Stalked (1968) User Reviews

I can't believe this was made by the Lutheran Church.

[K-burg · 6/10 · 10 September 2007]

This bizarre and near-inexplicable little short was produced by the Lutheran Church of America. My general experience with religious movies has been that the messages are pretty straight-forward. Kudos to those crazy Lutheran kids for making a religious movie with almost no discernible message at all. I kept trying to read one into it, and this is the best I could come up with: Main character really liked the barrel-organ as a child and tried to hold onto that childlike joy by becoming a carnival owner. Over the course of time, though, he grew to hate the religion of his childhood and then to hate people and their messy weaknesses. He prefers waxworks. When he goes to visit his parents and discovers the town whose only remaining population consists of mannequins and statuary, however, he is horrified. His hatred and fear of religion only increases. Discovering the barrel-organ playing in the street is like discovering his childhood joy again and he is afraid the owner will take it away. He soon discovers that the owner is there to facilitate his joy, not threaten it. It is his own actions that destroy both the barrel-organ and the owner, a symbolic representation of humanity's sin and selfishness destroying our own joy and necessitating Christ's sacrifice. One can only assume that this realization of the true source of joy and of the nature of the crucifixion happened in some kind of vision and changed the main character's life. Please, if someone has some better interpretation, let me know. Overall, I found the movie pretty slow but well-done.

Part horror movie, part Sunday school sermon

[boris-26 · 11 February 2004]

Imagine a remake of CARNIVAL OF SOULS, but instead of frightened young girl, you have a somewhat bewildered Jack Hawkins, and instead of a Ghoul Man pursing the girl, you have this dancing oddball with a Jesus Christ beard pursuing Hawkins. That's what happens in this oddball short. Hawkins plays an unhappy carnival owner who goes to Germany to visit his family. When he gets there, the whole town his family comes from is totally abandoned. Then this guy who looks like Jesus come in. It gets kinda strange........ no, really strange.

Really Strange, Superbly Scary, Christian Message Movie

[fitzsweetpea · 10/10 · 16 February 2006]

This is a superb short movie written and directed by Rolf Forsberg with a touch of genius. Excellent British actor Jack Hawkins plays a misanthropic carnival owner who returns to the old country to cleanse himself of a lingering Christian guilt. This flick is atmospheric, full of odd angles and strange sounds, dreamlike. Hawkins, who had throat cancer when Stalked was made and never utters even a single line in the movie, gradually realizes the nightmarish quality of his empty existence. The Jesus character was beardless, but he did have a moustache. i thought he looked like a dutch Kevin Costner. Think Jesus as Wyatt Earp in wooden clogs. This movie was produced by the Lutheran Church, but non-religious film buffs will like this flick too. This movie can be viewed via netflix, under the title, The Educational Archives: Religion.

Strange, yet haunting film

[stephaneloiosh · 4 November 2005]

This is a strange short, produced by the Lutheran Church of America. A guy who works at a carnival (is he the owner?) is repeatedly confronted by images of Christ at the carnival, which disturb him. He journeys to the Netherlands to visit family. The airport is deserted when he arrives, and his is the only bag on the baggage claim conveyor belt. He picks up a rental car and drives to the family home, which is also deserted. He goes out to look for his family, but everywhere he goes, he is followed by the sound of wooden shoes on the old cobblestones. He thinks they may be at church. He goes there and thinks that the sculpture of Christ on the cross is moving. He stabs it. He then walks around some more, still followed by the footsteps, until he hears the sound of a carnival barrel organ. The organ's sound stops, and he becomes possessive of it and offers it money to keep playing. The organ's owner, wearing wooden shoes and clad in a long black robe, arrives. Nearby torches set the organ ablaze and the man pushes it into the canal along with the strange wooden-shod man. As the wreckage floats to the top, the (now nude) man floats to the surface atop broken wood. He looks like Christ on the cross! It was Jesus the whole time!! The man then returns to the carnival, happy and carefree. I have no idea what this was supposed to mean. Stop projector, discuss film.