 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: A Stalker in the House • Year: 2021 • Country: USA • Director: Jared Cohn • Main cast: Veronika Issa, Jack Pearson, Michael DeVorzon, Scout Taylor-Compton • Runtime: 84 minutes • Production company: Uncork’d Entertainment, Trapdark, 9th Street Productions • TRAILER
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A Stalker in the House (2021) proposes a story that sadly is something happening too often in our modern society. And it is a fiction story, but it could easily be based on true facts. This thing of the men thinking to be in the right to tell the women “if you are not with me then you are not with anyone”, and actually going further from the words and move to actions. Actions that can become abusive and eventually deadly. You don’t need to be reading a movie review from a leisure and entertainment magazine to know this is one of the biggest scourges of our society.
And although this movie takes the actions of the deranged man to the extreme, and even knowing that it is a fiction piece, what that man called Mike does is so evil but yet so active in human nature that in some moments of the movie I actually felt sick. Physically sick. Weak legs and cold sweat. Of course, some defenders of the #NotAllMen speech will jump out and claim most men are not like that. We all know that. The problem is some men are. Maybe they are your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues from work, your family. Maybe you heard something, or you had a hint of suspicion. But no one did anything until it was too late. And some people in their environment would defend them, and the victims and victims’ supporters will be pointed out as the paranoic ones who want to destroy the reputation and life of an innocent man. But, damn it, this shit really happens and it’s a serious issue.
So, now that we know what kind of subject we are dealing with in A Stalker in the House (2021), let’s focus on the movie itself. A young woman meets a man via a dating app and he gets obsessed with her. She tries to be nice, but the guy won’t give up. And then, the madness starts. And yes, she makes the mistake of allowing him into her home too many times, she yields on him just trying not to be too rude, but she should never be blamed for that since it is him, and only him, the only guilty one. And this is the debate the movie presents, if there is any.
A Stalker in the House (2021) is the new film of writer and director Jared Cohn, a very prolific filmmaker used to TV thrillers and low-budget monster movies. And although this time he is not dealing with any kind of lame blockbuster parody, the feeling of watching a TV movie is present during the entire film. A small set of characters with flagged personalities but not very well developed, very limited locations, and the narrative of introduction, middle and, end leaves no chance for much creativity. The direction and the actors are correct, the same as the sets and music atmosphere, but that’s pretty much it. Yet, this is a kind of outstanding movie because it goes deep into the real drama of the subject.
The strength in A Stalker in the House (2021) lays in the character of the deranged stalker Mike and the naive victim Jen, played by Jack Pearson and Veronika Issa. Through the entire running time, since the very beginning when Mike is fighting with his former girlfriend, we all know this is not going to end well, and we pity whoever woman he gets next infatuated with even before seeing her yet. And when they meet, how he acts, how naive she is, and how it all ends, that is truly scary. The two main actors do a credible job, especially in the most intense scenes, on the final climax. It al with a script that doesn’t have the need to be very original, it can be canonical but pure evil. Yes, I know, I remark the word “evil”, because there are not many other ways to describe that. Mentally ill, insane, deranged… but evil nature. Not supernatural, not possessed, pure human evilness.
So, A Stalker in the House (2021) is not the most original film, it is a TV movie-kind of a film with a rigid structure as such, and with a very turn-off and disappointing ending, but it is a credible and scary walk on the worst side of the human psyche. We don’t need to go very far to find pure terror sometimes. The movie is out on DVD on November 9, 2021, so maybe I would give it a watch. Not the most memorable film of the year but one that leaves a mark. And it is because it is the kind of story we are accustomed to hearing and reading about too often. Sadly.
RATE: 6.5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt15262632
