Stalked

After being kidnapped while fetching medicine for her newborn baby, former Marine Commando Sam (Rebecca Rogers) finds herself trapped in a seemingly inescapable military compound guarded by armed drones. Before long, Sam realises she’s not alone and is being pursued by an serial killer wearing a stealth suit which renders them invisible. Sam must utilize every aspect of her training as a Marine if she is to survive the ordeal and make it back to her unattended child.

Stalked certainly benefits from a compelling sounding premise, but unfortunately its extremely low budget restraints hinder the execution. Take the location for example: it never feels like a place that Sam can’t escape from, appearing more like a slightly rural storage unit with one scene even showing a car in a parking bay. It’s not without some unforgivably short-sighted decisions from Sam either, with one of the biggest being a reason why the kidnapping happens in the first place.

But it’s the stealth suit which proves to be the most disappointing, amounting to nothing more than a black boiler suit and a modified paintball mask. The invisibility aspect is tackled by having lead actress Rebecca Rodgers mostly resorting to effectively fighting herself, throwing punches and reacting as if she’s receiving them back from an unseen entity. It’s a little cringe-worthy to witness, but to her credit Rogers gives a gusty performance that is undoubtedly the saving grace of Stalked.

Given the film should be putting Sam in situations where her skill set should be put to use, there aren’t many scenarios thrown at her to do so. A lot of it appears to be just common sense or calm thinking under pressure, but in the few occasions where combat coaching is essential, the fight scenes are clunky and creakily choreographed. Again though, it’s thanks to Rogers that these shortcomings can be forgiven as she truly is a strong screen presence.

There’s some interesting ideas lurking within Stalked‘s story, with writer/director Justin Edgar throwing macabre game-playing elements from the gory Saw series as well as nods to the methodically slow paced walking of Halloween‘s Michael Myers, but its own narrative remains too sparse to remain completely engaged, even for its brief 80 minute run-time.

Stalked is available On Demand from 30th December 2019.