A young psychopath (Grant Harvey) obsessed with his therapist (Katie Sackhoff) loses control when she spurns his advances, shooting up the college campus where she teaches, taking hostages along the way. The ordeal forces the therapist to deal with some demons of her own.
A Deadly Obsession is of particular interest to me because it was shot predominantly on the campus of Atlantic Union College, my alma mater. The idea that a fundamentalist Christian (Seventh-day Adventist) institution would offer itself up as the setting for a murderous psycho-drama is hard for me to comprehend…but it was what it was. Some scenes — especially those where the psychopath is murdering people in the science building and library where I studied — were unsettling, but mostly the film was a typical Lifetime/Hallmark mystery.
The movie isn’t explicitly a Massachusetts movie, but it is set in a town named “Lancaster” (where most of it was filmed, conspicuously using local police and fire vehicles) and the police wear uniforms with the Massachusetts state seal on the sleeve, so it qualified. The producers did a decent job turning AUC into the generic “Gambles College,” but there were a couple of Easter eggs that belied the college’s heritage.
The “Gambles College” sign isn’t really there…I think it is a CGI addition, although I suppose the producers may have hauled in a granite slab. Having the fictional institution “Founded 1882” is a nice touch, as that was the year AUC was founded. They also caught the campus in typical disrepair, as an “L” in “FOUNDERS HALL” is missing from the building’s façade and one of the porch lights is out. One area where the CGI engineers could have been more precise: the smokestack behind the library is marked “AUC.”The Miles Building and the G. Eric Jones Library, as seen from the Chan Shun Dining Commons.The gunman canvassing the upper level of the library.The therapist’s boyfriend (played by Bart Johnson) happens to be a former elite soldier who served with the special forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and easily talks the Lancaster police into letting him try to confront the shooter alone (obviously). As he enters the library (from a door that is not an entrance, but anyway), he passes a magazine rack that includes a couple of hints to the college’s real heritage: an issue of “Spectrum” magazine and another on vegetarianism.The Lancaster police set up a triage area for the wounded and killed at the Chan Shun Dining Commons.The array of flags representing the home countries of AUC students was left up at the Dining Commons.Our hero carefully canvassing the hallway attaching Haskell Hall with Machlan Auditorium.Haskell Hall was a fallout shelter. This sign is original and not added for the movie.The therapist’s office is in Prescott House.Lancaster police and fire rush past the William G. Nelson Field House.Lancaster fire engine rushes past Lenheim Hall.Following the shootings, a memorial was set up across the mall from the Miles Building.South Main Street in Worcester played the role of Main Street, Lancaster.
Mass Flicks 
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