Deadly Stalking (2020)
Brooke Shields is such a dear--and a great actress to boot!
In the inordinate hours of loneliness that make up my days (and nights) watching movies on YouTube is the third “therapy pill” next to reading and writing.
I’ve been a cinephile, since childhood, who prefers old movies (made roughly before 2000). Recently, however, I’ve discovered a new breed of films under the moniker “Lifetime Movies” available on YouTube.
These are productions of “secondary” studios (no big-names here) which, however, are very well put together and often feature known actors and actresses in addition to many lesser ones, who, nevertheless, display significant talent.
Lifetime scenaria are stylized and reminiscent of those of TV serials of the 90s. They often revolve around true events, with law enforcement frequently being the “spine” of the trials and tribulations of the protagonists.
Deadly Stalking is a true story that unfolded in California involving an attractive computer engineer Laura Black (Brooke Shields) fresh out of university, who is employed by a major corporation working, among others, with the US Department of Defense and similar agencies.
Brooke’s bad luck emerges almost immediately after her arrival at the company in the person of a colleague by the name of Rich (Richard Thomas) who’s a strange squirt and prominently awkward. Rich, almost immediately, develops an obsession for the new recruit and Laura immediately forms a negative opinion for this strange twerp who’s, however, highly regarded for his skills and knowledge of computer science (classic example of a certified pathetic and, often, dangerous idiot with a one-track mind).
The weird guy Rich is on the afterburner immediately baking cakes to offer to Laura (who politely, but firmly, refuses them), stalking her during baseball games, but eventually succeeds in taking her out to dinner after the newcomer, feeling sorry for idiot Rich, agrees to go out with him. During this short-lived night out, Laura informs the squirt there’s no way she would become his girlfriend come hell or high water.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Reacting to his open rejection by a woman he couldn’t reach even with a 20-foot pole plus a fleet of limousines and million-dollar yachts, Rich quickly escalates his deranged fantasies into stalking Laura, causing serious damage to her residence, and eventually confronting her, inside the company building, while heavily armed—and shoots her in the chest.
Laura, although gravely wounded and unable to breath, succeeds in seeking shelter in the office of a colleague, who immediately locks the door triggering Rich to open fire but, thankfully, failing to cause damage other than destroying machines and walls.
With the police alerted by a call from the two terrified targets of Rich’s wrath, a major mobilization of SWAT teams, and dozens of armed police, forces Rich to barricade himself in a working space overlooking the company’s parking lot.
A police negotiator succeeds in establishing telephone communication with the maniac who’s wounded by police fires. Eventually, the negotiator succeeds in luring the criminal moron out of his hole by offering to bring him a sandwich and a coke — and as he presents himself at the gate, and dropping his weapons, he’s immediately arrested by an army of armed officers.
Laura barely survives being shot by the deranged criminal moron and returns to the company, after serious surgery and long recuperation, to be warmly welcomed by all the company’s employees.
At the time the film was distributed, Laura was still working for the company, although having lost partial movement of her arm because of being shot, while the State of California was passing draconian legislation to address similar incidents.
The creep was sentenced to death, but I couldn’t discover whether he’s been executed or not.
I wish he had (or will have) an agonizing slow final exit.