Lurker had its Canadian premiere on Aug 1 as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Alex Russell’s debut film Lurker is about obsession. It is in one sense about the parasocial relationships fostered by celebrity, but more accurately it is about the mind of a person who manipulates the world around him in order to embed himself within one celebrity’s orbit. It is a film about a sociopath, essentially.

Matthew (Theodore Pellerin), this sociopathic personality, works at a clothing store occasionally patroned by an up-and-coming musician named Oliver (Archie Madekwe). Matthew plays a song over the speaker that is calculated to get Oliver’s attention. When he gets it, he pretends to have never heard of Oliver’s music. He, of course, has heard it. In fact, he relentlessly stalks Oliver’s social media to gain every piece of information possible. He uses this knowledge to get close to Oliver, to gain the musician’s trust for his own personal gain. He becomes the singer’s videographer. It is only when Matthew’s old friend starts also getting Oliver’s attention that things turn south.

Lurker has a certain dread to it, in that it is obvious from the jump that this sort of parasitic relationship is not going to work out in Matthew’s nor Oliver’s favor. And the nefarious ways in which Matthew ingratiates himself to Oliver is needling in its sense of tension. Often, this involves sabotaging other people who are employed by Oliver, and these small moments of psychological torture are the most intriguing parts of the film.

That said, it takes a very long time for the other shoe to drop and the relationship between Matthew and Oliver to fall out.  Once it does, the conflict is potent enough to move the surface-level parasocial premise toward something more knotty. One late scene between Matthew and Oliver reveals a reciprocal desire. However harmful the result, the fanatic needs the star as much as the star needs the fanatic. Frankly, I find this complication to come far too late. Until we reach the final act, the film spins its wheels around Matthew’s obsession without doing much to heighten the tension.

I wish I had found it more compelling. Pellerin and Madekwe are both more than capable in their roles, and it is enjoyable enough to see the two interact. But Lurker misses something about the celebrity-fan relationship. In the pursuit of nastiness, the concept of fame as a disease which requires (and desires) the dangerously obsessive fanatic is made less tangible. No matter how true-to-life this obsessive parasociality may be, I am not convinced by Oliver succumbing to the Stockholm syndrome that comes with Matthew’s trap. At a certain point, the whole thing feels like something that would never happen in real life, even though it certainly already has.

Lurker: B-

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)