Bait

The melodramatics flow like lava in this UK telefilm, whose twisted twist on paternal vengeance spurs a cast of scenery-chewing British actors to delirious heights of excess. After their car conks out in the remote countryside, Pam Raeburn (Sheila Hancock), and her daughter Stephanie (Rachael Stirling, real-life daughter of Dame Diana Rigg) are rescued by Good Samaritan Jack Blake (John Hurt). Because Pam is on the lam from an abusive spouse, she doesn't question the hospitality of this local Jack-of-all-trades, and the two women move into Jack's adjacent cottage. Jack, however, has a missing daughter, and after the police abandoned their search for her, bereaved Ja...