User Reviews

This movie is loads of fun. Almost everyone in the town of Deer Run has a secret. As the Police Chief (with a past tragedy) and SBI Agent (Valerie Bertinelli) O'Malley investigate the kidnapping of a young boy they turn up the secrets of all the town's denizens. You meet a pedophile, closet homosexuals, a man having an affair with his neighbor, and even an evil chess club with a diabolical gamemaster. Even SBI Agent O'Malley has a secret. She fends off "migraines" with injections of a powerful drug. Every time we think we know who is bad, we learn that -- yes they are bad (and involved somehow in the abduction) -- but there is someone even worse waiting in the wings. This is trash, but high class trash. It may not be for members of the arty or experimental film crowd, but it has the most important element of any film. It's fun! As for a sequel -- bring it on!

Megan O'Malley is a female FBI investigator who takes over jurisdiction in a small town called Dear Lake. When a young boy named Josh is abducted, Megan leads the investigation which than leads to a bigger series of abductions and murders dating back over the last twenty years. Whilst all this is going on, Megan starts dating police chief Mitch Holt, another guy who is also working on the case.

Night Sins is a good mini series. The acting is really good, but just a little weak. The story here is really exciting and the whole movie is just great.

What a great movie. I loved it! I just recently decided to write a review on it. I was never really going to watch it, but got hooked within the first 10 minutes. I thought the acting was superb, the story line was great, and the movie over all freaked me out with all the suspense. if anyone ever finds out when it is coming back on tv, on any channel. please post the info. i really want to see it again. i liked the movie so much, i went out and bought the book. i read the novel and it too was great. excellent story.

I just finished watching this on TNT. They ran all four hours from midnight to 4:00 am. I'm tired, but very pleasantly surprised by this movie.

The storyline was suspenseful and kept me guessing for the first three hours. I'm usually very good at figuring things out so it took me a while. The plot in the second half of the movie didn't feel quite as credible as the first half, but perhaps watching it in it's entirety is to blame for that. It might have played better had I seen it over two nights as it originally aired.

Valerie Bertinelli did a more than adequate job and Harry Hamlin handed in a much better performance than I've ever seen him give before. When his character was telling the story of his family tragedy to Bertinelli's character, I was completely engrossed and found him to be totally believable. I was impressed with his range. Pruitt Taylor Vince did an wonderful job. He portrayed just the right amount of creepiness.

I never read the book so I have nothing to compare it to. (I definitely want to read it now, though!) The end of the movie left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied. I don't enjoy stories that leave you with unanswered questions unless there is going to be a sequel. There obviously wasn't a second movie. Since I'm not familiar with Hoag's work, I wonder if there is a second book that addresses this issue. Does anyone know?

what can i say about this movie. i think this was the best mini-series i ever saw. this was a good mystery movie that kept me on the edge of my seat. valerie bertinelli was perfect for the role of megan o'malley. i would recommend this movie for everybody. if you like mystery and suspense you should watch this movie.

Since this movie aired three years ago, I've waited for the sequel to be made.

I hadn't planned to watch this "Mini Series" feeling that it was going to be the same old, same old... I found myself quite surprised at the twisting,turning plot that kept you jumping in your seat and you bet I didn't miss the conclusion two nights later.

Not only was this an excellent TV movie, but Valerie B. did a great job as the lead character Megan and Harry Hamlin was good in the lead of the tough cop with a heart of gold. I ran out and bought the book and enjoyed it so much, that I've got Tami Hoag's entire collection of books. If you get a chance to see this movie, Do Watch it, you won't be disappointed and Read her books, you'll be hooked just like me and my co-workers!

Night Sins is a great movie. It draws the audience in and keeps you at the edge of your seat with all the twists and turns. It takes awhile to guess the truth, but eventually you will figure it out!

Tami Hoag's Night Sins does have a follow-up. It's called Guilty as Sin. If you are not familiar with her work, she is an exceptional author and her books are riveting. I definitely recommend reading both books. I also saw the movie before I read the book and the movie drove me to read the books as well. I am glad I did. I am sure you will not regret it either.

Have fun continuing the story!

I have seen this film twice and find it an extremely effective and absorbing thriller with a wonderfully creepy feel to it. It reminds me of the uneasy feeling I got watching "Silence of the Lambs." Like that film, "Night Sins" establishes a very sinister mood (in a snowy picturesque town) in the first few minutes and carries it through right to the end. Given a well presented film, I am not averse to an ambiguous ending, so the fact that everything wasn't all neatly tied up in the last few minutes was not a problem for me. Actually, I think it made the film's unsettling feel linger after the closing credits. I think the direction was tight and kept the story moving and engaging. The cast was quite good, especially the supporting players, with Karen Sillas a standout. Although I must admit that, much to my surprise, Bertinelli and Hamlin fared much better that I initially expected.

I just finished reading the book, and unlike many of my fellow critics I was somewhat disappointed. It was a good read, but I think some of the liberties and embellishments taken by the filmmakers actually improved the story and added to the unsettling atmosphere. I think Hoag spent a bit too much ink on the 'romance' between Mitch and Megan for my taste. And a few times the book felt like it was veering off into bodice-ripping territory. Given the brief time span of the book (less than 2 weeks) I found their passion a bit overstated and distracting from the mystery at hand. Every time they were making love or thinking about making love or trying to avoid making love, it broke the mood for me and as a result the suspense lagged. And the oft-seen device of the brooding, troubled cop/detective/investigator is something of a cliché. The abridged coupling in the film was short and sweet, served a good dramatic purpose and was more believable as it offered the side story of two people attracted to each other without disrupting the momentum of the plot. I think the addition of the old 8mm home movie of the killers in their youth and the very creepy voice over worked extremely well. And the Deacon's story was visualized very disturbingly. If only Hoag had written his sections with the same enthusiasm as the passionate Mitch/Megan interludes. In all fairness, I have not yet read Hoag's "Guilty As Sin", the follow-up to "Night Sins", so I might find some more of the film's detail there. Again, I want to say that the book was very good, but my expectation of it being one of those suspenseful books that you just can't put down was never realized.

I'd love to have this on DVD.

As is the trouble with many TV movies, this one was cast with one of the darlings of the small screen regardless of the fact that she doesn't fit in the role. Sweetheart of a romantic comedy or abused wife she can do, but Valerie Bertinelli just doesn't play well here. Neither does Harry Hamlin. This could have been made well as a TV movie using unknowns or lesser-knowns that actually meshed with the book's feel of who the characters are. From the opinions of friends and family, those who didn't read the books thought this TV version was pretty good. Those of us who loved the book wish we would have just re-read it and skipped this movie.

I'm really busy right now, so I can't go into detail. But rest assured this movies was/is great. Kept me in suspense for hours. I'm surprised ABC never reran it. I guess we should look for it on Lifetime.

"Night Sins" is one of my favorite mini-series of all time. There is some mystery about this even within my own mind, because intellectually I can tear it apart, yet emotionally it is irresistible to me. I just love this movie and never get tired of watching it.

"Sins" is the story of a brilliant but troubled SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent named Megan O'Malley (Valerie Bertinelli) who has been assigned to the small, seemingly ordinary community of Deer Lake, Washington, to work with the local PD, which is run by Chief Mitch Holt (Harry Hamlin). On her first day on the job, a boy named Josh Garrison is kidnapped, and his gym bag found with a tape recording which says, "Ignorance is not innocence but sin." The investigation which follows reveals that Deer Lake is, beneath its veneer of small town American normality, full of all sorts of dirty secrets, and just about everyone turns out to be a suspect, from the town priest to his assistant deacon to the husband of the missing boy to a local weirdo to Mitch Holt himself. Megan, who has a chip on her shoulder the size of Gibraltar, must navigate a web full of lies, half-truths and misdirection while trying to solve what starts out as a single kidnapping case but eventually turns into the investigation of a whole slew of unsolved disappearances going back decades. There's a conspiracy at work in Deer Lake, a town where, it turns out, you can't trust anyone...because no one is who they truly pretend to be.

"Night Sins" has many problems, most notably an uneven script, which leads to outbursts of bad acting, and a tendency toward TV-movie melodrama. These things are overcome by the lush, elegaic score by Mark (The X-Files) Snow, and creepy narration, provided by the kidnapper. And there are many fine actors involved too, including Mariska Hargitay, Jeff DeMunn, P.T. Vince, Colm Feore and Martin Donovan. But the key element , the thing that keeps me coming back to the series, is really the overall atmosphere of isolation, suspicion and paranoia the series generates, an atmosphere heightened by the fact the story takes place in the dead of winter. This is a mystery story, and a very good one, but the mystery is less important, really, than the sense that we are learning something about the difference between the veneer human beings put up in public and the things they do behind closed doors. We all have secrets, and we've all committed sins. The genius of "Night Sins" is showing how these things can be maniuplated to control us. Because nobody wants their sins exposed to the light of day.

Night Sins is going to air on TNT at 6:00 am PST on Saturday (January 29, 2005)! I haven't seen it yet but I expect it to be quite good. I absolutely *LOVE* Mariska Hargitay, so if she's in it, it must be good. :) I'm reading the book now but I haven't gotten to the part of the book where Mariska's character (Paige Price) comes up so could anyone give me a little summary of her character. I noticed that it's rated NR, let's just say I'm easily terrified, could this be a possible issue? Ugh, what is with this "your comment must be at least 10 lines long" thing? I can't think of anything else to say! LOL I guess I'll just on about nothing until I reach the minimum. I am almost there. OK, well, MARISKA HARGITAY RULES!!!! Thanks so much! Can't wait to see it!!

Nikayla

This adaptation of Tami Hoag's well written novel is an insult. It was poorly directed for one, giving the movie a Lifetime Movie of the Week feel. The script didn't do the novel justice and the changes made didn't make any sense at all. Some of the cast over acted, it was poorly cast anyhow, and the main characters that played Mitch and Megan acted in ways the "real" characters would not (for anyone that has read the book). I could not even stomach to watch the rest. Hopefully, the next time Ms. Hoag has something else that is a mini series or hopefully for the silver screen, she will be given a little more respect.