Dir. Joshua D. Maley (2024)
A woman loses her job and turns to an erotic social media site in order to get by. Her fans might not have the best intentions.
New technologies always have the capacity to be abused, and it's difficult to imagine something with more of that capacity than erotic social networks. It's actually kind of insane that we don't see more horrific things coming from places like OnlyFans, and I would assume the only thing preventing some psychopathic stalker from wreaking havoc on content creators is their (smart) refusal to interact with their fans outside of the digital space. Not so with the heroine (?) of today's film, the strangely titled Waltz.
Alice (Hannah Keeley) has recently lost her job, and she is in dire straights as she seeks to be able to afford her home on her work visa. Her photographer friend Calvin (David Dietz) tries to help her in any way that he can, and after Alice is unable to find a job after countless interviews, she turns to a social media site where women sell their pictures in an attempt to make ends meet. When Alice drums up an idea to increase revenue by agreeing to meet with the highest bidder, she naturally finds herself kidnapped at the hands of a mysterious stranger patterned after the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Waltz is a fun indie flick with a truly disturbing conceptual framework. The stalker is violent and cruel, and while this would normally be something solely in the realm of a horror/thriller film, I can't help but feel like Alice largely deserves her treatment. The character of Alice is a huge piece of shit in the film, treating everyone around her terribly and being entirely self-centered to the point of not even remembering when she's seen people that she knows in public. I won't give away what happens in the film except for saying that I saw the ending coming from a mile away, and even with my guess, I couldn't really blame the perpetrator for their actions.
That is, ultimately, what makes the film successful. Keeley's performance as the extremely unlikeable main character works very well for the film, and it really helps to provide an interesting idea for the film's central machinations. Both Keeley and Dietz are excellent, though certainly a bit hammy at times, and their performances deliver a bit of levity to what easily could've slipped into being a more extreme, disturbing film. This piece of it still exists, however, and I was delighted to see how far director Joshua D. Maley was willing to take his terrifying villain.
It's difficult to really go too much farther into the film without spoiling what's going on, so I'll leave that to you as the audience to deduce beyond what I've said here. The quality of the film is sufficient, and while the non-disturbing elements are more akin to a Lifetime film than they are to a mainstream horror, it's a nice little indie package that's worth exploring. The Alice in Wonderland themes are really well handled, and the villain is legitimately scary. The writing is excellent, the acting is more than enough for the film, and it's an altogether really enjoyable outing that I would definitely recommend giving a look.
Who this movie is for: Thriller fans, Alice in Wonderland buffs, OnlyFans subscribers
Bottom line: Waltz is a really enjoyable film that is at times funny and at others almost enraging. The central character is detestable, played perfectly by star Keeley, and the film does a great job of diving into a more cruel, disturbing concept near the end. If you're a fan of indie horror, you'll probably really enjoy this one, and I definitely recommend checking it out.
