There is something wholly insidious about how humans have found ways to weaponize every last thing we rely on to reach out into the world. As technology has evolved, so too have abusers and stalkers, and with a strong online support system of like-minded sickos, it’s become a scary time for a lot of people. There have been movies about stalkers and abusers for ages and ages but with the found footage film RATTER we see the insidious ways that a stalker can infiltrate someone’s life, isolate them, and prey on them with the help of some software and a knack for hacking.
RATTER follows a young woman who has just moved to New York city to attend college. She is just out of a relationship that got emotionally abusive and is ready for a new start. As she gets to know the city, her school, and fellow classmates she comes into her own and is truly happy. In the background of all of this though someone is watching her, recording her, and tracking her. Someone is using her phone and her laptop to monitor and snoop on her without her knowing. As the stalker starts to infiltrate her life and isolate her, she becomes more and more paranoid that something is going on. Not sure who to trust, or where to turn, the only hope the young woman has is to move and hope she can free herself of this unknown stalker.
Let me just say that this is not a pleasant watch.
It’s not a fun movie.
That isn’t a knock on it but a cold, hard, fact that, like rape/revenge films, there’s not a lot of joy to be found in watching someone be stalked in this way in a film. It’s actually a testament of the power of the film that it feels so uncomfortable. Actress Ashley Benson is fantastic in the film, making herself very vulnerable in the film and very real. She feels not like a character in a movie but a real person. The acting throughout the film is very strong overall.
As to the ‘found footage’ of it all, that’s very gray. The director sticks to the ‘rules’ and it is all POV style throughout, the trouble is that no one was apt to ‘find’ the footage. Well, not that we know. We are seeing what the stalker sees and, while he may be screen-recording, we’re not sure that this is ever discovered. The big issue I have with the film, really, is that it presupposes that some of the shots we see are feasible. It’s all POSSIBLE (with only one scene that seems far-fetched in how it’s shot), but it does stretch credibility.
That isn’t the point here though.
The point, pushed in the credits, is that we are all vulnerable to this sort of attack.
To this sort of attacker.
It’s not a matter of making yourself a victim, as some say, but that there are those people out there who are predators and we can’t always see them.
Like sharks, they are often unseen until it’s too late.
This is a very good film.
It’s well made.
It’s very well-acted.
It’s chilling.
If you can go with the movie, with the fact that everything is from a phone or webcam – which is feasible – then the movie will work.
As I said, it’s not a pleasant film, but it’s darn good and a really good example of the subgenre.
The big ding I have on the film is that the stalker does some things that are…risker than I thing they would (at least if it’s all filmed), and that some scenes (particularly one at a restaurant where there’s no reason the main character would leave her phone in a position to film her as it shows) push credibility but the film rises above it all.
Definitely a must-see for fans of found footage. (I found it on Tubi).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3836512/
3.75 out of 5
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