Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life
| Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tom McLoughlin |
| Written by |
|
| Starring | |
| Distributed by | Lifetime |
Release dates | June 20, 2005 |
Running time | 87 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life is an original Lifetime television movie which was first broadcast on June 20, 2005. It was directed by Tom McLoughlin and written by Wesley Bishop and Richard Kletter. The movie stars Jeremy Sumpter, Kelly Lynch, and Lyndsy Fonseca. It is now available on DVD.
Plot
Justin Petersen is a popular 16-year-old high school student and a successful swimmer with a steady girlfriend, Amy. Justin's coach announces that Justin has made the All-State team, which pleases his parents, particularly his mother Diane, who used to swim as well.
Justin is introduced to internet pornography when a friend of his sends him a link to a softcore featuring Monica, a fellow student who has a crush on him. Captivated, Justin is then exposed to a porn film at a party, and later browses more explicit pornographic websites, only to be caught by his mother. It is easy for Diane to be aware of her son's behavior, as Justin does little to make his activities clandestine. Throughout the film, Justin's severe addiction to porn escalates and he views it in increasingly public places, making little effort to cover his tracks.
Justin's late nights in front of the computer and escalating addiction soon impact his lap times. He betrays Amy's trust by downloading porn onto her PDA, and exposes his younger brother, Alex (who's only 11), to porn, leaving Alex queasy. Justin begins to gain a reputation at school of being a "porn freak" after showing his friends S&M porn. Eventually, his porn addiction causes him to almost miss the All-State swim finals, where he places third. Discovering a CD-R titled Virgin Vaginas, which Alex had stolen from Justin's bedroom a few days earlier, Diane confronts Justin and moves his computer into the living room.
However, it does not stop him. Justin continues to surf the web for porn, eventually racking up extensive bills on his parents' credit cards. Also, while drinking a double shot espresso and trying to do a history paper assignment on the school library's computer for history class at the school library, he even goes to the extent of using it to access more porn (using his USB flash drive). He eventually gets caught hacking the internet firewall, leading to his suspension from the swim team and being placed on overall probation.
Justin becomes closer to Monica and increasingly ignores Amy. After being pressured to have sex with him, Amy puts the brakes on their relationship, finding Justin's attitude towards sexual matters to be repulsive. However, when Monica tries to seduce him, Justin hesitates, leading an angry Monica to toss him out of her house. After feeling rejected by Justin, Monica throws a physical tantrum alone in her bathroom and bangs her own head on the bathroom countertop, causing it to bleed. Soon after, Justin endeavours to make amends with Amy. After leaving Amy's house, he is noticed by another schoolmate, who relays to other schoolmates that he is near. Monica is seen in a restaurant with noticeable face injuries, which she sustained earlier. It is presumed that she told others that Justin was responsible for them. As a result, the schoolmates beat Justin up on the street, disturbed by both his reputation and the alleged incident with Monica.
Depressed and devastated after being physically attacked, Justin arrives at the school's swimming pool and leaps in, presumably to drown himself. Earlier in the middle of the movie, he would be under the water fantasizing about women and porn. However, this time, he instead thinks of all the things he has to live for. Gradually, he saves himself and apparently breaks his addiction.
Reception
The film has been described as "overwrought" and "Reefer Madness for the PC generation."[1]