen encounters resistance in the courtroom is when she’s made to testify about her childhood rape, which is inextricably tied to the circumstances of the murder she claims to have witnessed. Crusading prosecutor Elaine Tipton (Helen Shaver) questions her gently on the stand. A sample exchange:

Tipton: Eileen, what were your dreams as a child?

Eileen: I didn’t dream.

Tipton: Dreams of the future? Of when you were grown?

Eileen: I didn’t think I’d have a future.

Tipton: What did you think?

Eileen: That I’d be killed.

fatal memories (1992)

This conflicts with previous scenes, including one in which she demands of detectives (and her husband), “Why do you all want me to hate my father?” To Barry’s consternation, she still loves him and recalls happy memories they shared. She speaks of his capacity for tenderness, like when she had appendicitis and he saved her life. In a scene with her siblings, she punitively mentions their father has nothing to do with them, implying she isn’t similarly estranged. But she previously stated that he isn’t allowed near her family, so we’re again left uncertain of what to believe.

To call this subject matter complex would be a massive understatement. It is common, of course, for abuse survivors to still love their parents and want relationships with them. It is possible for someone with a criminal record or history of drug use to be a reliable witness. The problem with Fatal Memories is its lack of nuance; it’s a flaky film that traffics in gross sensationalism. Its final scene, set in a cemetery, is a howler; there should be no howlers in a story about child abuse and murder.

The deliberate exclusion of the most troubling aspects of the case (like Eileen’s alleged participation in repressed-memory therapy) makes the legal proceedings against George seem that much more outrageous, which isn’t what the movie intended to convey. The cast, somewhat unbearably, plays it all as straight as Long’s hair. Director Daryl Duke made a handful of films well worth seeking out, like Payday (1973) and The Silent Partner (1978). Fatal Memories isn’t one of them.

For more on repressed memory telefilms, check out our reviews of “Betrayal of Trust” and “Forgotten Sins,” also based on true stories.

Streaming and DVD availability

Fatal Memories isn’t available on DVD, though there’s an unscrupulous seller currently peddling bootlegs on eBay. It currently streams on Tubi, a free ad-supported service.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

… But wait, there’s more!

Any self-respecting lesbian will recognize Desert Hearts actress Helen Shaver as prosecutor Elaine Tipton. It takes a bit of next-level nerdery to recall that Sara Botsford (who plays Janice, Eileen’s sister) had an ’80s lesbian film of her own.

In By Design, an obscure Canadian production directed by Claude Jutra, she played Patty Duke’s partner. Mind you, it’s a family planning comedy, so you’ll see more heterosexual sex than anything else—if you can even find it. I have an ancient VHS copy purchased secondhand many years ago, but it’s unlikely to see a DVD release in light of recent posthumous revelations that Jutra abused children.