Devil on My Doorstep is a new Lifetime thriller directed by Brittany Underwood and written by
Justin D. James. It stars Lyndon Smith, Jenna Dewan, Steve Kazee, Rachel Lindsay and
Michael Thomas Grant. While typical of Lifetime in many ways, the dangerous outlook this
movie has on mental illness is disturbing, to say the least. With a lead who is insufferable to
watch, it’s a story about stalking where two characters with histories of mental health
problems are painted as dangerous individuals from top to bottom for no reason other than
to give the plot a sense of unpredictability. The only thing that remains unpredictable by the
end is how low our expectations for Lifetime writers should really be despite the standards
most of us already expect from them.
Devil on My Doorstep (2023) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis
Chloe has recently lost her grandmother. For three years, she took care of her while she was
sick, having left her job as a receptionist at a rehabilitation clinic. She has recently joined as
a delivery dispatcher for a courier service where, on the first day of the job, she meets a
friend from school, Lewis. He is working as a dispatch manager at the same company, and
the two haven’t met since school. It’s clear that he has a crush on her, but he is a nervous
type of person and doesn’t make any moves. Chloe makes a mistake when trying to provide
Rita, a delivery woman, with an alternative route. This means that the latter will miss out on a
pickup from a regular customer. Chloe asks another colleague, Theo, to do it instead of Rita, and he agrees on the condition that they go out on a date that night. She agrees.
Rita’s client, whom Theo picks up some packages from, is Natasha, a popular influencer. She
has recently lost her husband and is trying to cope with it as she keeps up her appearances
on social media. Her manager, Sloan, is the only friend she has who is extremely supportive
of her. Natasha also has a book releasing soon. She catches Theo’s eye. That night, during
his date with Chloe, Theo reveals that he was a football player who had to give up on his
prospects after a series of concussions. He has had mental health issues in the past but has
learned to deal with them on his own. When a drunken man stumbles on Chloe’s chair, he
gets uncannily aggressive with him, scaring Chloe a lot in the process.
The next day at work, Theo steals a package for Natasha from Rita’s lot. Lewis notices this, and when he asks him about it later, Theo quite calmly threatens him to make sure that no
one else finds out about it. Soon, Natasha becomes the center of both Theo and Chloe’s
attention. In their own ways, they try to get close to her with unclear intentions.
How does Theo get Natasha to date him?
During his first visit to Natasha’s place, Theo found out about her dog, Arger. When dropping
by at her place with the excuse of misplaced packages is no longer viable, he decides to
kidnap Arger. He keeps Arger with him all day while Natasha’s anxiety worsens. Then, that
night, he drops him off at her place, stating that he found him at a dumpster on his delivery
route. Natasha is extremely grateful, and so Theo takes the opportunity to ask her to drive
him to the gas station. Following this, he asks her out on a date to a piano bar, having
already found out that she plays the piano. Natasha is not in a place to date someone just yet and politely refuses, though keeping it open as a future possibility when she is ready. Theo, too, politely backs down, or so it seems.
A few days later, he bumps into Natasha at her yoga center, pretending to be regular there.
Natasha has been getting badgered by Sloan to start dating people, and so she decides to
give Theo the green signal. Theo’s orchestrated coincidences, thus, work out in his favor this way.
- A still from Devil on My Doorstep (2023).
How does Chloe befriend Natasha?
Chloe finds out about Natasha after the case of mistaken packages (when Theo stole Rita’s
package). After looking into her social media presence and the positive outlook on life that
she encourages and embodies, Chloe gets obsessed with her. This makes her kleptomania
surface as she starts stealing from the packages in the warehouse. She attends Natasha’s
book signing at a local bookstore, from where she steals one of the copies of her book meant
solely for people attending the signing. There, much to her shock, she also notices Theo
secretly attending it.
This is when Chloe starts to realize how Theo has started to invade Natasha’s private life.
After getting implicitly threatened by him when he catches her keeping an eye on him during
the dog ordeal, Chloe decides to inform Natasha about him. At Natasha’s place, as she’s
figuring out how to introduce herself to her, he hears her scream and rushes to her aid.
Natasha had simply tripped and fallen but was surprised to find someone in her backyard. She
mistakes Chloe for being her neighbors’ caretaker while they’re away on vacation, and she
decides to play on. This introduction leads to a friendship where Chloe lies through her teeth,
including her job, to maintain it while engineering a bond through all the things she has
learned by reading Natasha’s book, which hasn’t been released to the public yet.
Devil on My Doorstep (2023) Movie Ending Explained
Who abducts Natasha and why?
Following Theo’s date with Natasha, Chloe starts to lose her grasp on things around her. In
order to prevent Sloan from reporting her to the authorities after she breaks into Natasha’s
house, Chloe severely injures her by hitting her on the head with a blunt object. Then, Theo
comes over to her place and threatens her to stay away from Natasha. He also points out
that Chloe was never a receptionist at a rehabilitation center for mentally ill people but was a
patient there herself and that she made up the receptionist’s story. The next morning, she gets
to know that people at work have found out about her actions at work, such as sneaking into
Theo’s truck and stealing packages from CCTV footage.
Chloe, in a state of pure distress, packs her bag and is about to leave the city when, at a
stop, she learns that Natasha has blocked her on Instapixer (this world’s Instagram). The
next day, she breaks into Natasha’s house and kidnaps her. She takes her to the warehouse
at work, and when Natasha breaks free, she pretends that it’s Theo who has kidnapped her
and that she is looking out for her. She manages to convince Natasha to trust when
suddenly, a tied-up Theo appears in front of her, revealing how Chloe has been the one
preying on Natasha all along. He asks her to run as he cannot help her in his state. Natasha makes a run for her life while an unhinged Chloe tries to hunt her down. Natasha eventually
manages to overpower her after she is almost suffocated to death by Chloe.
The police arrive, and Chloe is taken into custody. It is implied that Natasha and Theo will not
continue dating following an amicable split. A while later, Natasha packs up and leaves town,
as she had been meaning to before getting abducted. Sloan has now recovered and bids her
goodbye. In the final scene, we see Theo behind a desk, looking at video footage of multiple
women through cameras he has surreptitiously put in their items. These are all probably
women on his delivery route, and thus, it turns out that Theo is not innocent by any means
and a dangerous stalker, after all, as the film had been building up to the climax.
