Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. Thus, “going in blind”, as a reminder that I am, and this film has no available audio description.

Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Lurker attracted buzz. You could say it has its fans. I guess, Stan’s are now a thing? it probably has those too. People who ‘ship the film, follow it and its stars on social media, and hope to one day have the chance to interact with one of the films stars or its director. Of course, it is all innocent, right?

Lurker dives into the question of when is a fan no longer a fan, and when should someone be concerned. This year also saw the release of the Netflix documentary on Selena, reminding us a real life occurrence of a fan becoming too involved with their idol. The lack of audio description did make Lurker a bumpy experience for me, but I got the vibes they were throwing down, and the cautionary tale within.

The odd thing about Lurker, is that while it, on its surface, is just one more thriller about a celebrity with a stalker, it does have variances. One of them is a high focus on visual arts like photography. Getting the right shot, or filming the perfect sequence for a documentary or music video, all of these are the set ups and supporting ideas in Lurker. It’s easy to say it is a film about a fan going too far, and I understood and followed that, but on its artistic merit, i struggled with the choices to make this primarily of a visual nature, despite the celebrity in question being a music artist. A slightly more balanced film, with more focus on the music, could have made us feel less like we were missing out, since Mubi opted for no audio description. Music is largely auditory, and would and does mesh well with the dialogue.

So I have some reservations about recommending this to a blind audience, but I also appreciated a lot of what Lurker is offering. It seems to find a tale as old as time, and reframe it for the modern age, one where we live on our phones and on the internet.

Theodore Pellerin plays Matthew, a retail employee whose life changes when an up and coming pop star (Archie Madekwe) happens to come in for some fresh duds. He cleverly says all the right things, and is quickly assimilated into the crew that revolves around Oliver. It’s like a far more honest version of Entourage, because sometimes, your friends just hang out. But Matthew is driven to use Oliver to launch his own career, pitching himself as a photographer/videographer who will work on a range of things, channeling Oliver’s vision, but really making his own. It reminded me a little of Robin Williams’s chilling One Hour Photo, where he becomes obsessed with a family whose photos he develops. Oliver has the power, or so he thinks, because Matthew is very clever at making sure this dream life doesn’t slip away easily. There’s certainly a queer lean, with some tension between Matthew and Oliver, but it feels so one sided on Matthew’s part. it becomes hard to figure out what exactly Matthew’s endgame is, and that’s what makes it so clever. How far will Matthew go, and what will Oliver end up doing when faced with this new shocking reality?

it’s also a debut feature. So, Alex Russell makes a bold debut, and it certainly pushes into enough of an interesting territory to be excited for what’s next down the line. Russell seems to be of the mindset that he can make mainstream ideas with indie flair, so he’d be great for those A24 vibes. Honestly, while Mubi picked this up, it could have just as easily looked great in A24’s roster as it slowly becomes more mainstream. Is Mubi the new A24?

Lurker isn’t staggering in its concept, but its adaptation of a familiar tale for modern audiences is unnerving, and a fantastic debut for a promising new voice in independent film.

fresh: Final Grade: 7.5/10