"The Lurker" (2019), a film aiming for the feel of classic slashers, feels more akin to "Scream," though it operates on a smaller budget. The movie centers around a group of theater students and faculty at a Chicago-area high school who find themselves targeted by an unknown assailant wearing a bird's beak plague mask. The producers labeled this as a tribute to 1980s horror films, which isn’t entirely inaccurate; …

The Lurker feels like a tribute to classic slasher films. However, it’s comparable to those personal letters Viggo Mortensen sends to his wife in Green Book, before Mahershala Ali begins mentoring him. The film's music is dominated by a simple synthesizer sound, and the high school is called Crystal Lake High; these elements feel overly obvious even for an homage. The casting choices are where the filmmakers reall…

Scout Taylor-Compton, and possibly one of the other actresses, do a decent job, but frankly, most of the cast falls short. I won’t claim to have completely disliked _The Lurker_, although it certainly wasn't enjoyable either. _Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._