In 1977 Springfield, Mass., police detective Don Joyce is investigating a serial killer known as BPS (Bound, Photographed, Strangled) killer. The killer murders Don's wife in front of their daughter Jeanne. Thirty years later, Jeanne 'JJ' Joyce (Teri Polo) is herself a homicide detective. Don had committed suicide. The killer was never caught but suddenly, the killings are happening again after a 30 years break. Her best friend reporter Kathleen Coyne is pulled into the case.I am a little surprised by the nudity in this Lifetime movie. Teri Polo is perfectly fine. It does need a better director and production value. With more graphic violence and darker movie moves, this has a chance. Instead, it is never better than its Lifetime construction. That only makes this a sad shadow of an actual film.

Teri Polo is a beautiful and incredibly talented actress, and it comes out in this movie. Polo delivers a powerful performance as Detective Jeanne Joyce, a relentless career woman in the mold of TV's Olivia Benson, who pursues a copycat serial killer from a 30-year old cold case. The last death of the original killer was that of her mother, while 6-year old Jeanne is locked in a closet, bound and forced to watch. The last murder drove Jeanne's father, the lead detective on the case, to suicide, and Detective Joyce is now out to put this grisly part of her past behind her once and for all. She starts out by finding a couple murdered in the park, and it is the exact same M.O. as the original killer--the male shot once in the back of the head, the female bound and gagged, and Polaroids of both victims prominently next to the bodies, hence the moniker BPS--Bound, Photographed, Strangled. It reminds you of the BTK case out of Wichita and the RDK case from a Law and Order: SVU episode in 2004. The killer taunts Jeanne with notes, but little does she know that the man she sits across the table from on a dinner date, the medical examiner, could very well be the copycat killer. Jeanne doesn't realize this, and soon her life and that of her grandmother, her only living relative, are in danger...

I've seen worse, but I've definitely seen Lifetime do better with its movies. It seems like so many recent LMN flicks suffer from unoriginal, filler plots. Legacy of Fear is no different, and it's a shame. You have a cast of good actors and you give them crap dialog and silly scenes, and it makes it all the more boring to watch. Oh well. There are a few redeeming moments in the flick, particularly the fight scene **potential spoiler** between the detective and serial killer, it's just, well, amusing... in an otherwise try-so-hard-to-take-me-serious movie. It's what I like to call a 'nothing but a paycheck' film. But like I said, I've seen much worse. It's a step above watching Survivor.

True Story: I stumbled on the movie early this morning, missing the first 35 minutes or so, and still figured out who the killer was within the first 2 minutes, and I'm not that smart. Crappy T.V. movie that follows typical cheesy serial killer formula. Pretty cop with a nice life, studies kick boxing, as a child involved in serial killer attack who killed mother, killer comes back 30 years later, and blah blah blah. My brain is too numb after watching this crap to try and sort out each of the rehashed segments. How does Teri Polo agree to make a stinker like this? I am always puzzled how the decision was made. Did she read the script first before agreeing? Does she read the script cuddled up in her nice house with a glass of wine thinking that this could be the next Silence of the Lambs? Was she nuts? This is a filler movie, the kind that only appears at 3 a.m. on the dish. Forget this one, and watch the infomercial on juicers instead.