Just as another viewer wrote, this is not a great film but surely one that catches your attention once you start watching it. Actually I've watched it twice, on TV. Jay Underwood plays one of the most memorable and yet entertaining psychos I've seen and surely adds to the film. Myriam D'Abo (blessed and cursed with a Rosanna Arquette look(-alike) )is OK and Alex Karzis is quite good as Tony. Nothing truly original in the script except for a couple of gruesome scenes of Daryl hurting himself to prove his love...
9 Reviews
This film is insane!
smiley-3215 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Stalked! The psychological thriller which stars former Bond Girl Maryam D'Abo as Brooke Daniels. She's a widow and lives with her son, Mike. When Darryl Gleason saves Brookes's son from a forklift accident. Brooke kindly agrees to take him to dinner.. from there, Darryl begins to have this kind of 'fixation' on her. He starts taking photos of her and inserts himself in there.. believing that he is the one for her..
But things start to take a weird turn when Brooke is find it impossible to get rid of Darryl.. Everywhere she turns Darryl is there, but decides to take things to another level. Getting the police involved..
What I find so good about this film was Jay Underwood's performance as the mentally insane Darryl Gleason. I feel sorry for him when he signed the contract to play this mentally retarded person, who will do anything to win the heart of Maryam D'Abo's character. Oh yes! This guy will destroy anyone who gets in his way.
Todd Fennell who plays Mike.. is just one of the clever young actors portraying the son who's caught up in this whole dark eerie scenario..
Douglas Jackson's direction certainly gave it a suspenseful look to the film, as the one person befriends another.. Then it goes up a level, then another and another until you get to the crescendo where all the players are on a knife-edge.
However, this film had me hooked right until the end. Jay Underwood was like this guy who's head was full of hot air. Totally deranged and heavily tormented. But he least he played it well right until the end.
Anyway, not bad for these kind of thrillers.. But they don't make make 'em like they used to.. Good effort! 6 out of 10!
But things start to take a weird turn when Brooke is find it impossible to get rid of Darryl.. Everywhere she turns Darryl is there, but decides to take things to another level. Getting the police involved..
What I find so good about this film was Jay Underwood's performance as the mentally insane Darryl Gleason. I feel sorry for him when he signed the contract to play this mentally retarded person, who will do anything to win the heart of Maryam D'Abo's character. Oh yes! This guy will destroy anyone who gets in his way.
Todd Fennell who plays Mike.. is just one of the clever young actors portraying the son who's caught up in this whole dark eerie scenario..
Douglas Jackson's direction certainly gave it a suspenseful look to the film, as the one person befriends another.. Then it goes up a level, then another and another until you get to the crescendo where all the players are on a knife-edge.
However, this film had me hooked right until the end. Jay Underwood was like this guy who's head was full of hot air. Totally deranged and heavily tormented. But he least he played it well right until the end.
Anyway, not bad for these kind of thrillers.. But they don't make make 'em like they used to.. Good effort! 6 out of 10!
Poorly Written, Misleading Thriller
Zantara Xenophobe5 September 2002
Warning: Spoilers
*This review has some spoilers
Jay Underwood must really be attracted to movies with the word STALK in the title. `SleepSTALKer,' `The STALKer' (a.k.a. `Fatal Affair'), and this one, `STALKed.' Don't be surprised if Underwood's next movie is called "Children of the Corn Stalked!" While `Sleepstalker' is a flawed but interesting slasher flick and `Fatal Affair' is a really good suspense thriller, `Stalked' is one of the most pointless and derivative of the genre of stalk-and-slash thrillers.
Underwood plays Darryl Gleeson, a disturbed individual that has been freshly released from the mental hospital and now lives with his cruel, domineering mother. Maryam d'Abo is Brooke Daniels, a widowed cafe owner and operator with a son named Mikey. In a heroic gesture, Darryl prevents Mikey's death in a forklift accident, and Brooke is eternally grateful, offering him a free dinner at her restaurant. Faster than you can say `dumb idea,' Darryl develops a huge crush on Brooke. And faster than you can say `been there, done that,' Darryl has taken numerous photographs of Brooke and is inserting himself in her life by dropping into her restaurant every time you turn around. Whenever someone tries to get in Darryl's way, he responds the way any red-blooded American male would: he murders them. And to ultimately win Brooke's affection, he does what any sensible person would do: he terrorizes her. When she finally figures out what is going on, it is too late for most of the secondary characters and for the bored viewer.
I loved Underwood in `Fatal Affair,' but here he plays the part in a conventional and uneven way. It's like either his or the writer's interpretation of the character was that Darryl is a smart madman. Indeed, the electrical gadgets he comes up with are clever (though not believable), but it is the manner in which Darryl goes about stalking and slashing that made me frown. Sometimes he does things so slickly that I thought he was not insane, as the deeds are done with such detailed and accurate precision as to suggest the mind of a person completely in control of himself. Many other times he comes off as a big child, bawling when he doesn't have his way or sloppily snubbing out someone on a whim. This is bothersome because the whole movie belongs solely to Underwood. Maryam d'Abo isn't requited to do much of anything with Brooke but play an innocent victim that stands around and watches, while Mikey is unstudied and vanishes for most of the movie until it needs him at the end to do something. As for the other secondary characters, I compare them to cardboard ducks in a shooting gallery. They all line up and walk by, quacking, until Darryl shoots them down in an easy-to-predict order. All this makes `Stalked' very dismal to watch, but it is made worse by the fact that it is misleading. In the beginning, we get a narrative (over real pictures of Underwood as a child) about the stalked and stalkers complete with stalking statistics. Stalking victims are `just like you or me.' But since most of the film is focused on Darryl (who is far from the common type of stalker) this opening leads us to believe we are going to watch something interesting and educational, not cliched and predictable.
I advise you to avoid this title and see Underwood really shine as a stalker in `Fatal Affair,' a much better example of his talents and a well-written, scary thriller to boot. `Stalked' is just another lousy cheap experience that is best left on the shelf. Zantara's score: 4 out of 10.
Jay Underwood must really be attracted to movies with the word STALK in the title. `SleepSTALKer,' `The STALKer' (a.k.a. `Fatal Affair'), and this one, `STALKed.' Don't be surprised if Underwood's next movie is called "Children of the Corn Stalked!" While `Sleepstalker' is a flawed but interesting slasher flick and `Fatal Affair' is a really good suspense thriller, `Stalked' is one of the most pointless and derivative of the genre of stalk-and-slash thrillers.
Underwood plays Darryl Gleeson, a disturbed individual that has been freshly released from the mental hospital and now lives with his cruel, domineering mother. Maryam d'Abo is Brooke Daniels, a widowed cafe owner and operator with a son named Mikey. In a heroic gesture, Darryl prevents Mikey's death in a forklift accident, and Brooke is eternally grateful, offering him a free dinner at her restaurant. Faster than you can say `dumb idea,' Darryl develops a huge crush on Brooke. And faster than you can say `been there, done that,' Darryl has taken numerous photographs of Brooke and is inserting himself in her life by dropping into her restaurant every time you turn around. Whenever someone tries to get in Darryl's way, he responds the way any red-blooded American male would: he murders them. And to ultimately win Brooke's affection, he does what any sensible person would do: he terrorizes her. When she finally figures out what is going on, it is too late for most of the secondary characters and for the bored viewer.
I loved Underwood in `Fatal Affair,' but here he plays the part in a conventional and uneven way. It's like either his or the writer's interpretation of the character was that Darryl is a smart madman. Indeed, the electrical gadgets he comes up with are clever (though not believable), but it is the manner in which Darryl goes about stalking and slashing that made me frown. Sometimes he does things so slickly that I thought he was not insane, as the deeds are done with such detailed and accurate precision as to suggest the mind of a person completely in control of himself. Many other times he comes off as a big child, bawling when he doesn't have his way or sloppily snubbing out someone on a whim. This is bothersome because the whole movie belongs solely to Underwood. Maryam d'Abo isn't requited to do much of anything with Brooke but play an innocent victim that stands around and watches, while Mikey is unstudied and vanishes for most of the movie until it needs him at the end to do something. As for the other secondary characters, I compare them to cardboard ducks in a shooting gallery. They all line up and walk by, quacking, until Darryl shoots them down in an easy-to-predict order. All this makes `Stalked' very dismal to watch, but it is made worse by the fact that it is misleading. In the beginning, we get a narrative (over real pictures of Underwood as a child) about the stalked and stalkers complete with stalking statistics. Stalking victims are `just like you or me.' But since most of the film is focused on Darryl (who is far from the common type of stalker) this opening leads us to believe we are going to watch something interesting and educational, not cliched and predictable.
I advise you to avoid this title and see Underwood really shine as a stalker in `Fatal Affair,' a much better example of his talents and a well-written, scary thriller to boot. `Stalked' is just another lousy cheap experience that is best left on the shelf. Zantara's score: 4 out of 10.
The stalker was creepy
nightroses27 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The stalker Daryl is so scary that he's worse than Norman Bates! The write-up "son of a psycho mother" is wrong. The mother of Daryl the stalker was a miserable alcoholic who had a big haystack on her head. Daryl wasn't just obsessed with a woman but he had these Inspector Gadget devices too! He was mentally unstable and had killed so many people throughout the film. I was disappointed with the ending, as when the villain gets killed by their victim, no justice for the previous victims was done. I felt sorry for poor Tony, who was drugged by Daryl, then lost his job, and murdered by Stalker Daryl. fter that he was portrayed as the culprit and no on found his body or the body of the woman from therapy group.
Underwood's performance as the stalker makes the movie.
gridoon13 May 2003
Five minutes into "Stalked", a question popped up in my mind: who is this Jay Underwood and why have I never heard of him before? His performance here wouldn't be out of place in a major-studio film...the way he switches from "pleasant kind of guy" mode to "totally deranged psycho" mode, and vice versa, seems effortless. He single-handedly lifts this otherwise predictable thriller slightly above the norm. And his performance seems even better when you compare it to the uncharismatic one given by Maryam D'Abo, whose only career distinction up to now has been that she played the (arguably) least appealing Bond Girl of the entire Bond series. Oh, and another question: did they actually bother to get the rights to Bernard Herrmann's original "Psycho" score? (**)
Im only giving 10 because of jay underwood.
ummm_im_bored_12329 December 2018
Jay Underwood is handsome, rich, and intelligent. He has all the qualities that a woman would want in a man. His only flaw is that he is batnuts crazy. Underwood gave an amazing performance. Why he chose to obsess over a woman who had a failing business, no personality, and a kid is beyond me. This comedy was worth the ten times I watched it.
Worth watching once.
Manna-227 August 1999
Stalked (1994) is the kind of movie you neither hate nor love. It has a witty appeal that forces you to continue watching, but a feeling of "yeah, right!" We must confess, Daryl the stalker had his gig down and sure knows how to ruin a girl's life (that's the good part), but Brooke the stalked (played by Maryam D' Abo) needs to find another career. We're not saying that she's a bad actress, she just has a bad screen presence. Her son we cannot blame because his lame routine of throwing a ball at Daryl can only be blamed on the script-writers (or whomever wrote this nugget). We can't find any notation of this flick in any of the film guides or on the internet so it tends to make us believe it was either a mistake that the film company is trying to rectify (Republic Pictures) or it's a rare gem. All in all, this 95 minute film is worth watching once.
Terrific ideas, all too real, are given a cinematic form that robs them of their power
I_Ailurophile21 October 2023
I won't lie, I'm a fan of Maryam d'Abo and Lisa Blount, and the fact that both were involved here was my impetus for watching. If nothing else is true I trust completely in both actors; the otherwise quality of the picture is another matter. I think Blount is definitely shortchanged by the material she's given, though as I would expect she makes the most of it and I wish her role was larger; d'Abo is charming and terrific, showing fine nuanced range, yet I think the overall thrust of the film mistreats her. (Notably, star Jay Underwood spends most of his time on-screen chewing scenery, though I can't completely blame him and he does also illustrate broader acting skills at points throughout.) That thrust is something revealed to us by opening narration, of which the very inclusion is questionable both in and of itself and for the nature of the words spoken. Henry Ramer's gravelly timbre recites statistics regarding stalking, as though this were an episode of '60 minutes,' and bizarrely seems to intone that the deserving focus of the story isn't the victim, but the stalker. Let's not delve too deeply into that initial framing, but suffice to say that once the movie properly begins it illustrates that chief character Daryl is far less than deserving of our sympathy. The least that can be said is that the screenplay gives light, passing service to the idea that the mental health services in our society are woefully underfunded and undervalued, yet frankly this facet of the tale and the character needed more emphasis.
The latter is also 100% true of the fact that Daryl otherwise represents not just a stalker specifically, but all the worst traits of the worst of men, generally. We see in him, among many other traits, the condescending belief that men always know better than women; the false notion of male entitlement to women's bodies and affections; extreme possessiveness, extreme gaslighting, and - as with domestic violence - shrinking the victim's world so they depend entirely on him; and blithe dismissal of the utility of mental health, of seeking help, or simply the possibility of ever being in the wrong. There is also, of course, the way that men are inclined to believe one another over women. 'Stalked' is at once a horror-thriller carrying itself with the softer tone of a Lifetime original television movie, and a less artistic spiritual predecessor to Alex Garland's 2022 feature 'Men,' and in both instances surely treats the subject matter in a manner not quite matching what it should have been. This is unfortunate, because when you get down to it all the right pieces are here for what should have been a chilling, genuinely frightening, haunting, and socially relevant horror-thriller, and it's only small bits and pieces that really needed to have been altered for the title to achieve the desired effect. Chief among these, and perhaps the greatest flaw, is that by spotlighting the term "stalker," the flick mythologizes male behavior in a way that allows men at large (and that very small percentage of women, or non-binary or gender non-conforming persons, to whom like descriptors apply) to distinguish their identical behavior from that of the "stalker," and separate themselves; e.g., "Oh, I'm not a stalker, so what I'm doing is okay."
Shift that "stalker" framing, and discard the opening narration, and we're already well on our way to improving this 1994 film. Reduce or omit the abusive mother and we've taken another step. And so on, and so on, but here's one more thing: I don't think any one person is to be blamed, not the writers, director Douglas Jackson, the cast, composer Milan Kymlicka, or anyone else. At some point in the conjuration, however, the fact remains that 'Stalked' was robbed of the darkest energy and electric vibrancy that would have helped its most striking, meaningful, impactful ideas to truly land. Case in point, those most awful traits represented in Daryl are something that the astute viewer will readily pick up on, but the feature should have been accentuating these itself. The appropriate scenes, dialogue, characters, and narrative are here, if imperfect; missing are the feelings that the tableau should evoke, and the lightning bolts of revelation that should follow from a tale broaching real-life issues. In all regards I think this is well made overall, including not just the acting, writing, and direction, but certainly the stunts and effects, too, not to mention editing and cinematography. Between some aspects being misshapen or mishandled and others just not given all due weight, the sad result is a picture that falls short of what it could and should have been. I still like this, and I admire what all involved put into it; would that the utmost mindful care had been taken, and/or that the filmmakers knew exactly what they had grasped onto and had taken full advantage of it. I think 'Stalked' is worth watching on its own merits, and is surely suggested most for fans of the cast. I gladly give this my light recommendation; would that I could speak of it with more enthusiasm.
The latter is also 100% true of the fact that Daryl otherwise represents not just a stalker specifically, but all the worst traits of the worst of men, generally. We see in him, among many other traits, the condescending belief that men always know better than women; the false notion of male entitlement to women's bodies and affections; extreme possessiveness, extreme gaslighting, and - as with domestic violence - shrinking the victim's world so they depend entirely on him; and blithe dismissal of the utility of mental health, of seeking help, or simply the possibility of ever being in the wrong. There is also, of course, the way that men are inclined to believe one another over women. 'Stalked' is at once a horror-thriller carrying itself with the softer tone of a Lifetime original television movie, and a less artistic spiritual predecessor to Alex Garland's 2022 feature 'Men,' and in both instances surely treats the subject matter in a manner not quite matching what it should have been. This is unfortunate, because when you get down to it all the right pieces are here for what should have been a chilling, genuinely frightening, haunting, and socially relevant horror-thriller, and it's only small bits and pieces that really needed to have been altered for the title to achieve the desired effect. Chief among these, and perhaps the greatest flaw, is that by spotlighting the term "stalker," the flick mythologizes male behavior in a way that allows men at large (and that very small percentage of women, or non-binary or gender non-conforming persons, to whom like descriptors apply) to distinguish their identical behavior from that of the "stalker," and separate themselves; e.g., "Oh, I'm not a stalker, so what I'm doing is okay."
Shift that "stalker" framing, and discard the opening narration, and we're already well on our way to improving this 1994 film. Reduce or omit the abusive mother and we've taken another step. And so on, and so on, but here's one more thing: I don't think any one person is to be blamed, not the writers, director Douglas Jackson, the cast, composer Milan Kymlicka, or anyone else. At some point in the conjuration, however, the fact remains that 'Stalked' was robbed of the darkest energy and electric vibrancy that would have helped its most striking, meaningful, impactful ideas to truly land. Case in point, those most awful traits represented in Daryl are something that the astute viewer will readily pick up on, but the feature should have been accentuating these itself. The appropriate scenes, dialogue, characters, and narrative are here, if imperfect; missing are the feelings that the tableau should evoke, and the lightning bolts of revelation that should follow from a tale broaching real-life issues. In all regards I think this is well made overall, including not just the acting, writing, and direction, but certainly the stunts and effects, too, not to mention editing and cinematography. Between some aspects being misshapen or mishandled and others just not given all due weight, the sad result is a picture that falls short of what it could and should have been. I still like this, and I admire what all involved put into it; would that the utmost mindful care had been taken, and/or that the filmmakers knew exactly what they had grasped onto and had taken full advantage of it. I think 'Stalked' is worth watching on its own merits, and is surely suggested most for fans of the cast. I gladly give this my light recommendation; would that I could speak of it with more enthusiasm.
Passable,quite exciting thriller.
HumanoidOfFlesh29 October 2001
"Stalked" is pretty good.Of course it's nothing really special-you have seen it all before.However "Stalked" is a pleasant surprise:a low budget thriller that's well-acted,well-directed,and-above all is pretty scary.Jay Underwood is rather convincing as a lonely psycho,and Maryam D'Abo is also pretty good.The only drawback is a crappy ending,which ruins otherwise solid film.7 out of 10.
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