There's an unsurprising growing trend of showcasing our modern reliance on social media and interconnectivity in as cynical a way as possible, so going into this, I did not have high hopes. In a word, I expected to find this movie tedious, pretentious, and cliched. While it doesn't begin that way, by the end of it, you suddenly realize that you've just witnessed so many hackneyed tropes, while the premise itself has been stretched so far to the breaking point, that the film more or less turns into a caricature of itself, though I suppose you can say it happens too late for you to be filled with a sense of tedium.
Honestly, 20 minutes into the film, I thought I was not only watching something outside the box, but something REALLY good. The whole premise appears to unfold in an extremely organic way; the dialogue is strong; the psychotic obsessive personality of Ema Horvath, I thought was really well portrayed. She actually reminds me of someone I knew in real life, in terms of appearance and mannerisms, and they were every bit as much of a psychopath. I would actually be shocked if this person hasn't fallen into a serious criminal situation by now. Suffice it to say, at this point, they completely won me over based on style, and I thought the film was very well cast.
Onto the character of Keiynan Lonsdale. He comes across as a complete A. Hole, and at first this is what REALLY makes the film seem like it's a cut above. There's a grey line created where he is very much responsible, and a participant in everything bad that's happening to him, because HE'S the one who pursues her at the start. This makes Ema Horvath's character seem human, sympathetic, and in some ways justifiable, so naturally I thought "Wow this is amazing: a REALISTIC portrayal of a stalker scenario that doesn't devolve into absurd caricature where the characters are behaving in a way completely beyond reason or logic... which of COURSE is when the writer/director steps in and says "Not so fast..." and kicks you right to the nuts... You think to yourself, ok that was a bit rude, but maybe this thing can still be turned around. "NO IT CAN'T," the writer/director fires back, then he squats over your face and drops a big steaming log right into your mouth.
Out of nowhere you're barraged with virtually every cheesy hackneyed trope you can think of. For one, way too much planning involved, from Ema Horvath's character. She kills a postal worker so that MAYBE she can get hired as the new postal worker, so that MAYBE Keiynan Lonsdale's character will talk to her, so that MAYBE they can go on a date. Wow, nice master plan, stupid. Literally all you have to do is follow him in as a customer and strike up a conversation with him, and your odds of success would be exactly the same... minus the complication of committing a murder and getting away with it. In movies like this, wouldn't it be so great if she kills the postal worker and then she shows up "So, I hear you're hiring," ... "Yeah and we've found someone else. Go away." It's just so dumb.
I did learn something fascinating from this movie though. If a cop is brutally murdered, apparently other cops don't care. "Hey, Bob just got an arrow through his neck... should we interrogate the stalker girl who keeps having missing people turn up around her?" ... "No, whyever would we do that?" This is the type of stuff you have to accept, aside from the basic fact that cell phone technology pretty much eliminates 90% of every horror movie premise these days. This isn't 1980 where you could just terrorize a group of people all night and they would conceivably be too isolated to call for help. Also, how are we still doing the "Oh no, muh car won't start!" thing. That's not a thing. It NEVER happens. Like I said, just about every trope. What a shame. The ending itself though... I won't spoil it other than to say it's like squashing an ant with a nuke: over-the-top cringe like you wouldn't believe.
Honestly, 20 minutes into the film, I thought I was not only watching something outside the box, but something REALLY good. The whole premise appears to unfold in an extremely organic way; the dialogue is strong; the psychotic obsessive personality of Ema Horvath, I thought was really well portrayed. She actually reminds me of someone I knew in real life, in terms of appearance and mannerisms, and they were every bit as much of a psychopath. I would actually be shocked if this person hasn't fallen into a serious criminal situation by now. Suffice it to say, at this point, they completely won me over based on style, and I thought the film was very well cast.
Onto the character of Keiynan Lonsdale. He comes across as a complete A. Hole, and at first this is what REALLY makes the film seem like it's a cut above. There's a grey line created where he is very much responsible, and a participant in everything bad that's happening to him, because HE'S the one who pursues her at the start. This makes Ema Horvath's character seem human, sympathetic, and in some ways justifiable, so naturally I thought "Wow this is amazing: a REALISTIC portrayal of a stalker scenario that doesn't devolve into absurd caricature where the characters are behaving in a way completely beyond reason or logic... which of COURSE is when the writer/director steps in and says "Not so fast..." and kicks you right to the nuts... You think to yourself, ok that was a bit rude, but maybe this thing can still be turned around. "NO IT CAN'T," the writer/director fires back, then he squats over your face and drops a big steaming log right into your mouth.
Out of nowhere you're barraged with virtually every cheesy hackneyed trope you can think of. For one, way too much planning involved, from Ema Horvath's character. She kills a postal worker so that MAYBE she can get hired as the new postal worker, so that MAYBE Keiynan Lonsdale's character will talk to her, so that MAYBE they can go on a date. Wow, nice master plan, stupid. Literally all you have to do is follow him in as a customer and strike up a conversation with him, and your odds of success would be exactly the same... minus the complication of committing a murder and getting away with it. In movies like this, wouldn't it be so great if she kills the postal worker and then she shows up "So, I hear you're hiring," ... "Yeah and we've found someone else. Go away." It's just so dumb.
I did learn something fascinating from this movie though. If a cop is brutally murdered, apparently other cops don't care. "Hey, Bob just got an arrow through his neck... should we interrogate the stalker girl who keeps having missing people turn up around her?" ... "No, whyever would we do that?" This is the type of stuff you have to accept, aside from the basic fact that cell phone technology pretty much eliminates 90% of every horror movie premise these days. This isn't 1980 where you could just terrorize a group of people all night and they would conceivably be too isolated to call for help. Also, how are we still doing the "Oh no, muh car won't start!" thing. That's not a thing. It NEVER happens. Like I said, just about every trope. What a shame. The ending itself though... I won't spoil it other than to say it's like squashing an ant with a nuke: over-the-top cringe like you wouldn't believe.