The Stalker Club (2017 Lifetime)

The Stalker Club (2017 Lifetime)

Cast: Kelcie Stranahan, Maeve Quinlan, JT Neal, Crystal Allen, Alex Frnka

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

When she started dating her boyfriend, Ashley joined a clique of five cool, adventurous, and thrill-seeking high school seniors. Ashley and her new friends all get a mysterious text message inviting them to join a club–The Stalker Club–and they decide to play. Unbeknownst to them, 20 years ago at their high school, a beautiful, popular girl was killed playing the same game–a game that their parents were all a part of. As the game becomes more sinister, it becomes clear that someone outside the five friends’ group is changing the rules. As Ashley tries to figure out who the stalker is, she winds up fighting for her life against someone who is out for revenge and demands blood.

Thoughts

The movie starts with some stalking in the ’80s. (Maybe? I mean, the girl being stalked wears an off the shoulder sweater, but those are back now, so who can tell!) A terrifying masked man stands close to her, and the girls falls down the stairs. Thirty years later title card pops up. Okay, solves that mystery.

Next, we get a strange sequence with names flash up on the screen. We meet Mark, Sadie, Chloe, Darren, and Ashley. They are members of the “Stalker Club.” They are jocks and girls with perfect hair who watch scary movies together. They get a weird text with a link that invites them to the stalker club. The friends click the link and get a set of rules. They draw names from a hat and assign a stalker. The other friends have to figure out who the stalker is and unmask them.

Ashley might be our protagonist because she is the blonde one. Her mother is dating a new man. Ashley is upset because her father died and thinks her mother has moved on. She is the first to be stalked and hears a knock at the door. Then, Ashley finds a mask in her car and gets an ominous text. She is almost stabbed to death, but her mom comes home. Later, in science class, the teacher talks about poisonous frogs, and a slide comes up on the presentation that shows Ashley’s dead father.

Meredith, Ashley’s REAL friend, warns her that her new friend group does not have her best interest at heart. Ashley brushes off her friend because she is dating hunky jock, Darren. They are pretty sure that Mark is the stalker and sets up a trap to catch him.

Mark doesn’t last long and is stung by a bunch of bees. He is allergic and almost dies, but his friends find his EpiPen and save him. While Mark is recovering, the friends argue about who the stalker is. They decide to stop playing because things have been taken too far. The real stalker isn’t done and puts something in Mark’s IV. Ashley’s mom (who is a nurse) struggles to save Mark and almost catches the stalker.

Creepy things continue to happen to Ashley. Mostly focused around her dead father. She screams, “Who is doing this!?!” Then the stalker is about to stab Ashley AGAIN, but her mom comes home and scares the stalker off.

Sadie is very upset about Mark’s death and skips school. Her mom loads her daughter up on anti-anxiety medication. The remaining stalker club members (Ashley, Darren, and Chloe.) suspect Sadie is the stalker and find a cutout of Ashley’s father’s face in her locker. Trigger Warning. Sadie is a cutter. We see a depiction of her cutting her arm. Then she is killed by the REAL stalker. The friends find Sadie in a staged suicide in the bathtub.

Now suspecting the remaining club members, Ashley talks to Meredith. Meredith tells Ashley that Chloe didn’t even seem upset when her boyfriend died.

Ashley is attacked in school after hours by someone in a mask. She runs all over the place. (Like from the classroom to the theatre, to the boiler room.) Ashley saves herself by pulling the fire alarm. She breaks the rule of the stalker club and tells the police about the club. Then she tells her mom about the club too. The mom, Karen, doesn’t seem surprised and makes a mysterious phone call.

Karen meets with Chloe’s mom, Anna, and the other parents of the stalker club members. They were members of the stalker club thirty years ago when they were teens.

Chloe drinks some wine and looks at pictures of Mark on her laptop. Ashley records Chloe while she is on the phone, yelling at her mother, Anna, about the stalker club. Then her throat is slit, and Ashley gets the whole thing on her phone. Ashley attempts to get away, but Meredith, her getaway driver, is gone.

Ashley runs into Mark and then accuses him of being the stalker. Then he is stabbed too. Karen shows up and tells her daughter to go inside and lock the door. Ashley calls 911, but the stalker grabs the phone from her hands and chases her around with a knife.

Just as the stalker is about to kill Ashley, she takes off her mask. It is the science teacher???? The science teacher was the sister of the girl from the ’80s who died. She decided to get revenge on those who wronged her sister since the police ruled it as an accident.

Karen explains to the science teacher that it was all a mistake and apologizes. Then they wrestle with one another, allowing Ashley to grab the knife and stab her science teacher. (Ashley is not getting a good grade in THAT class.)

Ashley and Darren continue to date and are disturbed to know that the stalker club has gone viral online. Ashley receives a text that reads. “You can never leave the stalker club.” Then she screams, and the camera zooms in on her face—the end.

Side Note

Minority Report: Mark, Meredith, Police Officer, Linda,

There is no real resolution to the death in the beginning. I’m kind of on the science teacher’s side her. Her family was robbed of justice.

The movie was released during Lifetime’s strange “horror” movie/Teen focused phase. Show me the moms! This isn’t the CW.

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Overall rating

🔪🔪 (2 Knives. I added an extra knife for Crystal Allen, who is very good.)

🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 (5 glasses of wine required.)