Lurker Is A Twisty Tale Of Online Obsession Gone Wrong
An Almost Famous riff gives way to a psychological thriller that’s Talented Mr. Ripley meets Perfect Blue.
“What’s the difference between love and obsession?”
So croons Archie Madekwe’s glamorous pop star Oliver, sung with a dead-eyed stoicism as he stares directly at the camera — demanding the answer from his fans, the industry, or maybe us, the audience. It’s the hypnotic chorus to Oliver’s snyth-y chillwave song, but it also might as well be the blaring thesis to Lurker, the razor-sharp new psychological thriller Lurker, from Beef writer Alex Russell.
The film follows an ordinary fan as he strikes up a lucky connection with his idol and manages to infiltrate his inner circle. But his machinations soon take a sinister turn, morphing Lurker from the social-media riff of Almost Famous into a startlingly fresh and twisty new-age take on The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Matthew (a slippery Théodore Pellerin) is just an ordinary twentysomething living in LA. He works at a boutique clothing store that is occasionally frequented by celebrities, but mostly sits empty, leaving him plenty of time to stalk his favorite pop star’s Instagram. One day, that star, Oliver, suddenly rolls into the store with his entourage. Matthew immediately seizes the opportunity to strike a connection with his idol: he connects his phone to the store’s speakers and starts to play a song by one of Oliver’s favorite artists, a deep cut that only the true fans would know about. Feigning ignorance about who Oliver is, Matthew captures Oliver’s attention and earns an invite to his house the next day. Thus begins an awkward and endearing friendship between an isolated pop star and the only person who truly sees him… until Oliver loses interest in Matthew. From there, Lurker takes a surprisingly dark and twisted turn, with Matthew proving that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep an iron grip on Oliver.
Russell, who writes and directs Lurker his feature directorial debut, brings the same sharp and pointed precision that made Beef such a singular experience. And while the film doesn’t plumb quite the same emotional depths as the Netflix series — Madekwe’s charismatic Oliver, while occasionally vulnerable, always feels a little distant — it does have more to say about our current digital society and how parasocial relationships formed over Instagram and TikTok can easily morph into something much more malicious.
Oliver embraces Matthew as a new member of his entourage.
Lurker’s clearest parallel is The Talented Mr. Ripley, particularly the sunny Matt Damon/Jude Law-led classic, but its conversations with idolatry and fandom feel more of a piece with Satoshi Kon’s wildly underrated psychological thriller Perfect Blue. While it doesn’t take quite the surreal turns that Kon’s 1997 masterpiece does, Lurker does feel like it’s picking up the Japanese film’s themes of fame and fandom and running with it, with updated Gen Z slang and TikTok references.
Perhaps the reason that it so successfully elevates itself over its trendy premise is that the film paints an endearing portrait of Matthew at first. He’s so eager to please that even Oliver’s manager Shai (an excellent Havana Rose Liu) worries that he’ll get ripped apart. It’s a sympathetic portrayal that makes Matthew’s sudden sinister turn feel like a genuine rug-pull.
Despite how embedded it is in its contemporary visual language and digital buzz words, Lurker doesn’t feel like it runs the risk of becoming dated; instead its portrayal of the thin line between friendship and fame feels like it will stand the test of time. Stories that navigate the paper-thin difference between love and obsession will probably never grow old.
