TV Reviews : A Shocking Crime, Then ‘A Test of Love’

“Aftermath: A Test of Love” (at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 2 and 8) is a true-life tale of horrific violence and the struggle of the survivors to deal with the shattering change it brings.

The immediate victims are a mother and her 16-year-old son, who are bound up and forced to swallow acid before burglars in a hi-fi store shoot them in the head. The lingering victims are the family’s husband and three other adult siblings, whose lives are thrown into a maelstrom of anger, grief and shock.

Based on the book “Victim” by Gary Kinder, about the slaughter of innocents in an Ogden, Utah, store in 1974, Gregory Goodell’s teleplay replicates the hallmarks of domestic TV movie trauma: The first 15 or so minutes capture a fairyland lifestyle of cheery bliss, followed by disaster and staggering efforts to cement life’s pieces back together again.

Director Glenn Jordan’s staging of the murders is wrenching, quick and vivid, but not so quick that you don’t feel the victims’ terror. Here’s a classic example of violence that’s totally justified. In fact, it’s dramatically necessary. The fear you feel sets you up to better identify with the family’s anguish.

Richard Chamberlain, as a fallible, unyielding father now compelled to pull the family together or see it disintegrate, is the production’s anchor. Before she disappears, Michael Learned is a loving, protective mom. Newcomer Denis Heames delivers an impressively haunting performance as the gifted adolescent son.