Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A man bumps into an old crush and becomes obsessed. After several failed attempts at winning her over, he kidnaps her and holds her captive underneath the animal shelter where he works.
Pet is a modest but reasonably effective thriller that subverts expectations with a mid-film twist that recontextualizes the power dynamic between captor and captive, elevating it slightly above typical kidnap-horror fare. The plot benefits from this reversal, though the setup is fairly conventional and the execution doesn't always match the ambition. Acting is serviceable from both leads, with Dominic Monaghan and Ksenia Solo delivering competent but unspectacular performances. Cinematography is functional at best — the basement setting is appropriately grimy but not particularly inventive or stylish. Novelty gets a slight bump for the twist on genre expectations, though the film still operates largely within familiar thriller territory. The ending is passable but doesn't land with the impact it aims for, leaving the film feeling somewhat unresolved despite its attempts at a dark, ironic conclusion.