Someone’s Watching

  Some of the most horrifying horror stories are the ones without clear explanation or resolution. Director Randall Cole plays on that uncertainty with 388 Arletta Avenue, a tense thriller with a dark heart. The unusually composed film is built on the paranoia that someone could be watching at all times and cause us harm for no discernible reason. Nick Stahl (Sin City) stars as James, who begins arguing with his wife Amy over small, inexplicable anomalies around the household. The stalking camera lets us feel that an unseen intruder has penetrated their home and planted surveillance cameras in every room. Using digital murk to its best advantage, Cole shows most of the story through the shadowy fish eye of hidden cameras. We (barely) manage to sympathize with James’ increasingly unsettling predicament despite the evidence that he’s a jerk. In fact, no character in 388 Arletta Avenue is especially likable; their social connections are frayed and no one seems able to escape their shell of self-absorption, except perhaps in death. 388 Arletta Avenue is out on DVD.