I like stalker thrillers and is Greta any good?

Let’s find out:

So we start off by meeting Frances McCullen (a fantastic Chloë Grace Moretz). Frances finds a handbag on the subway and she returns the handbag to Greta Hideg (a fantastic Isabelle Huppert, campy and scary). Frances’ mom dies, Greta’s husband died, Greta’s daughter (Nicola) is in Paris; so, Greta and Frances strike up a friendship and Frances helps Greta get a dog.

Frances’ roommate/friend is Erica (Maika Monroe) and Erica likes to talk about asparagus colonics for some reason.

Too much information, Erica. Too much information.

Anyway, Frances discovers that she is not Greta’s first (that came out wrong) and the situation escalates to stalking. Frances finds out through Alexa Hammond (Zawe Ashton, doing a lot with a bit part) that Nicola is a little more dead than Greta let on and that Greta is seriously disturbed. Things escalate when Greta has a glass-smashing, table-flipping good time at the restaurant where Frances works. Frances tries to let Greta down easily; but, Frances passes out after drinking drugged coffee and Greta kidnaps her.

We then get a clever fake-out sequence where it appears that Frances dreamed the kidnapping and that she is going on vacation with her father (Colm Feore). She gets on the elevator, the elevator goes all The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror on her and we find out that the vacation with her father thing was a dream and that the kidnapping is real. 

Greta uses Frances’ phone to make it seem to Frances’ father that she went on vacation with Erica. To Erica, she makes it seem that Frances went on vacation with her father. Frances discovers that, not only was she not Greta’s first; but, the previous did not last long. We then get the famous cookie cutter finger scene. Frances tries to escape; but, Greta stops her.

A private investigator (Stephen Rea) comes; but, he (stupidly) does not keep an eye on Greta, and…

Dude has (clearly) never seen Misery.

Anyway, Greta sedates and shoots the private investigator. 

A Southern girl has (apparently) fallen into Greta’s trap; but, it turns out that the girl is Erica and that she drugged Greta’s coffee. Erica rescues Frances, they trap Greta in the same toy chest that Greta kept Frances in at times, they plan to notify the authorities, they leave and we get a horror movie ending implying that Greta may escape the toy chest.

Greta is well-directed and Moretz and Huppert act well. If you’ve seen a stalker thriller before, you will be able to predict most of the story beats; but, Greta is a good rainy afternoon watch.

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