December 10th in Chicago. This was the 2nd half of a Netflix double feature night. This was my choice in hopes that it would be some sort of stalk and slash film that I enjoyed in my youth. It wasn't. In fact it was disappointing. The film has a 95 minute run time but could've used another turn in the editing room. Written and directed by Travis Zariwny (credited in the film as Travis Z), the film has some promising moments but never really hits a full stride.
This minimalist picture takes place over a rainy weekend at the apartment of the film's protagonist, Elizabeth (Louise Linton), a cellist for the Portland Philharmonic who received an admission into the London Symphony. This puts a little tension on her relationship with her boyfriend Justin. Elizabeth is being stalked rather aggressively by any one of three potential creeps. The stalker spends a lot of time in the bedroom closet and when Elizabeth sleeps he just creeps around the apartment. He ends up doing away with Justin (whom he stabs one in the back but the body apparently didn't bleed when placed on the floor or the stalker managed to stealthily clean up the mess while Elizabeth is in the shower) and stashes the body under the bed (I'm not sure how she didn't manage to look under the bed at all, I do it at least once day looking for slippers). Eventually the stalker grabs Elizabeth and she wakes up in a basement across the street from her apartment building (I'm guessing that he drugs her, carries her body out of the apartment building, across the street and into another building without anyone noticing).
Some of the stalker scenes are ok but he never really torments her. He just creeps around until he has to kill Justin and it's time to make his move. There's also not a lot of tension in the film either which would seem crucial in a stalker film (check out 2006's Alone With Her to see a stalker film that ratchets up the tension). Maybe Elizabeth wasn't that bright. Plus the stalker identity reveal wasn't very exciting either. Zariwny presents us with 3 potential suspects but only one seemed plausible about halfway into the film. This just wasn't a very good film. It could have been better.
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