The Lurker

I saw the bad reviews about the casting but thought I could ignore it if it had enough of an "80's slasher" feel to it because none of those actors were teenagers either but it really was too hard to get past. I actually burst out laughing when Taylor-Compton referred to herself as "underage" to a man who looked like her husband...if not, son.

But again, I could have forgave it if the plot was substantial but it wasn't. It was uneventful and by-the-numbers. I guess if you're a big Horror fan it might be worth a watch if you have some time to kill. But I wouldn't spend money on it.

The Lurker is oddly titled as everything is pretty straight forward once you understand what the plot is. The structure of the movie is to keep you off guard as you aren't certain what the cast is talking about in terms of what is known about the main character. Bt about half way through, it's pretty ovbious what is happening and what's the "secret."

The cast is decent even though they are much too old to be high school seniors. They do the "mean girl" well enough, and creepy toxic male efficiently enough. But, this can't compensate for the tepid plot and twist, as well as the unsuccessful ending. Instead of continuing their attempts for intrigue, the ending simply showcases the base impulse of the characters. Well how not fun this is.

Mediocre production with basic plotting, and mostly adequate acting make this tolerable, but at the end, this wasn't worth the time spent watching.

Following the death of a faculty member, the students of a local high school play decide to carry on in their honor, but when the lead actress becomes convinced that she's in danger for a cruel prank she and her friends pulled years earlier they find the performance targeted by a masked killer out for revenge.

On the whole, this was a disappointing slasher. One of the better aspects here is the rather fun setup and layout of the school's performances that are shown here. The performances pieces are quite high-end for a high-school quality production, especially the opening which goes alongside the fine stalking of the victim throughout the school as it's ongoing. Likewise, the latter part of the film where it goes away from the school to a series of enjoyable stalking at the house part gets another fun addition of some brutal kills to the mix with bashings by a bat, drowning in a sink and numerous grisly impalements which is all that is likable here, unfortunately. There are some big problems on display. Among the biggest drawbacks is an utterly bland, cliche and unimpressive high-school drama setup that takes place at the school. The entire setup about the backstabbing and jealousy that arises when dealing with the club-members, from secretly trying to sabotage the other actors to get their turn in the spotlight or the clique of mean girls trying to get through the year together with a secret intact, are nowhere near interesting at all and are just absolute cliches that have no point in being included here. All their inclusion seems to offer up is eye-rolling and boredom throughout the first half here with the inclusion of these insipid and useless elements present. The other problem is the terrible and completely out-of-left-field finale that undermines what happened beforehand here. The true revelation of the killer makes no sense as there's nothing about their intentions mentioned as a motivation for getting involved that requires them to engage in this slaughter as all of it just comes off as stupid. That reveal also changes around a leads' likability by switching around their entire setup to have it make sense, and the entire outcome in the hospital makes no sense either if the entire point is undermined by performing what happens in full view of everyone. It's not shocking, intriguing and just makes this more of a mess than it should.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Scout Taylor was born in 1989...means she is 30 years old in 2019 . Did you really really have to choose a 30 year old girl to play a high school girl? Who belives that anyway? It's cool you put an 80s sound and desaturate the colors and give some sense of nostalgy...we say "oh what a cool movie", then we see the 30 year old girl who is probably using anti-aging treatment prentending to be a high school girl. Her parents look younger than her.

And with her hair style and her wrinkles...I just couldn't belive the main character. It was just distrupting my concentration.

Good lead actress but after that not much to write home about. story made very little sense. and the very last kill was pointless and stupi the way it came about

2.9