First Rule of Stalker Club
It's been two years since Ashley's (Kelcie Stranahan - Stalked by My Neighbor) father was killed in a car crash and since then she has started dating Darren (JT Neal) and hanging out with his friends, who all love themselves. It is with the friends that they decide to participate in a game called the Stalker's Club, where one of them, having picked a piece of paper out of a hat, has to secretly stalk the others and make it as scary as possible whilst the victims try to work out which one of them is the stalker. Before long Ashley decides she wants out as it is getting all a little too real for her, which is when things get very real as people start to die and it seems those in the stalker club are being targetted by a dangerous stalker.
"The Stalker Club" starts with a scene straight out of the 80s horror playbook with an imposing figure in a creepy white mask, wielding a large knife whilst intimidating their victim. It is pretty decent although if it wasn't for the "30 years later" message which springs up on the screen I would have said it was more late 90s and "Scream" rather than 80s. And to be honest whilst what happens next is tacky, as each characters name is emblazoned on the screen, it is done in such a way to highlight the self absorbed nature of these teens who think they are it. It also makes it easy for reviewers to work out who is who in this group of teens.
And to be honest "The Stalker Club" is this mix of good and bad with it feeling like every good scene or idea is followed by something bad as we have a creepy man wandering around a hospital but the acting from another is forced with dialogue delivered in a patronising way. But look beyond the bad and "The Stalker Club" is still an entertaining thriller with these teens and their families dealing with being stalked which seems to be connected to events 30 years earlier. It is very much a case that everything in "The Stalker Club" is likely to remind you of something in another movie yet it is put together in quite a decent way.
The strength of "The Stalker Club" is that it does a decent enough job of keeping you guessing as to who the stalker it is, making you think one person then showing you that it isn't. And whilst the acting isn't always great the cast has been well chosen to give us the diverse characters which whilst stereotypes are also entertaining.
What this all boils down to is that "The Stalker Club" is actually better than you expect delivering the suspense of the old stalker horror movies but without the in your face violence and horror as of course this is a made for TV movie. And it does do a good job of drawing you in to not just who the stalker is but what the connection is to the opening scenes.