PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Boy notices girl, boy starts to videotape girl, boy sets up cameras everywhere in her apartment and watches her every move. These are the typical ways a boy wins a girls heart, right? Just kidding. However, in 2007’s Alone With Her, they made stalking look easy. Let’s take a look back on this frightening ten-year-old movie and see what makes Alone With Her worth celebrating.
Written and Directed by Eric Nicholas, Alone With Her was released theatrically exactly ten years ago today on January 17th, 2007. It was distributed by IFC films and currently has a 69% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.1/10 rating on IMDB. It stars Colin Hanks (Dexter, Roswell) and Ana Claudia Talancon (One Missed Call). Why have I never heard anyone mention this movie before when the premise is so real and terrifying? Well, let’s talk about the plot, shall we?
Alone With Her starts off through the eyes of Doug (Hanks), only to be seen through his video camera. He is searching for a female, that is clear. He lands his eye on Amy (Talancon) and begins to do the typical stalker thing and follows her around everywhere. Doug takes stalking his prey to a whole other level, though. He goes to an electronic store and even the salesman talks about how easy it is to “get your hands on technology and put these cameras anywhere without anyone noticing.” Obviously, Doug buys several and plants them into Amy’s apartment. He set’s himself up rather nicely finding out her likes and dislikes before engaging a conversation with her for the first time. Will this untraditional meet and greet end up with the boy and girl living happily ever after? Or will it become much more sinister than any of us could ever imagine?
What I love about this film is the simplistic nature of it. This was ten years ago and technology was basically in it’s prime. I mean I think I had a 3-megapixel camera flip phone at the time if that tells you anything. Alone With Her was almost like a warning to us that most have seemed to have ignored. Just because we have the capability of having this power at our hands should we take full advantage of it?
The movie is filmed found footage style, however, unlike some found footage stories this felt freakishly real. As the movie went on, it felt like the interactions between the characters were something I was involved in versus a story I was watching. This made it far more creepy and intense.
The acting is phenomenal. Hanks plays the perfect perpetrator, with his awkward and unusual behavior. It almost makes him endearing and easy to be his friend, however, the things he does to his victim are unfathomable. Talancon also happens to the play the best “unknowingly victim” I’ve ever seen, so major props to her.
Final Thoughts:
Alone With Her gives us that paranoid feeling of are we ever alone? Director Eric Nicholas knew exactly how to creep under my skin. I am certainly going to be paying more attention to my surroundings as I should have been since the webcam was first invented. Word to the wise, if you have some creepy dude that keeps showing up to a place you normally hang out, “GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!” This underrated gem is seriously a must watch and what better time to watch it than on its 10th anniversary!
