It Was Him or Us

It Was Him or Us is a 1995 made for television movie made for Lifetime Movie Network. It stars Richard Grieco, Ann Jillian, Monique Lanier, and Richard Masur.

Plot

One night in a small town (name unknown) Peggy Wilson and her daughter Carrie get up and leave Peggy's abusive husband and Carrie's father Buddy Wilson but as they try to leave Buddy comes to the pickup begging Peggy to forgive him and for Carrie to open the door to which Peggy points a gun at Buddy telling him to stay away from her and Carrie and leaves.

Eighteen years later Peggy, is now living in Salt Lake Utah with her new husband Walter Pomeroy with whom she has 2 sons Jesse and Stevie but her daughter Carrie, who is a single mother to a 5 year old little girl named Jenna is living with them and complains about not having a boyfriend or husband. Carrie then goes to apply for a job in an office at a construction site to which she meets young good looking construction worker Gene Shepard and he asks her to date him to which she says yes and when he comes to pick Carrie up for their first date the family seems to approve of him because of his kindness but Peggy makes the comment that she wished Gene had called first to which Carrie tells her Mom to be nice and leaves with Gene to go out on the first date to a pizza restaurant to which the two make love in the bathroom claiming they were meant for each other.

A few days later Carrie invites Gene to a party at a bar with her friends but Gene says no because he doesn't wanna hang out with losers to which Carrie goes to the party alone and while there she dances with a friend of hers named Scotty to which Gene (who had secretly followed Carrie to the bar) appears and beats up Scotty in a violent rage so the Bar Manager kick Gene out. Later when Carrie tries to go into her house Gene violently pulls her away from the house and yells at her in an uncontrollable violent anger to which Peggy comes out and tells Gene to leave Carrie alone. Gene violently leaves and runs over their mailbox with his car and Carrie blames her Mom for trying to help her. The next day Gene's mom Maggie Shepard comes over and asks Carrie to come have lunch with Gene and her at their house, which she does and Gene apologizes to her for getting violent and promises to someday marry her and buy a house for her, him, and Jenna; but when Gene goes to work later he learns that his boss has fired him because Peggy found out that Gene had a history of violence and reported it to his boss. Gene and Carrie go to Peggy's house where Gene lets out his anger about getting fired and Carrie calls her Mom crazy and blames her for getting Gene fired and decides that she and Jenna are going to move in with Gene and his mother.

Three months later Gene, Carrie, and Jenna meet Peggy and Walter and the boys in the park to have a picnic at which things seems to work out well but when Carrie and Peggy take Jenna to a merry-go-round Gene, tries to call Carrie but she doesn't hear him. When they return home later that night, he takes his anger out on her, because he believes that she was trying to ignore him at the park and he throws things around the house. Carrie grabs Jenna and leaves but as she and Jenna get in the car, Gene comes out with a piece of wood' hits it on the car window, and orders Carrie out of the house. The police come and take Gene to jail and Walter and Peggy show up; Peggy tells Maggie her son is sick, and runs into the house and embraces Carrie and Jenna. The next day Carrie visits Gene in jail and tells him she won't see him anymore, but on Saturday while at the mall with Scotty, Gene appears having got out of jail on parole, and violently beats up Scottie believing that Carrie is in love with Scottie, but Carrie tells Gene to leave her alone and that she can put him in jail for a very long time.

On Sunday Carrie receives a call from Gene asking her to forgive him but she lies to Gene saying that she is seeing somebody else and that the person is coming over to meet her and hangs up. Gene in a violent anger range grabs a gun and goes to the house and meets Peggy in the living room telling her that he's there to kill her, Carrie, Walter, and the boys. He then hears Carrie downstairs on the phone with Scottie and rushes down there and grabs Carrie and brings her upstairs while Jesse and Stevie manage to hide in an airvent downstairs and find a secret exit from a wooded window. They soon notice their Dad returning home from a hunting trip and they try to warn him, but he doesn't hear them and enters the house and is also taken hostage by Gene. Luckily the boys are found by Scottie who frees them and they go to get the police. When the police arrive at the house Lt Washington asks the boys about what happened so the boys tell her about their sister's boyfriend coming in with a gun threatening to kill everyone. Then Gene appears at the door and the police draw their guns. but Gene puts Jenna down and returns inside the house while Jenna walks safely to the police and her uncles.

As night falls the police try to do everything to get Gene to cooperate with them, even bringing his mom to the house to talk to him, but nothing works and when Walter tries to stop Gene by jumping onto him from the closet inside the bedroom Gene knocks him out cold with his gun. While Gene grabs Carrie and begins to talk to her, telling her how much he loves her, Peggy sneaks into the basement and talks to Lt Washington who tells her to try to sneak out the exit her sons did, but Peggy tells her that she won't leave her daughter alone. She secretly goes into her room and grabs the gun Walter had, and points it at Gene firing and killing him. As the sun rises Peggy and Carrie walk out of the house while the police bring out the bodies of Walter and Gene. Maggie cries out Gene's name when she sees his dead body and looks Peggy in the eye and then follows her son's body to an ambulance. Lt. Washington then tells Peggy that Walter is gonna be alright and that she could have lost her life while in there, to which Peggy replies When it comes to your kids you have to do what you have to do. She then returns to Carrie, Stevie, Jesse, Jenna, and Scottie and the film ends.

Cast

• Anne Jillian as Peggy Wilson-Pomeroy
• Richard Grieco as Gene Shepard
• Monique Lanier as Carrie Wilson
• Richard Masur as Walter Pomeroy
• Brooke Ashley as Jenna Wilson
• Spencer Treat Clark as Jesse Pomeroy
• David Gallagher as Stevie Pomeroy
• Bette Ford as Maggie Shepard
• Wil Wheaton as Scottie
• Lorraine Toussaint as Lt. Washington
• Brett Palmer as Buddy Wilson