This film featured three of our favorite actors, including Barbara Niven, Ashley Jones, and Linden Ashby, all of whom deserve "Lifetime" achievement awards.

"Dead at 17" is a sad tale of two pampered boys, Cody and Gabe Masterson, who murder one of their best buddies, Jason Harris, after Jason is unwilling to promote their cover store of the murder of Becca by Cody.

Becca worked as a stripper at the Lucky Kitty club. When Becca was pushed down the stairs to her death and dumped in the Lancaster Ravine, Jason wouldn't provide an alibi for Cody. Jason paid the ultimate price, dying of a drug overdose from a roofie served to him by Cody.

It is the due to the quick-thinking mom, Alyssa Harris, that the truth about Jason comes out after she conducts her own investigation along with her daughter Danni. Niven gives an especially sensitive performance as Alyssa, who discovers the truth about Cody's visit to the Lucky Kitty strip club and his setting up a "private party" with Becca.

Another interesting character was Holly, the alcoholic mother of young Ty, who was also a witness to Cody's dastardly deed. Holly sobers up and gets her son to man up to reveal the truth.

If there was a theme to the film, it was the importance of family values. Alyssa and Holly were both single moms who instilled decency in the lives of their teenage sons. By contrast, the money-grubbing parents of the Masterson boys were caught up phony values of success to the degree that they never achieved a moral compass in their lives.

After seeing this movie, I just realized it's the same as The Crucible, only worse. What those guys did was wrong. They should have told the police what was going on instead of keeping it covert. I knew it was going to catch up with them very soon, and it did. There's always an outcome. No wonder one of the guys committed suicide. One of those guys was lucky that he's not in prison right now. There was no need for those guys to keep it a secret. Nobody is that dense. The mother of her son that committed suicide wanted to know what was going on so she would feel better. It's a good thing that they confessed, but Cody made a mistake lying about it. It is just like The Crucible when Abigail made a pack to keep what they did in the woods covert. It all caught up on them. They eventually got busted, just like those guys who covered up the truth about what they did at their private party. I'm glad they got arrested and were found guilty on all charges. They got what they deserved. There was no excuse for what they did. You see how much better it is to tell the truth instead of just keep lying and keeping it covert. This is what happens when you keep things covert. Your conscience starts bothering you up to the point where it starts driving you crazy. It won't shut up unless you spill the beans. You know what they say "The truth will set you free." Remember that.

I thought this was an outstanding film.

A young fellow, with college looming and so much to look forward to, is lured to a party with three other guys and a stripper. When one of the guys wants action from the stripper, they quarrel and he kills her. Our guy reluctantly agrees to help in ditching the body but is consumed by guilt. When he tells the friend who killed that they have to go to the police, the friend and his brother drug him to death.

It appears that the guy killed himself for breaking up with his girlfriend as well as a college rejection. His mother refuses to believe that this was a suicide and pursues her own investigation. The film is a good one as she comes to the truth. It shows the steps that she has taken along the way.

Well worth the watch.