Pet

Pet (2016): Seth (Dominic Monaghan) works in an animal shelter where he discovers a forgotten basement. His attempts to get Holly (Ksenia Solo) to date him are rebuffed. He stalks her online, at the Café where she works, follows her. When her ex punches him he gets more determined. He abducts Holly and imprisons her in a cage in the basement. Holly is no ordinary victim though, she has unexpected depths. Quite a few surprises and plot twists in this dark thriller. Although there are some gory and shocking scenes the emphasis is on psychological horror, paranoia and manipulation. Directed by Carles Torrens from a script by Jeremy Slater. 7/10.

Seth (Dominic Monaghan) works at the animal shelter. He runs into waitress Holly (Ksenia Solo) on the bus. She doesn't remember him but he remembers her. He has had a crush on her since school and starts becoming obsessed. Claire (Jennette McCurdy) is her roommate and she is still hounded by her ex Eric. Seth tries to ask her out but she rejects him. He steals her notebook. He sets up a cage in the basement of the animal shelter and kidnaps her. Security guard Nate is usually the only one around and nobody can hear her over the animal noises.

This has a couple of actors that I like. The first half of the movie struggles to pick up the pace in a seemingly predictable kidnapping film. There is a reveal of something different and more interesting around the halfway point. This may work better to compress the first half and do the kidnapping earlier. Monaghan may also be better off playing it less creepy and more of a good Samaritan. This takes the standard horror and gives it a twist. It has potential but doesn't fully achieve an engaging movie.

Holly (Ksenia Solo) is young, beautiful and single. She smokes a lot and aspires to become a writer. She also has an obsessed stalker (Dominic Monaghan), who kidnaps and imprisons her in a dog cage. But Holly has a very dark secret, giving the film a major plot twist. I found Pet to be fairly tense, well acted (Monaghan does a great American accent, something that many Brits can't do - and vice versa), and there is some seriously strong violence and gore. The cast is pretty small, which helps keep it tight. In particular I liked Da Vone McDonald as the security guard, who provides a little light relief in what is a very dark movie. The plot twist does stretch believability, which is the only real negative for me, but overall Pet is a decent watch.

Seth (Dominic Monaghan) is a lonely mild mannered guy who doesn't have a lot going for him, he has no girlfriend, no friends, and a job at a pet shelter that barely bring in enough cash to pay the bills. One day on the bus he spots Holly (Ksenia Solo), a pretty girl that he recognizes from high school. Seth is desperate to ask Holly out but he simply doesn't have the looks or skills to impress her and ends up getting shut down, after a few more failed attempts at asking Holly out Seth starts to becomes obsessed. Eventually Seth's obsession drives him to kidnap Holly, but things don't go exactly the way he planned. I'll refrain from saying more about the plot since one of the few things that this film has going for is that it puts an interesting spin on the whole "Captive" premise.

The film starts off pretty dry, the set up is bland and none of the characters really caught my interest at all. I started becoming a little eager for Seth to just Kidnap Holly already because I just wasn't interested in watching him sulk around obsessing over her and stalking her. Once Seth Kidnaps Holly things do get slightly better, but not much. As I said before the film throws a little curve ball here that mixes things up a bit, it was definitely interesting but they just don't do a whole lot with it, the majority of the film is still just a run of the mill captive flick. There is a little bit of gore, but aside from that and the little twist there just wasn't that much content here. It was basically just enough to keep me from turning it off.

Another thing that becomes clear right away with this film is that even though the cast features a lot of familiar faces, the acting is actually pretty sub par. Lots of mono toned deliveries and many lines that you can tell were supposed to be delivered with a lot of emotion but just come off forced. The majority of the actors featured in the film have given much better performances in previous works that they have been in, so it was weird to see them all just fall flat. It's definitely not the worst acting ever, but it does take away from the tone of the film and makes it a lot less captivating, since this is a pretty dialogue heavy film that was a pretty big blow.

Despite the OK premise, this just wasn't a good film. It had some potential but overall it just fails to do anything worthwhile.

4/10

Interesting thriller starring Lost & Lord Of The Rings star Dominic Monaghan and Lost Girls Ksenia Solo (In a very well deserved leading role) telling the story of an animal shelter worker who becomes dangerously obsessed with former classmate.

Dark, gritty and with some well played out psychological horror Pet is one of those movies that should have been something special but just fell short of the finishing line. And by fell short of the finishing line I mean slipped on a banana peel span 360 backflipped and landed on its head 3 inches from the line in the exact spot Mrs Smiths prized poodle decided to curl one out! I'm not saying Pet is bad I'm just saying it should have been a lot better, a bit longer and with a more satisfying finale.

Once again I have to say it was great seeing Ksenia Solo in such a role but feel that had the movie had more competent writers this would have been something worthy of her resume.

Also worth noting that the movies characters are simply unlikeable and that damages it somewhat. The movie near opens with a scene which made me hate a character so much I wanted to leap through the TV screen grab the characters mop turn it sideways and shove it where evolution for some reason put the male g-spot.

I digress, perfectly watchable effort but should have been so much more than it turned out to be.