John Travolta is a mulleted fanboy named Moose in the trailer for this loony Fred Durst thriller
Christ, where to begin with this trailer. John Travolta? His ratty grey mullet, tropical shirt, and uncharacteristically nervous energy have here transformed him into an aged fanboy named Moose. The plot? Moose obsesses over an action star named Hunter Dunbar (a jacked-to-hell Devon Sawa), then takes him prisoner after getting rebuffed. With director Fred Durst? Yeah, yeah, you know him from Limp Bizkit, but this is his third feature. This thing reeks of direct-to-VHS sleaziness, but we find ourselves oddly enraptured.
That’s probably because we can’t remember the last time Travolta played such a strange character. We also can’t figure out whether what he’s doing here—the shaky, garbled speech; the sloppy demeanor; the performative anxiousness—is, well, good or just intriguingly weird. Still, we couldn’t possibly ignore a film in which Travolta slips on a hockey mask and goes full Misery on Sawa while screaming about how he “just wanted an autograph!”
Here’s a synopsis:
Moose is a rabid movie fan who is obsessed with his favorite celebrity action hero, Hunter Dunbar. When he is cheated out of his opportunity to finally meet Hunter, Moose gets a little help from his friend Leah, a well-connected paparazzi photographer, who knows how to find celebrity homes. Moose turns to stalking to get the celebrity interaction he feels he deserves, and while harmless at first, Moose’s actions begin to take a dark turn as his obsession grows stronger. As the visits continue to escalate, Hunter Dunbar finds himself in increasing danger.
Watch the trailer above ahead of The Fanatic’s August 30 opening.