LURKER - Mark Reviews Movies

Lurker, Mubi

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 21, 2025

We think we have a handle on Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), the creepy character at the center of writer/director Alex Russell's Lurker, shortly after meeting him. He works at a clothing store, which turns out to be one frequented by various celebrities, and sure enough, into that shop walks Oliver (Archie Madekwe), a mononymous pop singer whose fame is on the rise.

Surely, Matthew must be a fan. How else does he know to play on the store's speakers, not—because it would be too obvious—one of Oliver's songs, but an older song the music artist loves? The gambit works, and an interested Oliver wants to talk to Matthew, who claims not to recognize the singer or know any of his music. That pays off, too, and Oliver invites the complete stranger to his show that night, even having Matthew put his phone number in the singer's cellphone.

Russell might have told a compelling story about the lengths to which a fan would go to be noticed and the façade that fan would adopt in order to get as close as possible to a celebrity he admires. Instead, he weaves a tale that's bit more complex, because Matthew might very well not be a fan of Oliver and his music. He seems to admire the idea of fame more than anything else.

That makes the film more sinister than the usual sort of story about an obsessive fan who turns into a stalker. Oliver and everything specifically about his career aren't as important to Matthew as the concept of the man and everything he represents. In a stalker narrative, the specific person is the target of the obsession, which makes that person precious in the mind of the fan.

If what we suspect about Matthew is true, Oliver, the up-and-coming pop star, is the most important thing to our protagonist, as long as he can stay close to the musician and the singer maintains some degree of fame. On the other hand, Oliver, the actual person, is basically irrelevant and disposable to Matthew.

It's a very modern conceit, in other words, with which Russell is working here—one based as much on social media followings, in which ordinary people can have a feeling of having a personal connection to a famous person without ever meeting that celebrity, as it is the allure of live performances, photo shoots, making music videos, and traveling the world. Oliver put himself out there, even before he became famous, and wants to be seen as authentic. Matthew takes advantage of that everyday openness and honesty in order to create to a big lie about who he is, what he wants, and how he actually feels about Oliver.

This film becomes quite unsettling, then, because Matthew remains somewhat of a mystery throughout the entire narrative. The only thing we know for certain is that he wants to be within Oliver's inner circle, which happens quickly after Matthew attends the show and says some complimentary things to Oliver—as an "outside observer" of the man's music, obviously.

Oliver is surrounded by friends, real or alleged ones, and people who mainly care about his career, mainly his manager Shai (Havana Rose Liu), who seems to catch on to at least part of Matthew's game immediately. He wants someone like Matthew—an ordinary guy who doesn't know him—around for the honesty, so he enlists him to help make a behind-the-scenes documentary.

The two men genuinely appear to bond—at least as far as a celebrity with aims to become the most famous singer in the world and a pathological liar who wants to latch on to that fame can connect. The fact that there is a connection between them might be saying something about the natures of fame and celebrity themselves, and surely, Russell wants to make a point about that by the time the film reaches its unexpected punch line of a final scene.

Until then, it sticks closely to Matthew, who has to maintain his lies, keep people like Shai and videographer Noah (Daniel Zolghadri) from figuring out his intentions, and make himself so vital to Oliver's own goals and ego that it wouldn't matter if someone in his entourage said the truth about his clinging behavior. This means, of course, that Matthew has to convince Oliver that he is indispensable, and the easiest way to do that is to sabotage the work and the singer's relationships with those other members of the crew. When Matthew's friend and now-former co-worker at the clothing shop Jamie (Sunny Suljic) catches Oliver's attention, we get to see just how far the guy could be willing to go in order to keep everyone and anyone else away from the singer's goodwill.

Russell and cinematographer Pat Scola shoot all of this with an uncomfortable level of immediacy and intimacy, keeping the camera close to Matthew, whose calculating mentality is precisely portrayed by Pellerin. There's a moment when things go wrong for Matthew's plan, and the entire world of the film dims and loses the boldness of the color palette that we have taken for granted. To have Matthew's mindset reflected in the very look, feel, and rhythm of the film makes it even more eerie on almost a subconscious level.

Lurker is, for the most part, a thriller about a dull man trying to make himself more important than he is. The third act, however, becomes the film's most tantalizing, as it deals with a shift in the central power dynamics, shows us that Matthew might have accidentally learned some skills along the way, and puts a much finer point on what the guy really wants. It's simply the same thing everyone else in this game of fame does, so does that make Matthew different or just the norm?

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