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A Stalker in the House begins with a couple fighting, and because of the way it is shot and acted, one might feel like they are watching a cheesy soap opera. It feels like the camera is going to pull back at any moment to show that we are watching what one of the characters is watching. But no. A Stalker in the House is performed with a trademark glossy sheen that makes it look like a TV soap and that continues throughout the film. A Stalker in the House feels more like a cheap Hallmark TV movie than an indie horror thriller because of the ridiculous glossy sheen, and the soapish storytelling. And it does not stop there; A Stalker in the House even has the glorious over-the-top soundtrack these types of Hallmark “thrillers’ have!
The film follows an absolute psychopath named Mike. Okay, he is a complete psychopath. He shoots a woman at the beginning of the film and then moves on to his next target Jen, who he meets on a dating app. When Jen becomes too forceful, she decides to reject Mike. Jen is aggressive and the date has to be cut. Thinking she is trying to apologize to him, Jen lets Mike call and text her, but he turns overly forceful again.
What Jen doesn’t know is that Mike is already obsessed with her and he is not about to let Jen go without a fight. What makes this all the more chaotic is that Jen has to fight for her life.
Holy cow! I don’t think I have ever watched a film with such a degree of cheesiness outside of US TV Films. This film follows the typical framework that Hallmark and Lifetime have set and takes sensationalism to another level. The hallmark of obsession and stalking films is taken to an altogether more unreasonable take. The only thing more bonkers than A Stalker in the House is Nic Cage or Klaus Kinski being cast as Mike!
The strangest part of the film for me is that it was written and directed by Jared Cohn. I personally know best as someone who directed a ton of movies for The Asylum and other equally exploitative work. However, upon checking Cohn’s IMDb page, it seems that, like many directors of horror, he has shifted to center stage in TV and now makes movies that seem to be, in every sense, inspired by the erotic thrillers of the late 80s and early 90s. So I guess A Stalker in the House fits his new oeuvre?
It also fits into the “why the f*ck does this woman(or man) have to be so dumb?” trope that emerged in so many of the erotic thrillers of that time.
First of all, Mike has some pretty amazingly creepy behavior that would qualify him as a stalker, but for some reason, Jen keeps inviting him over and sleeping with him! Jen is an idiot, as described in the script, Cohn most definitely went for the throat on this one. If he didn’t want to make a wannabe TV movie, then he should have tried to be more realistic to begin with.
Mark my words: if Cohn’s intention was to capture the degree of over-the-top lunacy associated with Hallmark/Lifetime Movies, he got it spot on with A Stalker in the House. Such a pity that Cohn didn’t opt for a less glossy route for this one, it would have been a lot more interesting than a this-show-is-so-bad-it-it-good type of movie. On the other hand, who actually wants to be a cheesy TV movie?
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