Pet

by Jeremy Slater

Magic Lantern

Normally I would never find myself watching a psychological thriller like Pet, although I would have avidly read the spoilers. If I had been able to find spoilers, I probably would have read them and then watched It’s a Wonderful Life instead.

Alas, spoilers were not to be found. Last week I had some high quality female rage going; the movie was rentable on iTunes, and the next thing I knew I had hit “Rent: Watch Now.”

I have pondered this movie for a week and I still don’t know whether or not I liked it, but I will say that the female rage was excellent indeed.

There are a gazillion spoiler-free reviews of Pet online. In fact, as far as I can tell the only people who saw the movie were reviewers. All of them say that this movie is best seen spoiler-free and all of them are right.

I, however, am going to spoil the shit out of this movie. If you want to watch the movie without knowing what’s about to happen, which is by far the best way to watch it, DON’T READ THIS UNTIL AFTER YOU SEE THE MOVIE.

Again: SPOILERS.

I WILL SPOIL THE TWISTS.

I WILL TELL YOU WHO DIES.

I WILL SPOIL EVERYTHING.

SPOILERS AHOY. I will be masking a couple of huge spoilers, but the whole review is basically one big spoiler because once you get past what’s in the trailer, everything is a spoiler.

Also TRIGGER WARNINGS for abuse, stalking, animal harm, violence, and mayhem.

Because boy, howdy, this is NOT a romance.

Ok, ready?

Dominic Monaghan plays Seth, a single guy who works at an animal shelter. He’s quiet and awkward. A startling number of reviewers seemed to think that twist number one is that he’s not a nice guy. I knew he was not a nice guy immediately because a) I knew the movie’s premise, and b) he’s intrusive and creepy even before the stalking actually starts. His behavior when he first approaches Holly, the woman he forms a crush on, is a study in how to violate someone’s boundaries and make them uncomfortable while not doing anything concretely awful, so that the behavior can be hand-waved as “awkward” as opposed to “predatory.”

We interrupt this review for a Very Important Public Service Announcement: If someone is violating your boundaries, their motivations are not important. You have a right to have boundaries and if anyone is not respecting them, get the hell away from them. You don’t need that crap in your life. The details of how you respond will, of course, vary by situation, but the bottom line remains the same – you have a right to have your boundaries respected, period.

Back to the movie!

Seth develops a crush on a woman named Holly (played by Ksenia Solo) and he starts stalking her. I rather gloried in the fact that Holly is not presented as “likeable” (one pictures strangers telling her to smile on a regular basis), yet she’s relatable as an example of a woman trying to shut down unwanted attention without seeming to be rude but gradually realizing that rudeness is going to have to happen.

As part of the whole stalking process Seth steals Holly’s diary and reads it. As a result of reading the diary he decides to do what in his fucked-up mind is the only logical thing to do: build a large cage in the basement of the shelter, kidnap Holly, and put her in the cage until he can “save” her, because MEGA SPOILER:

Ksenia Solo is mesmerizing in her performance. She has an easier job than Dominic, because Holly only wants one thing, and it’s very concrete. Holly wants to get out of the cage. Everything Holly does and everything Holly says is in service of this goal.

One of the fun aspects to the movie is trying to pick out what’s true and what isn’t. Holly has no physical power. She’s in her underwear (panties and a camisole, more on that later). She can move, but not stand up, and no one can hear her. So Holly uses her only weapon: manipulation, and she’s so great at it that it’s thrilling to watch. She threatens, she cajoles, she tries puppy eyes, bedroom eyes, and “unlock me or I will murder you with my glare” eyes. She bides her time and she seizes advantages. For someone in a nominally helpless position, Holly is the manifestation of agency.

Even though Holly is in her underwear, the movie does not sexually exploit her. Her underwear is plain cotton – familiar and utilitarian stuff – and it covers her pretty well. It highlights her vulnerability, but it’s not sexy. The camera shots are not sexy either. The camera moves around the enclosed space, but the camera doesn’t linger on her rear or stare down her cleavage. Ksenia is a gorgeous woman but for most of the movie she’s a mess. When she turns on the charm, she’s more scary than sexy. Seth does not rape her or try to touch her and is horrified by her attempts at seduction. That doesn’t mean that Seth is a great guy – I feel I cannot stress enough that he’s KEEPING A WOMAN IN A CAGE. It’s just refreshing that sexual violence and sexual exploitation aren’t directly part of the picture.

Dominic has a harder job as an actor because Seth’s goals are confusing and abstract. He wants to “save” Holly, but I never figured out how he thought he’d save her. He works with animals and he uses some animal training techniques so maybe he thinks once he establishes dominance Holly will obey him, or maybe he thinks he will be able to convince Holly that she really is the woman that he thought she was. Seth thinks that he loves Holly, but he developed this idea before he ever talked to her. His desires are based on illusion and even Seth probably doesn’t understand his own goals. What does Seth think is going to happen if he lets Holly out? Or if he doesn’t let her out?

This is not a guy who plans ahead, but it is a guy who is equally skilled at cage welding and denial.

Regarding violence and gore – the violence and gore is sparse but nasty. Holly kills a rat, which is some gore I could have done without, but it works because it’s our first clue that maybe Holly has hidden depths. At one point Holly bangs her face into the cage bars, which sends Seth into a panic and is kind of horrifyingly awesome, but also bloody. There’s also a gory flashback scene involving a car crash and subsequent murder. There’s violence in the movie, but not sexual violence or torture other than psychological torture.

The other gory moments in the movie result from actions performed by Seth (surprisingly, these actions are not performed on Holly, who escapes all this completely unscathed other than hitting her own face). The gore felt earned, because it challenges Seth’s disassociation from reality and brings home to him the consequences of reality. When Seth has to kill someone to keep from getting caught, it turns out that killing someone is actually super difficult and super messy.

In this case I wasn’t offended by the gore but I was by the fact that MEGA SPOILER:

In a recent podcast we talked about female rage. Holly is angry all the time. She’s angry on the bus. She’s angry at work. She’s rarely afraid of Seth – she’s PISSED. While another person might be weeping in terror and despair, she is FURIOUS. How DARE he lock her up. How DARE he lecture her on love and morality and impulse control after he drugged her and locked her up in a basement. When she gets to let that rage out, it’s both horrifying and exhilarating. Holly is not a feminist role model; she is a horrible, horrible person who leaves a trail of ruined lives in her wake. She’s also a living “Fuck you.” She refuses to conform to Seth’s dream girl ideal. She’s unapologetically herself. While in Holly’s case it is true she should really apologize for being herself and also get some serious therapy, she’s a reminder that hey, WOMEN EXPERIENCE RAGE. When we do, get the fuck out of our way.

If there’s anything sexist about the movie, it’s that Seth is so outmatched that it becomes easy to feel sorry for him. The movie’s cast is very small and every character has the upper hand on Seth at least some of the time. Seth’s boss threatens to fire him. The security guard doesn’t want to talk to him. The detective outsmarts him within seconds. Holly’s boyfriend beats him up.

By prompting the viewer to think of Seth as “Poor, Outmatched Seth” and by giving him the motive he has (revealed above in the first mega-spoiler), the movie undercuts his position as the stalker-kidnapper. I’m not suggesting that he should be one-dimensional, but the balance here is askew.

Seth is not the victim here despite MEGA SPOILER:

Seth only found out about Holly’s secret because he stalked her and stole her diary. Seth was invasive from the moment he met Holly, proceeding from boorish to criminal at a rapid pace. Seth is a bad guy. By making him an ineffectual bad guy, and by introducing Holly as a compromised individual, the movie loses sight of just how horrible he is. He’s every Men’s Rights Activist going “Oh poor me, women won’t date me and also you never can tell if a woman is an angel or a bitch can you.” However this particular MRA puts his self-pity and sense of moral outrage into action by locking Holly up. He’s the villain and don’t forget it.

We close this review with another Very Important Public Service Announcement. One last note, and I’m not going to spoiler mark it because it’s not important to the plot although it will be a deal-breaker for many of our viewers. Charlie works at an animal shelter. It’s not a no-kill shelter. The dog dies. Spay or neuter your pets, people, and microchip them too. Here’s a list of low-cost clinics.

Pet is available for streaming on Amazon.