Profile: What makes this thriller so haunting?

Profile is a new thriller that’s opening in theaters on May 14. It’s from writer, director, and producer Timur Bekmambetov. He’s worked on a lot of movies, including directing and co-writing the horror-thrillers Night Watch and its sequel Day Watch, and producing Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,  Unfriended and its sequel Unfriended: Dark Web, as well as Unfollowed.

While Profile isn’t a horror movie with any supernatural elements, it’s still very haunting —and gripping— nonetheless. It also shares something in common with the Unfriended and Unfollowed movies: its format. It’s presented in what’s called “the Screenlife format,” where “the unconventional thriller plays out entirely on a computer screen.” Bekmambetov actually pioneered the technique.

If you haven’t seen such a movie, it reminds me a little of how The Blair Witch Project made found footage interesting. Not that Profile is found footage-like, but it’s definitely not your conventional way of storytelling.

And I have to confess this: I had low expectations for the movie. If I hadn’t been offered the chance of a complimentary screening, I never would’ve picked it. Its storyline (which we’ll get to) wouldn’t have appealed to me. And knowing it was shot like Unfriended, a movie I wasn’t a fan of, probably would’ve influenced my decision to pass on it too.

Which would’ve been a shame because Profile is one of the better movies I’ve seen in a while, regardless of genre. I’ll explain why I feel that way, but first let’s look at what the movie is all about.

Profile Storyline

An undercover British journalist embarks on a quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter through social media while trying not to be sucked in by her recruiter and lured into becoming a militant extremist herself.

Review

Amy (Valene Kane) is a journalist who goes undercover for a story to expose the recruiting tactics of ISIS. She’s inspired to do so because of a story about a beautiful young 19-year-old who had converted to Islam, went to Syria, and ended up getting stoned to death when she wanted to return home.

I’m not sure if the girl in the movie was a real person or not. However, the movie is based on a book about a real journalist who does what Amy does in the movie, In the Skin of a Jihadist: A Young Journalist Enters the ISIS Recruitment Network by Anna Erelle and Erin Potter. 

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I don’t remember if the girl in the movie had been lured into becoming Muslim and traveling to Syria under the delusion of being romanced or not, but Amy finds herself actually falling for her recruiter, Abu Bilel Al-Britani (Shazad Latif). And it happens in a very short amount of time.

Because the whole story is told by watching a computer screen, we see the files of Skype recordings and such she’s kept of her exchanges with Bilel for her story. It’s right around a month this all plays out.

But what’s most haunting about it is that it doesn’t take very long at all for Amy to find herself blurring the lines between her undercover role and reality. She has a boyfriend, who she’s even ready to move in with and start having a family with,  but then something happens. She gets sucked in by the very charming Bilel.

Could he really have feelings for her after all? Is he not the bad guy she’s believed him to be?

Then suddenly something happens to Bilel and Amy is ready to trade in her life in London and surreptitiously make her way across Syria’s borders to be with him. But has she really fallen for him or is she doing it for the story?

I’m not going to give any spoilers, because there are a couple of twists that are the secret sauce to why this movie is so haunting. Well, that and the performances by Latif and Kane. Especially Kane.

Amy (who Kane portrays) is an independent woman who doesn’t seem particularly conflicted in her life or choices. A lot of us know women like this. Maybe we even are ourselves. Yet we also know women like this who somehow end up getting conned by a man.

If you’re a fan of true crime, you’ve likely seen an episode or two (or ten) about such a scenario and probably wondered, “How on earth could she have fallen for that?”

Profile shows how and then what happens after.

I’m sure you can think of movies that have rattled you or left an impression after watching them too. That’s what Profile did to me. Maybe because I wasn’t expecting much and ended up being pleasantly surprised?

I don’t know.

The New York Times wasn’t as smitten with it as I was, though, calling it “shallow.” But Indiewire described it as a “harrowing” and “engaging” thriller, and I agree with that.

I never expected to get so sucked in by this story or the way it was told —or by the amount of suspense. How does that happen by way of a computer screen? That just goes to show the power of storytelling when it’s done right.

The Skeleton Crew gives Profile a solid 4 out of 5 skulls.

Profile Trailer

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What movie have you ever seen that you didn’t have high hopes for but that ended up pleasantly surprising and wowing you?