STALKERS Turns Homecoming Into Horror

 

Abbas Wahab as 'Mike' in "Stalkers" - Best Supporting Actor at The Flight Deck Film Festival and Best Actor at the Denver Indie Film Festival. 

A Second Chance Turns Deadly in Stalkers, a Thriller That Trades Sentiment for Reckoning

What begins as a provocative premise—a former porn star returning to her tiny hometown to raise the teenage daughter she once gave up—quickly mutates into something far darker. Stalkers takes the familiar contours of a redemption story and twists them into a chilling survival thriller, where second chances arrive already compromised.

Kate Swanson was once a small-town girl from Michigan. As a teenager, she ran away to California and reinvented herself as Tabitha Swann, a cult adult-film star. Years later, a single phone call shatters the life she has carefully constructed: her daughter Charlotte, whom she placed for adoption in high school, has been orphaned after a brutal double homicide.

Forced to return home, Kate is confronted by the past she tried to erase. Charlotte is grieving, withdrawn, and wary of the mother she never knew. Hoping to build something resembling stability, Kate moves them into the empty house of Mike, an old high school acquaintance whose home initially appears to offer refuge. Instead, the space becomes increasingly uneasy. Kate senses she is being watched. Familiar streets feel hostile. Her former identity—one she believed buried—begins to surface, bringing with it unwanted attention and escalating threats.

Among the film’s recognized performances is Abbas Wahab, who plays Mike. Wahab’s work in Stalkers received formal recognition during the film’s festival run, earning Best Supporting Actor at The Flight Deck Film Festival and Best Actor at the Denver Indie Film Festival. These awards place his performance among the film’s most cited achievements and reflect the ensemble’s broader impact across genre and independent circuits.

As tensions escalate, Charlotte uncovers the truth about her mother’s past, fracturing their already fragile bond at the worst possible moment. What follows is a relentless descent into terror as secrets, stalkers, and violence converge. In a final night of bloodshed, Kate’s past and present collide, turning a hoped-for reunion into a desperate fight for her daughter’s life.

Anchored by a fearless performance from Olivia Stadler, Stalkers has resonated strongly on the international festival circuit. The film earned Best Thriller Feature at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and Best Narrative Feature at both the Boston Indie Film Festival and California Indies Festival, along with multiple Best Feature wins at festivals including The Thing in the Basement Horror Fest, The Dunwich Horror Fest, and Rome Perspective Fest. Stadler’s performance has been repeatedly recognized with Best Actress awards across North America and Europe, while the film’s technical craft—particularly cinematography, editing, and score—has also received multiple honors. 

Director Paul Thompson approaches slasher territory with restraint, grounding the film’s violence in emotional consequence rather than spectacle. The horror in Stalkers does not emerge solely from bloodshed, but from the collision of past and present, and the fragile hope that survival might still allow for reckoning.

A dark inversion of a Hallmark-style homecoming, Stalkers is less interested in punishment than in redemption, delivering a thriller that lingers not for its shock value, but for the weight it leaves behind.

Stalkers just launched on Tubi/