The Lurker (2019)

Scout Taylor-Compton and maybe like one of the other girls in this do a pretty good job, but **everyone** else is bad. I'd be lying if I said that I outright hated _The Lurker_, but it'd be an even bigger lie to say that it was any good. _Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._

The Lurker is a love letter to the slashers of yesteryear. Unfortunately, it's like the letters Viggo Mortensen writes to his wife in Green Book before Mahershala Ali starts tutoring him. The soundtrack consists of a stark synthesizer, and the name of the high school is Crystal Lake High; these two choices are a little too on the nose even for a 'homage', but it's the casting where the makers go too far – too far back in time, that is; they chose actors who were born in the 80's to play schoolboys and schoolgirls, for no discernible reason other than that was the era during which these films were at their peak. Taylor Wilson, the protagonist, is played by Scout Taylor-Compton, who is 31 years old – and not even a very youthful 31; when her character turns out to be pregnant it's a surprise only because looking at her one would think her ovaries withered and died a long time ago). And that's nothing compared to Miles, whose actor, Michael Emery, is 37 years old (a rather hard-lived 37, from the looks of it); that's older than the actor who plays his father. Ironically, Taylor and Miles have the Romeo and Juliet roles in the school play – the irony being that they are one hag short of Macbeth's Three Witches. I'd say this is director Eric Liberacki figuratively winking at the audience, but The Lurker takes the rest of its material seriously, or at least as seriously as this material can be taken.

**_Scout Taylor-Compton in a slasher akin to “Scream,” albeit low-budget_** During the production of a play at a high school in the Chicago area, theater students and members of the faculty are preyed upon by a mysterious lurker in a bird's beak plague mask. "The Lurker" (2019) was described by producers as “an ode to 80’s slashers,” which is true, but it has more in common with “Scream” from the mid-90s, walking the balance beam between serious slasher and semi-parody. Remember Henry Winkler's weird principal? You’ll get the same curiously hammy performances with the drama club teacher and the father at the party house. You also get the unnecessarily mean-spirited characters with a few exceptions, like the interesting long-haired janitor. Scout is, of course, a highlight as the protagonist. She was soon-to-turn 30 during shooting and barely acceptable as a 17-18 years-old student, but this isn’t exactly uncommon in filmmaking seeing as how Roddy McDowall played a high school student when he was 36 in “Lord, Love a Duck.” Petite Kali Skatchke is another standout in the feminine department as Emma. There are a couple of other notables, but the director unfortunately didn’t know how to shoot women (no pun intended) in the manner of, say, the original “Friday the 13th” or “Slumber Party Massacre II.” The story is a whodunnit and the revelation at the end is good; proficient writing on that front. The gore’s well-done as well, for those who care. Unfortunately, there are some technical issues, like questionable dubbing and editing, which offers a kind of off-kilter viewing experience and smacks of inept or low-rent filmmaking. Despite my criticisms, it’s entertaining enough to make it worth checking out for fans of the genre. The movie is short ‘n’ sweet at 1 hour, 14 minutes. It was shot in Chicago. GRADE: C-/C