Family Movie Night with Mount Hideaway Mysteries
We look forward to family movie night in our home. We usually combine it with family game night, or alternate turns depending on our weekend plans. It’s a great tradition to start and can create fun memories for your whole family.
One of the challenges of family movie night is finding a movie that we can all agree on and that’s safe for everyone. We’ve watched our favorites over and over, but sometimes it’s nice to find something new. It’s not easy to find something that’s interesting, family-friendly, and that features strong female leads that I won’t be embarrassed to share with my daughters.
If you’re looking for a mystery movie in the same vein as Nancy Drew, you’re going to want to watch Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Exes and Oh No’s.
A Family Friendly Mystery Movie
My daughters and I like Nancy Drew, both the books and the movies, so we were excited to watch a detective movie with a similar feel. Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Exes and Oh No’s features a plucky female solving a mystery by inventive means.
The Plot
Bethany Shanholtz, a beautiful young government operative, moves back to her rural hometown to get away from the spy life. But townspeople start getting murdered and her government bosses convince her to investigate, unofficially. She’s not allowed to use agency resources so she calls upon local friends from her childhood as a homeschooled farm girl.
The investigation quickly leads to Bethany’s ex-boyfriend Jamie and the mystery surrounding his sister’s mysterious death many years ago. The closer Bethany gets to the answers, the more the murders seem to be related to her own past, and the town’s future.
Keep in mind, it’s a murder mystery with a dash of romance so it’s intended for ages 12 and up. However, you can rest assured that there isn’t any of the violence, gory scenes, or objectionable sexual situations that appear in most movies today.
Like I said, my daughters are fans of Nancy Drew and the classic Perry Mason series, so this movie had a similar style, albeit updated to today’s times. Nothing too grim, scary, or sexualized for my daughters to watch.
Positive Homeschool Characters
One of the things I was most excited about is that Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Exes and Oh No’s was made by a homeschool dad, homeschool graduates, and includes positive homeschool characters in the plot! How rare is that?
Mount Hideaway’s Writer/Director, Brett Monk is a homeschooling dad. Brett and his wife Leigh Anne adopted their daughter out of the foster care system at age 13, while the movie was being created.
Making movies with her dad and her “movie crew family” is now part of her homeschool education and vocational training.
Producer/Co-Writer and Lead Actor, Mikayla Mulgrew Leybovich, is a homeschool grad. Co-Star Stacey Bradshaw (“Touched by Grace”, “Unplanned”, “Vindication”) and MANY of the cast and crew members are also homeschooled/homeschool graduates.
Their goal is to create an ongoing, commercially profitable business that employs these folks and encourages others to create similar home-based film company businesses.
I love the idea of supporting and encouraging homeschool entrepreneurs to create entertaining movies like this that the whole family can watch together. Watch this short video to learn more about the heart behind the making of this movie:
Movie Plot Portrays Homeschoolers with Respect
There are few, if any, mainstream movies or TV shows that portray homeschool families as being intelligent and capable people. This movie deliberately weaves homeschooling into the plot in a way that will hopefully be an encouragement to the homeschool community, and to dispel the stereotypes that we’re constantly dealing with.
Strong, Virtuous Female Characters
As I mentioned, finding a movie that values strong, smart women isn’t easy. My daughters and I are always happy to find good mother-daughter relationships represented as they are in Mount Hideaway Mysteries. This is just another reason why I can recommend this movie:
While there are some great guys in this movie, this is mostly a story about strong women. In the media today, women are often portrayed as either victims or bullies. The women of Mount Hideaway Mysteries aren’t perfect, and are working through their own challenges, but they are women that moms and daughters can feel good about spending time with.
Where to Watch Mount Hideaway Mysteries
Whether you prefer streaming on Amazon or Vimeo, or you’d rather have a DVD to watch, you can get Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Exes and Oh No’s in the format you like best.
If you’d like to watch it streaming on Vimeo, you can get a 15% discount by using the coupon code HOMESCHOOL.
The DVD includes the feature film plus the following additional video features:
- The Movie Trailer
- Special Effects Breakdown and Explanation
- Cast and Crew Reactions to Seeing the Movie for the First Time
- The mini-documentary, “A Homeschool Dad’s Perspective on Movie-Making”
- A Behind the Scenes Musical Montage set to the original bluegrass tune “Mount Hideaway Blues”
For less than the price of a single movie ticket at the theater, you can buy a movie for the whole family AND support a family-owned small business that produces wholesome entertainment.
Don’t miss this homeschool friendly movie that’s safe to watch on your next family movie night.
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