Nitro Video Rating:
PURCHASE THE DVD: Love Object (2003)

This very good 2003 thriller/horror tale starts off predictably enough, but then really rocks your world at the end. We start with a technical writer geek named Kenneth whose whole world revolves around his work. Stiff, meek, lonely, and shy, he has no social life apart from peering through his apartment door's peephole as his older neighbor brings home conquests.

When he is introduced to the concept of a lifelike sex doll by tormenting co-workers, he does what all geeks would do....looks into it further on the Internet and winds up paying $10,000 to order "Nikki", who, without realizing it, he has made up to look like his typing assistant Lisa, whom he has admired from afar without having the courage to make an advance. As he becomes intimate with the doll, it builds up his confidence to want the real thing, and a relationship with Lisa soon develops.

Things then take a very dark turn as our writer starts to loose grip with reality, and a very different and warped Kenneth emerges. The ending will be a very big surprise to most viewers because just when you think you're sure where the ending is headed, you're blown away with a major twist that I won't reveal, but be WARNED: the clips may give it away.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it. One oddity is that you'll probably notice the film is very grainy, because it was shot on 16mm and then upsized to 35mm for the release prints. I imagine this is done either to cut costs (it had only a million dollar budget) or simply to give the movie a certain kind of "feel". Still a great movie, though.