Stalked By My Doctor looks like a film that deserves a good savaging.

Take a look at that title for one; it has all the imagination of a Sensodyne toothpaste advert – ‘let’s just get a rogue-looking dentist from an arbitrary location across the country to say it’s good’. Even P.E. teachers have put in more effort when making a term’s worth of lesson plans – “if we play football for three weeks, then rounders for two, before finishing off with some ‘cross-country running’ around the back field, that’ll do ‘em’”.

My scepticism increases exponentially as the film opens with a camera panning through a restaurant. A man sips a glass of wine to a backdrop of some gentle jazz music. He is silver-haired and has that leathery-looking skin of a Californian yet to come to terms with their age… think Cameron Diaz. And damn, he has massive lips: he looks like a pelican whose habitat has been polluted by some Chernobyl-like leak at a Botox factory.

The opening scene does not give much away, it appears a first date of sorts. Yet something is nagging away at me: the acting seems quite good. There is something sinister behind Pelican-Face’s eyes, and the smile stretched across his mouth seems fixed and forced. It cannot be described as evil, but he is hiding something. And I am intrigued about just what that is, particularly because of that somewhat simplistic title.

Unknown Displeasures: Labor Pains

And it is complete and utter perfection. Name a positive hyperbolic adjective and I will use it to describe it. Where I thought a movie with a title as unsophisticated as Stalked By My Doctor was guaranteed to be shit as Tinchy Stryder’s knowledge of the works of Chopin and Debussy, I was wrong. Indeed, the plot of Stalked By My Doctor is largely self-evident. Dr Albert Beck (Eric Roberts) is a nationally-respected cardiologist who is tasked with caring for Sophie Green (Brianna Chomer) after she is rushed to hospital after a car-crash caused by her boyfriend Ryan (Carson Boatman). Beck, having saved her life, proceeds to pursue Green – who at first appears receptive to his advances – in a variety of ways: all of which fall neatly under the heading ‘Stereotypical Activities of Crazy Stalkers.’ Slowly but surely, Green, her parents and her boyfriend all begin to get suspicious and, as Beck begins to be pushed away, he resorts to increasingly drastic means.

Indeed, simplicity is the beauty of the movie: nothing is overly-complex or nuanced. Granted, the plot does not have the labyrinthine twists and turns of a true Hollywood blockbuster, but the basics have been absolutely nailed. It takes all the clichés that would be expected from this sort of film and strips them bare of cringe-worthiness or cheesiness. It is horrifying, moving and gripping. It genuinely scared me.

“Stalked By My Doctor is absolutely not a film to watch alone, particularly when a singleton on Valentine’s Day (speaking from experience, depressingly)”

The film’s success is almost entirely down to the first-class acting performances from across the cast. Roberts encapsulates the volatility of his character perfectly, switching effortlessly between the three aspects of Beck – the confident and charismatic heart surgeon, the creepy and sinister stalker and the child-like singleton who just wants to be loved. Everything is closely refined down to the walk, the voice and the glint behind the eye.

All this is supplemented by fantastic camera work and direction. Beck’s lingering gazes from afar are perfectly placed on the screen behind interactions between Green and her parents while a scene in which he watches on as Green and her boyfriend reconcile flickers superbly between the young lovers’ antics and Beck’s reactions, right down to the tightening of his grip on the door-handle. It is a horrifyingly tense spectacle, enhanced by the most dramatic of soundtracks.

Elsewhere, the virtuoso acting performances continue. Deborah Zoe as Green’s mother, Adrienne, gets the role of a worried and distressed parent just right, as exemplified by the facial expressions she pulls watching interactions between Beck and Green, while Boatman’s portrayal of a guilt-ridden yet loyal boyfriend is convincing and straight out a John Green novel.

Stalked By My Doctor is absolutely not a film to watch alone, particularly when a singleton on Valentine’s Day (speaking from experience, depressingly). It is a difficult watch, but not due to its lack of quality. Scenes in which Beck fantasises about having sex with Green are hauntingly realistic, with the discomfort enhanced by their obvious age-gap. The breaths that Beck takes as he smells her clothes, the zoomed-in shots of his hands lingering on her back, and watching her panicked attempts to escape a rag doused in chloroform are deeply unpleasant. Watching Beck kiss Green as she is unconscious and (later) stroking her leg with a sponge as she is tied up, interchanged with shots of the sheer panic and fear in her eyes, is even worse.

“A man sips a glass of wine to a backdrop of some gentle jazz music. He is silver-haired and has that leathery-looking skin of a Californian yet to come to terms with their age… think Cameron Diaz”

There are times where it is difficult not to get angry. I am left seething as Green’s father (Jon Brindell) justifies Beck’s early behaviour as ‘guys will be guys’ and suggests that his daughter, as a beautiful girl, will ‘have to get used it’ – that kind of misogyny and disgusting apologism should be confined to US Presidents.

And on occasions, it is a struggle not to be feel conflicted. Sure, Beck is a monster – in a Weeping Angels, not a Mike Wazowski way – but, as the true extent to Beck’s underlying mental issues become clear, the line begins to blur between whether he truly is a villain. As he begins to cry like a child, bawling out ‘let me take care of you, let me take care of you’, ‘I thought you loved me’ and ‘I just want someone to be with me,’ it is hard not to feel sympathetic and question whether it is actually society that has failed him.

But my overarching feeling as I watch the film is fear, particularly as I begin to consider its plot on a macro scale. It screams Jimmy Savile, in a way reminiscent of the recent Sherlock episode starring Toby Jones: the plot functions as a poignant and haunting reminder of the things that those people with authority and a sterling reputation are able to get away with.

In short, Stalked By My Doctor is a superbly written and performed rollercoaster of emotions, to the extent that I was quite relieved as the credits rolled (with some jarringly unsuitable Mexican music… talk about juxtapositions). They say a great piece of art should have the power to induce emotion. And given it had the tension of that Racer Snakes versus Iguanas scene from Planet Earth, the raw emotion of that cute bit from Notting Hill and the fear that comes from watching my beloved Middlesbrough FC try and defend a corner, Stalked By My Doctor comes highly recommended