History Film / TheBrideHeBoughtOnline

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: The general vibe given off by Avery and her friends. Kaley is the Mean, spending much of her screen-time as an unrepentant AlphaBitch prankster. Avery is the Nice, as while she certainly could've done more to stop her, she's consistently opposed to Kaley's nasty pranks and tells her off about it on numerous occasions--seemingly to the point of being willing to end their friendship if she doesn't stop. That leaves Mandy as the in-between, as while she's an overall nice girl who also isn't too comfortable with Kaley's actions, she's demonstrably less willing to stand up to her than Avery is.

* FormerlyFat: Mandy's backstory, with the implication that she sticks around with the other girls for fear of abandonment.

The story starts with three close-knit Southern California high school seniors: Avery (Creator/AnneWinters), Kaley (Annalisa Cochrane, who later played Addy on ''Series/OneOfUsIsLying'') and Mandy (Creator/LaurenGaw). They run a popular anonymous blog focused on pranks, with Kaley especially taking the initiative in organizing them. Kaley's latest plan is to set up a fake profile for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipina]] woman on a MailOrderBride website to see if anyone responds. Someone does: John (Travis Hammer), a socially awkward IT worker who happens to live close by. After sending him messages and accepting his money, the girls follow him to the airport to film his humiliation when "Diwata" fails to arrive from Manila, though Avery and, to a lesser extent Mandy, aren't entirely comfortable with the situation. Devastated, John uses his computer skills to identify the girls, and comes up with a plan for revenge, also based around {{catfishing}}. But as the plan takes a criminal turn, it's up to Det. Kathy Schumaker (Creator/AlexandraPaul) to sort things out.

* RiddleForTheAges: Where did [[spoiler:Kaley end up]]? After the movie's debut there was speculation that the lack of resolution for that subplot was a SequelHook, but a sequel was never made.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Christine Conradt, who holds a master's degree in criminology, says the movie isn't based on any single specific case, but that she borrowed some elements from a few real life incidents for the story. Some have also likened John to mass murderer Elliot Rodger.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Part of Kaley's taunting of John in the warehouse, with a side of VirginShaming.
-->'''Kaley''': So why'd you bring us here? So you can sleep with us? So you can ''finally'' experience having sex with something other than your hand?

The story starts with three close-knit Southern California high school seniors: Avery (Creator/AnneWinters), Kaley (Annalisa Cochrane, who later played Addy on ''Series/OneOfUsIsLying'') and Mandy (Lauren Gaw). They run a popular anonymous blog focused on pranks, with Kaley especially taking the initiative in organizing them. Kaley's latest plan is to set up a fake profile for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipina]] woman on a MailOrderBride website to see if anyone responds. Someone does: John (Travis Hammer), a socially awkward IT worker who happens to live close by. After sending him messages and accepting his money, the girls follow him to the airport to film his humiliation when "Diwata" fails to arrive from Manila, though Avery and, to a lesser extent Mandy, aren't entirely comfortable with the situation. Devastated, John uses his computer skills to identify the girls, and comes up with a plan for revenge, also based around {{catfishing}}. But as the plan takes a criminal turn, it's up to Det. Kathy Schumaker (Creator/AlexandraPaul) to sort things out.

* AlphaBitch: Conceited, cruel Kaley almost seems like she took notes from [[Film/MeanGirls Regina George]] herself. She's rude to pretty much anyone who isn't her friend, and she revels in catfishing John, constantly mocking him as an ugly loser, even taunting him ''after he's tied her up in the warehouse''.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Part of Kaley's taunting of John in the warehouse, with a side of AManIsNotAVirgin.

* YouNoTakeCandle: "Diwata" talks this way in her messages to John, which he seems to find endearing. He also buys some English lesson books for her. He and Kaley may not be aware that English is an official language of the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, and almost all the population of the country is perfectly fluent in it.

* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: An unusual PlayedForHorror example, as the possibility that John might try to rape the girls hovers over all the warehouse scenes. Kaley even flat-out accuses him of wanting to do this, plus at one point he makes a creepy pass at Avery, but ultimately nothing happens.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: As if she wasn't already terrible enough, it turns out that Kaley used the photos of a Filipina model who died in a car accident for "Diwata".

* WouldHitAGirl: John knocks Mandy out with a blow to the head when abducting her, and Kaley is slapped in the face by [[spoiler: the human traffickers John sells her to]].

* AlphaBitch: Conceited, cruel Kaley almost seems like she took notes from [[Film/MeanGirls Regina George]] herself. She revels in catfishing John, constantly mocking him as an ugly loser, even taunting him ''after he's tied her up in the warehouse''.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: A rare case of a Lifetime movie without clear-cut heroes or villains, making it very controversial among fans of the channel's movies. You definitely feel awful for John after what the girls did to him, but for revenge he does some truly despicable things. And yet, he never quite crosses completely over into evil, and his final scene is heartbreaking. Meanwhile, Kaley is just a horrible excuse for a human being, and her callousness toward John is sickening. But she certainly didn't deserve [[spoiler:to become a victim of HumanTrafficking]]. The "good" member of the group, Avery, tells Kaley off, but never actually does anything to stop her, and Mandy is extremely wishy-washy.

The story starts with three close-knit Southern California high school seniors: Avery (Creator/AnneWinters), Kaley (Annalisa Cochrane) and Mandy (Lauren Gaw). They run a popular anonymous blog focused on pranks, with Kaley especially taking the initiative in organizing them. Kaley's latest plan is to set up a fake profile for a [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipina]] woman on a MailOrderBride website to see if anyone responds. Someone does: John (Travis Hammer), a socially awkward IT worker who happens to live close by. After sending him messages and accepting his money, the girls follow him to the airport to film his humiliation when "Diwata" fails to arrive from Manila, though Avery and, to a lesser extent Mandy, aren't entirely comfortable with the situation. Devastated, John uses his computer skills to identify the girls, and comes up with a plan for revenge, also based around {{catfishing}}. But as the plan takes a criminal turn, it's up to Det. Kathy Schumaker (Creator/AlexandraPaul) to sort things out.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bride_he_bought_online.jpg]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: Wanda's]] attempt to rescue Kaley and Mandy from John ultimately ends with them being fatally shot by the latter.

* DownerEnding: The story ends with [[spoiler:John killing himself, and Kaley stranded somewhere in the world of sex trafficking, and even if she gets rescued, she's still facing charges for fraud.]]

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Wanda, who otherwise is a pretty horrible person, briefly shows concern for John when she sees he's bleeding. [[spoiler: She also attempts to save Avery and Mandy after learning what John has been up to]].

* {{Catfishing}}: The girls (but mainly Kaley) pretend to be a woman from the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} and gladly accept John's money, all as a prank. For revenge, John hires a hunky male prostitute to befriend the girls (but again, mainly Kaley), then ghost them at a skate park.

* NeverTrustATitle: The title makes you think that the protagonist is a MailOrderBride, but the bride doesn't actually exist.

''The Bride He Bought Online'' (also called ''Flirting With Madness'') is a 2015 Creator/{{Lifetime}} [[LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek Movie of the Week]] {{Thriller}} written and directed by Christine Conradt, marking the directorial debut of Conradt, who'd written dozens of Lifetime movies dating back 2001.

* ItsAllYourFault: After Kaley is abducted and tied up with Mandy, the latter wastes no time blaming the former for their predicament.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Wanda, who otherwise is a pretty horrible person, briefly shows concern for John when she sees he's bleeding.

* Catfishing: The girls (but mainly Kaley) pretend to be a woman from the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} and gladly accept John's money, all as a prank. For revenge, John hires a hunky male prostitute to befriend the girls (but again, mainly Kaley), then ghost them at a skate park.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Up until the skate park scene, John's revenge scheme is intense, but still tit-for-tat in responding to a catfishing with a catfishing, but then he adbucts the girls one by one, ties them up, and [[spoiler:tries to sell them to sex traffickers]].

* GreyAndGrayMorality: A rare case of a Lifetime movie without clear-cut heroes or villains, making it very controversial among fans of the channel's movies. You definitely feel awful for John after what the girls did to him, but for revenge he does some truly despicable things. And yet, he never quite crosses completely over into evil, and his final scene is heartbreaking. Meanwhile, Kaley is just a horrible excuse for a human being, and her callousness toward John is sickening. But she certainly didn't deserve [[spoiler:to become a victim of HumanTrafficking]]. The "good" member of the group, Avery, tells Kaley off but never actually does anything to stop her, and Mandy is extremely wishy-washy.

* TorturePorn: Probably the closest you could get to this on Lifetime, as John eventually kidnaps the girls, bounds and gags them, and traps them in an abandoned warehouse, with tension over what exactly he's planning to do with them.