By Jason Osiason

A movie about the music industry where the original music actually slaps—finally. Lurker is a slick, unnerving, and hypnotic descent into the twisted side of ambition, where admiration curdles into obsession and the chase for fame becomes something far more sinister. Think Nightcrawler meets Saltburn, with a little Single White Female paranoia thrown in, but there’s something about its neon-drenched aesthetic and pulsing, intoxicating atmosphere that also evokes Euphoria at its most haunting.

Archie Madekwe plays Oliver, a rising star in the music scene, all effortless cool and untouchable energy, the kind of person people orbit. Théodore Pellerin plays Matthew, an outsider with a retail job and a fixation that starts small but metastasizes into something chilling. The way he insinuates himself into Oliver’s world is methodical, insidious, at first almost laughable in its subtlety like little run-ins, casual online interactions, finding the right places to be at the right times. But as the film escalates, so does Matthew’s boldness, his presence shifting from background noise to something impossible to ignore.

It’s an exhilarating watch for at least for the first two acts. The visual storytelling is electric, drenched in deep purples and blues, party scenes that feel overwhelming, intimate spaces that feel too exposed, a soundscape that pulses with Oliver’s music and Matthew’s ever-tightening grip. There’s a rhythm to it all, a seductive high that keeps you locked in, even as the dread creeps in at the edges.

But by the final stretch, Lurker starts to lose just a bit of its grip. The tension flattens, the unpredictability starts to feel more familiar, and while the inevitable infiltration still hits, it doesn’t land quite as explosively as it promises. The film lingers a little too long in its slow-burn unraveling, dragging slightly when it should be at its sharpest. The payoff is still satisfying, but the edge dulls just before the final cut.

Still, Lurker remains one of the most compelling and visually arresting films of the festival, a razor-sharp, slow-building nightmare of fame, fixation, and the hunger to be somebody. Madekwe is phenomenal, fully embodying the kind of star people get obsessed with, while Pellerin plays Matthew with a twitchy, almost pathetic intensity that makes his eventual transformation even more disturbing. It’s got that woozy, feverish quality that lingers long after the credits roll. Not perfect, but damn if it doesn’t pull you in. [B+]