"Crush": a teenage setting for "Fatal Attraction"? Certainly a showcase for attractive young actors

I thought that the little thriller “Crush”, by Malik Bader (for Intrepid Pictures) would be a revisit of the notorious “Fatal Attraction” (1987), transposed to the high school teen world. 

  

Maybe it is a bit, with the help of a curious plot twist. 

  

Lucas Till plays Scott, the perfect teenager and graduating high school senior.  He lives with his divorced dad (Michael Landes).  What dad wouldn’t be proud of a dream son like this:  A-student, lettered athlete in soccer and track, and proficient chess player.  (I think the film could have played the chess angle more, maybe even with a tournament scene;  imagine a movie plot based on a the course of a chess opening like the Sveshnilov Sicilian.)  In short, Scott, who provides eye candy, is rather like a Clark Kent without powers, which he may need.

  

It seems that he is getting stalked by an unknown female admirer (it was hard to keep Crystal Bell and Sarah Bolger apart, which gives a clue to the plot trick).  He has to tell her to “please stop” pulling tricks like pulling one of his drawings or term papers out of the trash.

In the meantime, things are getting violent, as other students are having “accidents”, which will eventually draw Scott into the showdown.

The “crush” has a naïve, good-hearted boyfriend herself, who is Jeffrey, played by Reid Ewing.  Reid uses the same “mock” speech style as the character Dylan in “Modern Family” and in his own satirical “Reing.ing” videos; but this time, the actor’s body language is intentionally flaccid, even "Aspie-like", in contrast to other video appearances where Reid looks more like a wanna-be MLB baseball outfielder. (Here, he can’t be viewed as competing with Scott.)  The little tattoo is still there.  At the end, “Jeffrey’s” good heart figures in to saving things. (Will we see more music from Reid in the near future?)

Leigh Whannell, of “Saw” fame, appears as David.

The script has some odd lines about physical attractiveness, such as when Scott tells one of his pursuers he has scars all over his legs.  He doesn’t (just one from a standard knee operation).

Sometime else: despite the obvious tribute to the style of 80's thrillers (with a B-movie touch), the film actually shows Facebook as almost ruling the world.
     

Note also: the opening scene shows the real "femme fatale", as a little girl, committing a really horrific crime that goes unanswered. 

The film can be rented o Amazon for $3.99.  There doesn’t seem to be a site up for the picture yet. It looks like the DVD will come from Millennium.