Filmmaker Sarah Pirozek's debut feature, a YA-skewed suspense thriller, is not to be confused with a recent social-media documentary Like—maybe. We think. The setting is upstate New York, near Woodstock, where one year previously, tragedy befell local schoolgirl Amelia. In bits and pieces, we learn that she hung herself after being humiliated with lascivious online postings by a cyber-stalker male. Now her vengeful sister Rosie (Sarah Rich) follows a number of digital clues, screenshots, and incriminating phrases that lead her to believe that the lurker who originally groomed and victimized Amelia is still hanging around the neighborhood ogling youngsters, as a seedy-looking self-employed laborer and ex-convict (Marc Menchaca).
Local police refuse to get involved (veteran action movie hero Jeff Wincott has a small role as an ironically ineffective detective), leaving Rosie to her own devices. She traps the creepy-looking fellow, ties him up, and, over a grueling span of days, torments and interrogates him, determined to get an online confession out of the pervert. After all, he is guilty...isn't he?
The way the material is set up (and this will not eclipse the genre classic of obsessed-female/grueling-hostage horror, Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's novel Misery) is that the story can only proceed two ways. Either the guy did do it or he didn't—and how far will the increasingly unsympathetic Rosie go?
While seasoned viewers may see the major twist coming, the female POV throughout, ultimately, does invoke a grim feminist-nightmare view of a society where any given young woman can feel herself a target of testosterone-charged predators, both offline and on. Via good performances, social conscience, and avoidance of nudity/graphic violence, the production does steer clear of the grindhouse-horror model. While not entirely successful, its potential to start an argument on any given movie-date night is something to note. Optional.