Ilana Katzenberg (Famke Janssen) is the true main villainess from the 2017 film, The Show (alternately titled, This Is Your Death). She is the head of programming for the WBC Network.
The network aired shows such as the reality TV program, Married to a Millionaire, which ended with Jessica, one of the contestants, shooting and killing John (the main suitor) after he chose Brandi over her, only to later turn the gun on herself. The show's host, Adam Rogers, saved Brandi on the set, and was interviewed about the incident, which he blamed on viewers' obsession with reality TV. Following the incident, after the network's lawyer stated that a legal loophole could allow a suicide to air on TV, Ilana decided to use that to devise a show that allows down and out people to kill themselves, with Adam hosting and the newly hired Sylvia Rowland to produce.
Adam originally turned down Ilana's callous plan, but later agreed to it under the condition that people could call in and donate to the families of the guests. The show, titled This Is Your Death, later premiered and had Sara Hickey as its first subject, resulting in $200,000 being donated to her daughter, Emily, following Sara's suicide. Ilana showed some displeasure over the network's money being used, though she marveled at the ratings and unabashedly continued with the show, urging Adam to have three guests on per show. Later in the film, an edition of the show had Meg Waters attempting to commit suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in her car, only for Adam, Ilana, and Sylvia to all notice that Meg was only knocked out. Ilana ordered Adam and Sylvia to fake the death on TV and then send Meg backstage to complete her suicide. Backstage, Meg attempted to escape the car, only for Adam to put her back in and restart the engine; all the while, the evil Ilana covered up Adam's actions, which Sylvia witnessed via a backstage camera.
The film's climax featured the show's season finale, which included a $1 million payout for the "death of the year." The show was hit with a shocking surprise, as the next guest was none other than Karina Rogers, Adam's younger sister. Karina suffered with depression after the deaths of her and Adam's parents, leading to a pill addiction--which resurfaced after the attention from the show caused her to be on the receiving end of backlash. After losing her job as a nurse, Karina applied to end her life on Adam's show, and once her video was shown, Ilana ordered it taken down, but mainly to save the show rather than concern for Adam. Sylvia refused to take down the video, which prompted the hypocritical villainess to refer to Sylvia as a monster. After Karina injected herself with a lethal dose of drugs, Mason Williams appeared, much to the shock of Ilana--who recognized him as the office building's janitor.
The film ended with Sylvia turning in a flash drive that contained video of Adam assisting in Meg's suicide, and though Ilana's fate wasn't revealed, it can be assumed that she was arrested (off-screen) as a conspirator.
Trivia[]
- Famke Janssen is best known for playing Bond villainess Xenia Onatopp in 1995's Goldeneye.
- Famke Janssen also played villainess Rachel Wright in 2002's I Spy, as well as evil head witch Muriel in 2013's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.