Pursued

The digital age has destroyed many things: the high street, cable TV, democracy… but spare a thought for serial killers. Not many make it in an era of internet banking, online surveillance and social media. Pursued is Jeffrey Obrow’s effort at constructing a modern, conceivable serial killer thriller without shirking contemporary sensibilities or technologies. Unfortunately, this film is not one worth hunting down.

Blaming herself for the death of her father, Lark (Madison Lawler) tries to hide her reservations about her mom Carol’s (Molly Ringwald) new boyfriend. The mysterious Mark Franc (Angus Macfadyen) seems too good to be true, and having met online, Lark starts to investigate this suave stranger. When dead bodies start showing up linked to one profile, Lark fears her mother’s life is in danger. Is this new suitor really who he says he is?

Pursued is a confused film. At times aiming to be an intense, chilling horror about the dangers of anonymity online, at other times a teenage detective drama with servings of comedy – all whilst driving towards revenge-fuelled titillating torture porn laced with MMA fights and topless women that it is enough to wonder whether Dana White financed the thing. It misses the mark on all of them. There is something reminiscent of when teen dramas go off the rails about the film – think the crazy babysitter or Russian gangster arcs on One Tree Hill.

For a film that wants to base itself in a digital age that viewers will recognise, its plot is scarcely believable. Social media plays a large part in the film but it makes zero sense as to why Lark and her friend/co-detective Nicole (Taylor Blackwell) do not use it to their advantage once they identify the killer – with a throwaway conversation over the phone with the police being all that is needed for law enforcement to vanish from the film’s world as quickly as Molly Ringwald’s Carol does. The film eschews the supernatural, but the killer might as well be Freddie Kruger given his ability to teleport, turn invisible and overpower trained MMA fighters. No one really expects thrillers to be entirely reality based, but the contrivances in the film stretch credibility beyond breaking point.

Seemingly meant to represent the perils of online anonymity, Angus Macfadyen’s Marc Franc is a one-note, unmemorable antagonist that fails largely due to a lack of real meaning. Macfadyen delivers a solid performance, though anyone would struggle with the script that transforms his chameleonic stalker into an extravagant monologue-er – much to the character’s detriment. Whilst the duelling pursuits of Lark and Marc is an interesting angle, it means that the film fails dillutes its social media/online dating theme. For all of his brutality and threats, Franc is most terrifying when he is offscreen as an ominous unreadable profile – something all too many women are familiar with and wary of.

The film looks fine and has some intriguing kill set-ups that will jolt some life into its audience. There is a youthful vibrancy in scenes of Lark bonding with her friends, and odd sound design around the backing soundtrack to some sequences between her and Sam Trammell’s Jack which are reminiscent of the corny teen dramas that seem to be an influence on the film in the best way. However a confused take on social media means the visualisation of familiar apps and sites fails to really convince – although nowhere near as much of the character’s use of these for their own purposes.

It is a lack of cohesiveness that really kills Pursued. Its attempts at exploring themes around online dangers fall flat due to an uninteresting villain and unrealistic actions of its cast. A baffling, unsatisfying ending sums up a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be or do. Run from this one.