(IMAGE: Vertical Entertainment)
Vertical Entertainment, 2021. Thriller, 86 minutes.
RATING: 3.5 out of 4
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the Uber…
Using phone footage in a movie can feel like an unfortunate low-budget cheat, or a gimmicky way to insert exposition, but in Stalker, it effectively offers us a relaxed, more casual side of lead actor Vincent Van Horn as Andy, a Texas dude packing up his stuff and road-tripping with his dog, Juicebox. By the time the skinny phone footage opens out into a full widescreen view of Griffith Park, Andy doesn’t feel like just another schlub entering Los Angeles and looking for a place. He looks like one – but the stoic face he puts on for the movie’s main cameras has already been pre-countered by the human being we’ve semi-followed on Instagram for a moment.
Director-cowriter Tyler Savage nails that cold feel of an L.A. in which you don’t know anyone yet. Harsh amber and cold blue lights, near-empty bars, the bare bones of that first apartment, lines of people for things you don’t yet know about and can’t have. But Andy lucks out when he meets Sam (Christine Ko) at a bar where she’s been stood up. Their chemistry is instant, and following a charming first date where they both stop pointedly short of penetration, they later go camping and get it on in a tent. It seems so predestined that even their rideshare driver, Roger (Michael Joplin) runs into Andy later and invites him out for a beer. New girlfriend and new best friend, this fast? Even as he clearly has some baggage with his old Texas social circle, he’s doing pretty well.
It’s just a shame that Roger’s a little needy. And Andy cannot read the room – after a night of drinks during which Roger goes on and on about how much he hates liars, Andy blows him off for brunch by claiming he’s staying home, when in fact he’s out with Sam, and Roger knows it. It’s a stupidly minor and needless lie, but one enough to fully unhinge the already loose screws of Andy’s new pal. Using easily accessible online personal information, and some smooth-talking phone calls, he gains access to Andy’s apartment, accounts, and more…and starts to mess with him.
It’s clear what direction this story is going, and it’s to Savage’s credit that we don’t want it to go there. Andy and Sam are an adorable couple with a cute dog, and Ko and Van Horn make you root for them to succeed. In a non-horror romantic drama, they’d be just as effective as characters. Joplin, meanwhile, doesn’t play Roger as a charismatic villain, but an ugly human pustule. Rather than rooting for a climax where he and Andy fight, you’re more likely to just want him gone. In wrestling parlance, Roger has genuine heel heat, and viewers will root to see him destroyed.
Here’s a small SPOILER, albeit a responsible one: the dog lives. But this is the sort of movie where it definitely feels like he might not. Stalker delivers the discomforting feel of actually being stalked, and it’s nerve-wracking. Not every viewer will enjoy this sensation, but it’s tremendously effective.
Savage could even have drawn it out longer; at 86 minutes, the movie doesn’t extend the tension any longer than is necessary. He could have pushed it further – Andy’s not quite at the point where all is lost before the final confrontation – but in the end, the director’s instincts for story intrigue trump his skill at sadism. He’d rather take the story down a new path than simply be predictably brutal. But rest assured – there still will be blood.
Essentially a three-person show, though there are some minor characters on the edges who have fun with their bits, Stalker is one of those rare indies that suggests everyone involved has a bright future ahead. Perfectly cast and shot, its sense of time, place, and paranoia feel expertly calibrated for the moment. Whether viewers already beaten down and stressed by the outside world are in the mood for such is a much more subjective call.
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