Release schedules can be staggered of independent films. As somebody who has covered London-based indie festivals like the London Independent Film Festival, I do wonder about the fate of new indie films and whether they will get a proper release in the market.
Writer-director Jeffrey Obrow‘s new thriller PURSUED is reminiscent of the likes of DISTURBIA and also harks back to the serial killer boom of the early 1990s with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, KALIFORNIA and HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER established in the zeitgeist of contemporary cinema.
17-year old Lark (the very watchable Madison Lawlor) is your average heightened emotional teenager, compounded by the tragic death of her father in a car accident a couple of years earlier. In turn both curious and inquisitive about the world around her and what awaits after graduation, the death of young woman Sarah Kent has started to play on her consciousness to the point of going to Sarah’s house and looking at her body in the morgue.
Keen to do her bit for the virtue of good, she creates a false account of one of her mother’s employees as penance to go after the alleged killer of Sarah, Marc Franc (Angus Macfadyen in deliciously sinister mode and a world away from Robert the Bruce in the Oscar-winning BRAVEHEART). Inevitably, Lark’s desire to dare becomes a desire to survive as Franc starts to pursue her in kind, coupled with the moral of actions having consequences. With help from a high school teacher, Jack (Sam Trammell) and her best friend Nicole (Taylor Blackwell) she tries to piece together the circumstances….
Passable psychological horror yarn, which does occasionally get rather graphic at the business end of the narrative, but ticks all the boxes and holds the attention throughout. High school life is reminiscent of the SCREAM films and if there is a flaw, it is that the effect of the bloodshed is not as willingly explored as it could be, making PURSUED more standard horror fare.
PURSUED will have some passing interest to film fans, as it is a posthumous release co-starring GOODFELLAS‘ Paul Sorvino, who sadly passed away in 2022 and it is only now that one of his last appearances is making its’ way into the world. It is always good to see old stars like this in at least one more offering after they have departed the world. Sadly, we don’t get to see much here of Sorvino, who does provide some gravitas to a role
Great also to see Molly Ringwald in an adult role (decades after her teen turn in THE BREAKFAST CLUB and SIXTEEN CANDLES) being the voice of reason as Lark’s mother Carol, albeit a little too brief in this film.
PURSUED, on balance, is a classic beer-and-pizza-on-a-Saturday night film and one that horror fans should look into.
PURSUED is now available on Prime Video.
https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Pursued/0QQ0V1KNWVHJGFL7T2BRNQ1MTE