Stalked review: Secret military technology falls into the wrong hands as a serial killer takes ownership and begins to torment a desperate single mother.
Stalked
Last year whilst covering Arrow Video Frightfest I was around five months pregnant, and it seemed like almost all the films on the line-up featured a pregnant woman in peril. It made the viewing experience that extra bit harrowing. This year said baby is now eight months old and I figured if there were to be more pregnant women I’d be in the clear. Yet, this year, in a spooky mirroring of my own life, a lot of the films feature new parents as the protagonists. For most of the films, it’s merely been a way for me to bond with the characters that little bit more, but Justin Edgar’s Stalked might have gone that little bit too far…
In the film, we meet Sam (Rebecca Rogers), a military woman currently living in barracks with her five-month-old daughter Amy. Her relationship with the father is strained to say the least, with him having left her for another woman. After a baby-free weekend gets cancelled, Sam finds herself alone with a sick baby. The weekend gets even worse when Sam wakes up – having been kidnapped – in an empty warehouse. As she tries to figure her way out she is attacked by an unseen force. She must then use all of her military training to fight her way out, and get back to her child.
Typically, the peril in a film like Stalked would come from Sam’s own plight as the audience wills her to survive, as she is the hero. That’s not quite the case here though, at least it wasn’t for me; much like Sam, the focus for me was on the sick baby home alone. Given my current situation, having a young baby, the idea of little Amy being sat at home with no one to watch her was terrifying. I could completely put myself into Sam’s shoes, and they were not a fun place to be.
Rebecca Rogers earned a Screen Genre Rising Star Award nomination from Frightfest for her turn as Sam, and it’s easy to see why. From the start, we know that Sam must be a tough cookie, she works in the military after all. Being a new mother hasn’t stopped her keeping in shape, and we first meet her as she goes out for a run, then spars in the gym with a work friend. How she has that much energy and looks after a baby, I do not know, but it serves to reinforce that she’s a woman who can handle herself. It then makes sense that, when she’s captured, she is resilient and compartmentalises her fears and worries so she can just focus on the only thing that matters – getting back to Amy. Rogers doesn’t just play Sam as an emotionless soldier, we also get to see more vulnerable moments, proving that she is only human after all.
The whole film plays out like one big game of cat and mouse, and for the most part, it works well. The score could perhaps do with a little tweaking; sometimes it’s a little too in your face and action-packed for what is on screen. The film also loses some steam during the last twenty minutes. It’s around here that some of the scripting causes troubles; everything gets a little too easy and convenient. That being said, the previous hour can carry you through. Once the film is over, parents will no doubt be racing to the nearest phone to make sure their little ones are safe and sound.
Stalked was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
