At first glance, "Killer Coach" is about a champion swimmer on the receiving end of harassment by a deranged male coach. But, as is the case with many Lifetime films, the real story is about the bonding of a mother and a daughter.

Samantha Morgan is a superb swimmer, and her principal coach is her mother Gina, a former bronze medalist swimmer herself. But Coach Morgan passes the duties on to an assistant named Bryce Hinge, whom she has hired primarily as a more impartial mentor to her daughter with upcoming trials. Samantha's mother believes that her daughter has the potential to take home the gold.

It turns out that Bryce Hinge is an predator, and he is instantly besotted with Samantha. But after Bryce is rebuffed, he truly becomes unhinged and threatens to expose Samantha's mother, who allegedly used HGH to win her bronze medal. Samantha is then in the direst of circumstances as she tries to simultaneously fend off Bryce and to protect her mother.

One of the most interesting scenes in the film is when Samantha travels outside of L.A. to meet with Bryce's father, who was a former swimming commissioner. The father knows of Bryce's mental condition that may have stemmed from his mother's suicide when he was age ten. The father clearly senses that Samantha is another victim of his predator son, yet fails to take any action to prevent the abuse.

Other interesting characters are Lucas, the boyfriend of Samantha, who valiantly tries to assist her in getting out of a bind. There is also Emily, a fellow swimmer, who is both a friend and a rival to Samantha. Then, there is the fatally flawed Bryce, who is constantly grinning with the phony smile that is his trademark device as a predator.

But the heart of the film is the touching mother-daughter relationship. While Gina and Samantha have grown apart and there is tension during the period in which the smooth-talking Bryce is harassing the daughter, the mother's love comes shining through at the time it is needed the most.

For a pleasant change, this is not a racially divisive movie.

Mother is also daughter's high school swimming coach and she is as strict as they come and her attitude towards her daughter is no different. Along comes an assistant coach that mother hires and alas, the trouble begins.

After a pool interlude with this guy, he never lets her forget it and threatens to expose her mother for a drug rap years ago.

There are actual no killings here; although, in the case of the girl's boyfriend, we come close.

Basically, a story of a very sick young man who found his mother dead via suicide and never forgot it.

School gym assistant coach takes a liking to one of his swimmers and after meeting with her for the third time has sex with her in the pool. She immediately tells him it's over and of course he doesn't listen. He finds evidence about her mom, the actual swimming coach, about her taking drugs from when she was a swimmer and threatens to expose the mom if she doesn't continue to see him. He also has a video of the two having sex in the pool. The problem I had was how unbelievable the girl was. Her wide eyed doe look was annoying. You didn't get a sense of her fear or anxiety. It all felt like she was trying to hard. That she was "acting". It's hard to enjoy a movie like this when the main character isn't convincing. The movie felt rushed. They should have spent a little more time building tension between the girl and the stalker. Instead she went hot and cold so fast your head spun. And then the "climax" was horrible.

****major spoiler alert**** He ties up mom and then using her phone lures the girl to the pool. She gets there only to find him Holding a gun. He tells her he wants to go back to the night they had sex and makes her get into the water with him. She jumps in and pretends to want him and then shouts NO and proceeds to belittle him. He drowns her and she holds her breath then when he lets her go she jumps out grabs the gun and shoots him. Now when she started to belittle him I was shaking my head. It was so sad to see someone fail so miserably at acting but when she shot him and tried so hard to look horrified all I could feel was embarrassment for her. I kid u not. Don't watch the movie but fast forward to that scene. There is no way anyone could keep a straight face. The rest of the actors weren't that bad. But the main character ruined the movie. If your leading lady can't convince an audience that she's a damsel in distress. If you Can't feel her anxiety or fear then your film is in trouble. I've disliked movies before and have been disappointed in some people's acting skills but this is the first time I truly disliked a movie based solely on one of the characters horrible acting skills. If they had chosen a different actress (I use the term loosely) it would have been a solid 6/10. There were some irrational story-line flaws such as her going to see his dad, and his dad who didn't know the girl from Adam told her things no parent would tell a complete stranger. Or who came to the rescue of the mom, did they put all the characters name in a hat and drew one? There are much better movies similar to this that is so much better. I recall one that had mark walburg in it that was pretty good actually. I would search for that one and give this one a wide berth.