Bestseller Review

PLOT: A literary agent on vacation at a remote lakehouse comes to believe she’s being stalked by a disgruntled writer who has written a book about stalking a literary agent at a remote lakehouse.

REVIEW: If you’re looking for a stalker thriller to watch, director Christina Rohn’s feature debut Bestseller (watch it HERE) is a decent one to check out – the main problem being that there’s just a little too much of it. At 103 minutes, it could have benefited from being a bit shorter and more focused on getting under the viewer’s skin. Scripted by Travis Goddard, Bestseller is an adaptation of a novel by Christopher Knight, and left me with the impression that the movie might have done well to leave out some elements of the book.

Bestseller stars Melissa Anschutz as literary agent Anne Harper, and for long stretches of the running time this is a one-woman show. Anschutz does a great job of carrying the film on her shoulders, handling everything the story throws at her, which includes some intense emotional scenes and lots of moments of her looking around at her surroundings with unease. Anne has had a lot of things to deal with lately: one of her clients was murdered, her young daughter has had medical issues (and may still have more issues to deal with). So she decides some time away at a remote lakehouse will do her some good. Of course, time at a remote lakehouse never does anyone any good in horror movies or thrillers. Soon after Anne arrives, she finds a manuscript outside her front door. Something left by a writer she has dealt with before. A writer who has now brought her a story about a literary agent being stalked while alone at a lakehouse.

It isn’t long before it becomes quite obvious that Anne really is being stalked by a sadistic maniac, and Bestseller is at its best when it’s showing us these stalking sequences. Building tension. Making us wait to see when the situation is going to blow up into screams and violence. Making Anne seem clueless when she doesn’t realize there’s a dead body at the lakehouse with her the whole time. It also might get you suspicious that Rohn, Goddard, and Knight are withholding information, because this is all too straightforward. The manuscript was delivered by a writer that Anne is familiar with, he has written about her being stalked, her actual stalking plays out just like it does in the book. It couldn’t be that simple, could it? The whole thing has already been given away 25 minutes into the movie? Thankfully, there are some twists and turns along the way.

One element of the film that seemed unnecessary to me was anything having to do with Anne’s daughter. I can imagine that Knight was able to delve into her medical issues and Anne’s feelings about the matter more deeply in the novel… but she didn’t need to be in the movie. All her illness really does is provide an excuse for why she doesn’t join Anne at the lakehouse, and in the end it’s just brushed aside. Anne is a single woman who lost a friend and needs a break from work, there really didn’t need to be anything more to her story than that. And without the daughter angle, the movie could have been slightly shorter while giving even more attention to the stalking, the tension, the thrills. Those elements do get a good amount of screen time as is, and builds up to a fun climactic reveal, but there are places where the movie could have been improved and the scenes with the daughter ended up making me ask, “Why bother?” Well, at least child actress Remi Ellen Dunkel got a job out of it.

While Anschutz is alone for most of the movie, the supporting cast members who show up here and there also make a positive impression. Kimberly Harsch (a.k.a. Kimber King) appears as the author who gets killed at the beginning, Dana Blackstone is Anne’s assistant, Terence Knox (best known to me from his role in Children of the Corn II) is a kindly doctor, DJ Perry is an awkward writer Anne has dealings with, Ralph Lister is the author of the manuscript Anne finds at the lakehouse, Victor Pytko shows up as a neighbor at the lake, Amy McFadden plays Anne’s best friend (who helps take care of her daughter while she’s at the lake), and Lana Wood – who famously played Plenty O’Toole in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever – even has a couple scenes!

Bestseller isn’t a mind-blower. Its low budget is apparent, it has a subplot that leads nowhere, and it could have gone further with its scares. But it’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of thrillers. If you’re already a fan of Melissa Anschutz, you’re really going to love it. If you’re not, you might be a fan by the time the end credits start rolling.

Bestseller is now available to watch on VOD, including Amazon Prime.

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AVERAGE

6