"Karma's a bitch," says Devon Sawa's Bill to James, the protagonist of 388 Arletta Avenue.
James (played with a nicely dead-on everyman vacancy by Nick Stahl) has just confronted Bill with several disturbing facts: his home has been repeatedly broken into, his computer tampered with, his cat has been "replaced," and now his wife is missing. And that's just the beginning.
Turns out James and his friends tormented Bill relentlessly during grade school and James, in his desperation, believes Sawa's character is behind it.
Though that's far from the central thesis of Randall Cole's latest feature, it's a very engaging sidebar and probably the most alluring plot point in what seems at first to be a pretty standard found-footage psycho-stalker creeper.
Except that 388 is actually a very intelligently-crafted film with an almost diabolically clever script. Stahl is tormented by everything from phantom mix CDs, footage of his wife bound and gagged somewhere, and ultimately set-up for her impending murder (after he actually DOES kill someone).
While I was never bored by this film, I does suffer from a low-energy level at times. Stahl is left, quite unfortunately, to carry the film as Kirshner, an enjoyable and underused actress, is MIA (no pun intended) for most of the film. He does a commendable job, playing his ordinariness with an unsettling true-to-life banality, and he's never very likable... which is a very hard thing to achieve and still keep an audience's focus. It also probably contains one of the most creepy, amoral villains you'll encounter on film.
Don't expect a traditional thriller, and certainly not something that will make you feel warm and cozy. It's one man's descent into hell for absolutely no reason other than someone's sadistic kicks.
James (played with a nicely dead-on everyman vacancy by Nick Stahl) has just confronted Bill with several disturbing facts: his home has been repeatedly broken into, his computer tampered with, his cat has been "replaced," and now his wife is missing. And that's just the beginning.
Turns out James and his friends tormented Bill relentlessly during grade school and James, in his desperation, believes Sawa's character is behind it.
Though that's far from the central thesis of Randall Cole's latest feature, it's a very engaging sidebar and probably the most alluring plot point in what seems at first to be a pretty standard found-footage psycho-stalker creeper.
Except that 388 is actually a very intelligently-crafted film with an almost diabolically clever script. Stahl is tormented by everything from phantom mix CDs, footage of his wife bound and gagged somewhere, and ultimately set-up for her impending murder (after he actually DOES kill someone).
While I was never bored by this film, I does suffer from a low-energy level at times. Stahl is left, quite unfortunately, to carry the film as Kirshner, an enjoyable and underused actress, is MIA (no pun intended) for most of the film. He does a commendable job, playing his ordinariness with an unsettling true-to-life banality, and he's never very likable... which is a very hard thing to achieve and still keep an audience's focus. It also probably contains one of the most creepy, amoral villains you'll encounter on film.
Don't expect a traditional thriller, and certainly not something that will make you feel warm and cozy. It's one man's descent into hell for absolutely no reason other than someone's sadistic kicks.