By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

There’s nothing more anxiety-inducing than watching somebody you care about try to navigate dozens of browser windows, each containing dozens of tabs with no perceivable organizational structure. You ask why they can’t just bookmark the important pages, or at least keep the windows from overlapping so they can actually see what they’re doing, but they don’t have a clear answer. If you’re a neat freak like me, who can’t survive without clean page breaks and closes unwanted tabs with reckless abandon, 2014’s Open Windows is going to send you to a dark place you’ll wish you could control + shift + escape from.

Framed as a found footage techno thriller, Open Windows is either a hacker’s dream come true or a cyberspace nightmare if you just want to surf the web and scroll your favorite fandom sites. It’s a picture within a picture within a picture, overlapping with another picture that contains a clickable link that opens more windows, and that’s how you watch events unfold from our hero’s perspective.

The crazy part is that what transpires in Open Windows is far more horrifying than having too many tabs open. I only brought that up because I was already in a heightened state 20 seconds after hitting play, and I hadn’t even been exposed to the actual mystery yet.

I Always Feel Like, Somebody’s Watching Me!

Open Windows centers on Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood), a webmaster who runs a fansite for his favorite B movie actress, Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey). He flies to Austin, Texas after winning a blog contest that promises him access to a publicity event where he can meet her. He’s devastated when he learns through her assistant, Chord (Neil Maskell), that she cancelled at the last minute, meaning he traveled and booked a nearby hotel for nothing.

While uploading new images to his site that he clipped from Jill’s latest livestream, Nick is contacted again by Chord, who sends him a link granting access to all of Jill’s devices, though he doesn’t know this until he clicks it and it’s already too late. Though he’s not the voyeuristic type by any stretch, Nick plays along because Chord comes off as threatening and he feels like he has to do what he’s told. 

As if the entire evening had been orchestrated months in advance, Nick is given access to increasingly sophisticated audio and video feeds and pushed further when Jill’s agent, Tony (Ivan Gonzalez), the man she’s secretly having an affair with, nearly catches him spying. Nick is urged to use a taser to neutralize the situation and erase suspicion, and that’s the fatal mistake. Chord has been recording everything from the beginning. Now the only person who looks guilty is Nick, the fan site operator who appears to be stalking the actress and has assaulted someone connected to her.

Whispers suggest the entire operation is being run by a master hacker known only as Nevada. Nick finds himself trapped in a web of incriminating screenshots, manipulated video feeds, and shifting identities. The hackers use him to obtain compromising material of Jill for their own purposes, and they’re so adept at covering their tracks that Nick isn’t even sure who he’s speaking to, who’s actually in charge, or what happens if he tries to contact the authorities.

A Disorienting Mess Elevated By Elijah Wood

Like I said at the top, the sheer volume of open browser windows in Open Windows was enough to send me into a spiral before I understood what was at stake. Elijah Wood, who performs much of the film reacting to screens before the third act forces him into the real world, is trapped in the net trying to figure out just how screwed he is. Every click feels documented. Every hesitation feels watched.

The bewilderment on Nick’s face in Open Windows is the real selling point. He’s forced to violate his favorite actress’s privacy in increasingly invasive ways, and there’s no clean exit. He’s simply the wrong fan in the wrong place at the wrong time. Watching him piece it together in real time as he’s followed through cyberspace and eventually the streets of Austin makes for a tense thriller delivered through wildly unconventional means.

While all I wanted to do was reach into the screen and start closing tabs, the story Open Windows tells is layered with deception, voyeurism, blackmail, and extortion. The twists constantly make you question what’s real, what’s manufactured, and whether this is all some elaborate publicity stunt waiting for a final reveal.

An anxious watch from start to finish, Open Windows is an obsessive spiral of media manipulation, and you can stream it for free on Tubi as of this writing.