One of 2025’s most stressful movies is available to watch from this week

Coming from one of the writers of The Bear and Beef, he has described it as a mix of Almost Famous and Nightcrawler.

The film is the feature debut of writer-director Alex Russell, best known for writing episodes of the beloved TV shows The Bear and Beef.

The thriller follows Matthew Morning (Théodore Pellerin, Never Sometimes Rarely Always), a young and quiet retail clerk in Los Angeles who is dissatisfied with his humdrum life.

So, when Oliver (Archie Madekwe - Grand Turismo, Saltburn), a rising British pop star, enters his store, Matthew tries to ingratiate himself with the musician by playing cool music on the shop's speaker.

Complimenting his playlist, Oliver invites Matthew to an upcoming gig, before allowing him more and more access to his hip inner circle.

"But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death," the plot synopsis adds.

Lurker Review

Lurker plays out as a more refined, intelligent and tense version of the 'blank from hell' thrillers JOE has been very on the record of loving, such as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female, The Guest, The Talented Mr Ripley or even Madekwe's breakthrough Saltburn.

Very quickly, it becomes clear that all is not right with Matthew. Yet, while this could be predictable, Russell constantly finds inventive ways to both surprise viewers and tap unexpected wells of tension.

It's not surprising to learn that Lurker was inspired by the writer-director's time in the music scene in LA (he directed a music video for rapper Zack Fox, who has a fun supporting turn in the film as another member of Oliver's posse).

That's because the movie feels very authentic in terms of both its music world setting and its depiction of the relationships between effortlessly charismatic yet insecure artists (which Madekwe evokes brilliantly) and the hangers-on that inevitably swarm them.

As the latter, Pellerin does star-making work as Matthew, a character who is basically always pretending to be a more confident and talented person.

Somehow, the actor manages to convey that Matthew is believable enough to trick the people he is in a room with, while also giving the audience little glimpses of the dark machinations that the character is plotting in his mind.

Russell crafts numerous scenes of Pellerin's antihero trying to impress Oliver and his crew that go on slightly longer than you expect for added realism and discomfort.

Adding to the tension is the subtle suggestion that many of the group already surrounding the popstar upon Matthew's arrival are phonies and yes men like him, and are actually threatened by the newcomer's presence.

Also, like Saltburn and The Talented Mr. Ripley, there is a part of the viewer at first that is rooting for Pellerin's character to succeed in his scheme and better his life - at least until we know just how low he will stoop to achieve this.

But, unlike a lot of the other 'blank from hell' thrillers that we've mentioned (Lurker, for the record, is a 'hanger-on from hell' story), Russell's movie eschews easy resolution, something that causes it to linger in viewers' brains long after its credits roll.

Lurker Interview

Ahead of Lurker's release, JOE caught up with writer-director Alex Russell, as well as his stars Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin, to discuss the movie. The three were paired together.

We were surprised to learn that Russell only spent around eight days on a movie or TV set before directing Lurker, particularly because the thriller feels so confident and stylish.

On this, he told us:

"I think I spent probably a day or two on a friend's music video set, or like a commercial set. I probably spent a total of three or four days on various TV shows I was a writer for. But I don't think any of those things truly prepared me for this.

"What was helpful is how long of a casting process we had and how many years there were in between the conception of this film and the shooting.

"Doing chemistry reads, looking at a thousand tapes and having actors meet each other, that's when you start to get a sense of what you're going for, and things start to become clearer.

"My main criteria for casting or hiring anyone was: 'Is this making me look smarter? Is this making the writing seem smarter?' That was just how I went about it."

Madekwe, who is already the most famous actor in Lurker thanks to his roles in Gran Turismo and Saltburn, tells JOE that he was at first wary about working with someone with not a lot of experience behind the camera.

That said, getting to know Russell helped assuage those initial fears.

"I definitely was [wary] initially because it's a leap of faith," Madekwe remarked, with Russell then joking: "It was in the contract that they could just jump out at any time or delete all of the footage."

The Saltburn star added: "I've said this a couple of times, but... we had this chemistry test and… I was a little bit unsure still. I was like: 'I don't know, is he going to be a good director?'

Alex Russell, Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin

Russell started laughing at this point, with Madekwe cheekily defending himself, stating: "I mean, listen, these are the questions you ask yourself. You hadn't directed."

However, he added: "And then we were sitting in this cafe or this restaurant having dinner, and [Alex] said: 'Look, I'm going to ask so many questions. I've never done this before. I'm going to have to lean on you a bunch, I'm sure, but I've never been more ready to do anything ever in my life than I am for this.'

"And it just made me go: 'Yeah, I totally trust you.' It was so honest."

Russell then interjected, laughing: "That was a lie. If I said I've never been more ready for anything, that's definitely a lie."

When we note that this is similar to something Matthew would do in Lurker, Russell agreed: Totally! A fake it till you make it type of success story."

While the writer-director is modest, Pellerin is quick to praise Russell, particularly for his Lurker script and the way he handled the casting process.

"It's true that he hadn't directed, but also the script was so great," the actor explained.

"I do feel that when a script is that good, everybody around it, we know the story that we're telling. The right people navigate towards a really good script and want to accompany a great script.

"Also, it's so hard to write [a great script] that obviously [if you do] you're quite brilliant, or you're very, very highly intelligent. So already, you know that the person that you're going to work with has something that's very strong.

"I'm very thankful [because] it took a moment to make the movie happen, it took two or three years from the moment I was cast to shooting the movie. I'm so thankful that Alex didn't drop me and take a more famous actor who would have maybe got the movie made quicker.

"Really, it was also a leap of faith for Alex to hold on to me for no apparent reason," with Russell then telling Pellerin: "I just couldn't think of anyone else."

Turning to JOE, the writer-director added: "We were all taking leaps. Now I feel like it'd be easy to do another [movie] with them."

Archie Madekwe in Lurker

Indeed, it's hard to imagine Lurker without Pellerin's haunting, multi-layered performance.

When we asked the Canadian actor about the inspirations for his portrayal of Matthew, he said:

"[Russell and I] talked for years. So it's kind of like a long exchange that shifted a few times, I guess.

"We were exchanging books a little bit, mostly about... friendships, and people who were following someone they were really impressed by or trying to emulate.

"I do love characters that play characters. I think we all have a version of that, where we're playing a role. I think that Matthew is a great example of that. He couldn't be playing more of a character.

"It was so great already in the script that he's someone who's just really trying to get the right character out of him in order to fit in."

Lurker has been called an "obsessive psycho thriller" and has been compared to Madekwe's similar in plot set-up Saltburn.

That said, where Saltburn is camp and over-the-top, Lurker eschews such qualities. The 2025 thriller puts much more of an emphasis on character and mood than twists and violence, something which makes it feel all the more grounded and real.

Indeed, Russell noted that he wrote Lurker all the way back in 2020, three years before Saltburn's release.

Madekwe also stated that he read the script for Lurker before Saltburn.

Théodore Pellerin in Lurker

JOE asked Russell if, with Lurker, he was consciously trying to subvert some of the expectations of stalker thrillers like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female, The Guest and The Talented Mr Ripley.

In response, he told us:

"When writing the script, I was thinking a lot about Nightcrawler and Almost Famous, and trying to wed those two a little bit in this world.

"But then, after I wrote it, and there was maybe going to be a chance of it getting made, I watched all of those movies, and I found that I really love all of them. They're so fun.

"I don't know what it says about me that I'm interested in the sort of obsessive stalker genre.

"But I think as far as subverting the expectations, a lot of that was just me trying to keep the writing interesting and to surprise myself."

Citing a particularly tense scene in the movie where Matthew and Oliver begin spontaneously wrestling each other, Russell said: "It's one of those moments where in another movie it would finally get violent or get sexual, and what is true to this movie is a different thing.

"I think there are a lot of small subversions in what the expectation is of this kind of movie and what it actually ends up being.

"Not to spoil the ending, but I think that is kind of a fresh way to do it."

Lurker is in cinemas on Friday, 12 December