Pet (film)

Pet is an American/Spanish psychological thriller film written by Jeremy Slater, directed by Carles Torrens, and starring Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, and Nathan Parsons.[3][4][5] The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2016[6][7] and was released to theaters on December 2, 2016.

Pet
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCarles Torrens
Produced by
  • Nick Phillips
  • Carles Torrens
  • Kelly Wagner
Written byJeremy Slater
Starring
Music byZacarías M. de la Riva
CinematographyTimothy A. Burton
Edited byElena Ruiz
Production
companies
  • Magic Lantern
  • Revolver Picture Company
Distributed byOrion Pictures
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release date
  • March 11, 2016 (2016-03-11) (SXSW)
  • December 2, 2016 (2016-12-02) (United States)
Running time
94 minutes[1]
Country
  • United States
  • Spain
LanguageEnglish
Box office$10.9K[2]

Production

It was announced in August 2015 that filming had begun with actors Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, and Nathan Parsons.[3][4][5]

Plot

Seth is a severely introverted man who works at an Animal Control department. He has developed an obsession with Holly, a waitress and former high school classmate of his he saw writing in her journal on the bus. Seth asks security guard Nate for advice, and Nate tells him to be confident and approach her. Seth extensively researches her online profiles for information and tries to ask her out, but she rebuffs him. At home, Holly talks about the encounter with her friend Claire, and takes a drunken phone call from her ex-boyfriend Eric, who cheated on her.

Holly receives a large bouquet of roses at work the next day, and assuming they are from Eric, goes to visit the bar where he works. Seth, who has been following her, confronts her, leading to a physical confrontation when he refuses to accept her rejection. Eric beats Seth up, but Seth is able to steal Holly's journal. He spends the next several days reading every detail. As his performance slips at work, Seth discovers a trapdoor to a room in an abandoned wing of the animal shelter, where he sets about constructing a steel cage. He follows Holly home, breaks into her apartment, and kidnaps her.

After she awakens in the cage, Holly vows to survive, speaking to an image of Claire. Seth informs Holly that he loves her and has imprisoned her to "save" her. He says he has heard her talking in both her own and Claire's voices in the past. He reveals that he knows the truth about her: Holly discovered that Eric had slept with Claire, and confronted her about it during a car ride. An angry Holly continued accelerating the car until they were hit by a truck. Although injured, Claire was alive until Holly stabbed her with a glass shard; Claire's death was attributed to the crash. Since then, Holly has committed a series of gruesome murders and written about them in her journal. When Seth realized the stories were real, he formulated a plan to save Holly to prevent her from hurting anyone else, claiming that he finally felt a purpose in life.

Over the next several days, they engage in psychological mind games against each other as Holly begins to slip details to draw Seth in. Seth maintains that Holly committed the other murders from guilt of not being caught over Claire, but Holly counters that she kills simply because she enjoys it. A suspicious Nate follows Seth and discovers Holly. She deliberately distracts Nate so that Seth has time to overpower him. At Holly's urging, he smashes Nate's skull with a cinder block, then follows her instructions to dispose of the body.

The police become suspicious of Seth's role in Nate's disappearance. Holly convinces him that he can save her if he proves his love to her by cutting off his finger. He does, but this leads to Holly grabbing his knife and threatening to kill herself if he doesn't release her. She says she finally believes that he loves her before slitting his throat.

Some time later, Holly is back together with Eric, and the "fictional" events from her journal are being published by a vanity press. Holly finds evidence that Eric has been cheating again, but declines to hurt him. Instead, she travels to a warehouse, where it is revealed that Seth is being kept in a cage, still alive but horribly mutilated and tortured; she thanks him for "saving" her by allowing her to take out her murderous impulses on him instead.

Cast

Screenings

The film premiered at the March 2016 South by Southwest Film festival.[6][7][8]

Release

Pet was released to 9 theaters on December 2, 2016 with total gross of $8,004 since then.[9][10]

Reception

Reviews for Pet have been mixed, with critics alternatively praising the subversive themes and strong leading performances, or lamenting the implausible twists. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 56% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.16/10.[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Reviews that have criticized the twists include Screen Anarchy, which wrote "Without spoiling anything more, the twists push past the merely unlikely into a strange minefield of 'what in the world?'",[13] and RogerEbert.com, which noted "The rank, idiotic implausibilities continue to mount..."[14]

The Hollywood Reporter gave the bottom line of "This graphically violent horror thriller features too many plot twists for its own good", but the review has also words of praise for the direction and cast: "Still, the film is engrossing, thanks to the director’s skill at delivering sustained tension, and the excellent performances."[15]

An entirely positive review came from The A.V. Club's Alex McCown, who stated: "Part of the wicked fun of Pet, a dark little exercise in sadism and black humor, is how it upends the traditional conventions of the 'wronged woman turns the tables on her abuser' narrative. (...) The films zigs where you expect a depraved zag, resulting in a smart and unsettling tale."[16]

Another overall positive review has been given by Katie Walsh of Los Angeles Times, who wrote: "The constant power flipping allows for some interesting explorations of both the misogyny and misandry demonstrated by the main characters, and the way they justify their actions through the philosophical lens of love and sacrifice. 'Pet' is a modern-day fable of unchecked desire that descends quickly into a bloody, morbid cautionary tale."[17]

References
  1. "Pet (18)". British Board of Film Classification. September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  2. https://the-numbers.com/movie/Pet-(2016)#tab=summary
  3. Kroll, Justin (August 11, 2015). "Jennette McCurdy to Co-Star in Indie 'Pet'". Variety. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  4. Kit, Borys (August 10, 2015). "Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo to Star in Indie Thriller 'Pet'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  5. Wanchope, . (August 18, 2015). "Comienza el rodaje de 'Pet', lo nuevo de Carles Torrens" (in Spanish). El Séptimo Arte. Retrieved February 13, 2016.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. Gettell, Oliver (February 9, 2016). "SXSW 2016 Midnighters include Hush, Pet, remastered Phantasm". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  7. Olsen, Mark (February 9, 2016). "South By Southwest film fest announces midnight titles and more". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  8. Kay, Jeremy (February 9, 2016). "SXSW Midnighters includes 'Hush', 'Carnage Park'". Screen Daily. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  9. Hime, Nelly (November 7, 2016). "PET 2016 TRAILER SHOWS UNIQUE SPIN ON CLAUSTROPHOBIC THRILLER + RELEASE". NagameDigital. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  10. "2016 DOMESTIC GROSSES". Box Office Mojo.
  11. "Pet (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  12. "Pet Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  13. Martin, Peter (December 1, 2016). "Review: PET, A Man, A Woman, and a Cage". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
  14. Kenny, Glenn (December 2, 2016). "Pet". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
  15. Scheck, Frank (December 6, 2016). "'Pet': Film Review". Retrieved March 13, 2017.
  16. McCown, Alex (December 1, 2016). "The best movies of 2016 that we didn't review". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  17. Walsh, Katie (December 1, 2016). "Boldly creepy 'Pet' tweaks captive-captor conventions". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
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