Have you ever felt like someone was watching you? Or worse, have you even been home alone and done something stupid and thought, "I'm glad that no one saw that." The fear of being spied upon is a universal one and one which has crossed the mind of most everyone. Add the fear of losing control of your life to this and you've get a cornucopia of anxieties. 388 Arletta Avenue attempts to act upon these fears while indulging in the found footage craze. Can these elements truly combine?

388 Arletta Avenue focuses on James (Nick Stahl) and Amy (Mia Kirshner), a normal young couple...save for the fact that someone has planted hidden cameras all over their house and sits outside watching them. This person also begins to play what appear to be odd pranks on the couple, by placing a mix CD in James' car. This seemingly innocuous act leads to an argument between James and Amy. When James returns home from work, he finds that Amy is gone, having left a note. He calls around, but no one has seen her. James tries to think of who would want to do something like this to him, and wonders if it's Billy (Devon Sawa), a guy from high school who had been the target of ridicule. James contacts the police, but as he has no concrete evidence, they can't help him. As more and more strange things happen, James begins to lose control.

The story is certainly a mixed bag. For the most part, we've seen all of this before. This is a very standard "driving somebody crazy" plot where James contacts the police, but every time that he does, he has no concrete evidence, so he looks like the unstable person. The movie gets no help from the fact that, due to the "stalker cam" storytelling style, there is basically no character development here. The movie simply starts with us knowing nothing about James and Amy and we learn little from there. We get the sense that James has had issues with alcohol and possibly violence in the past, and there is clearly a rift between James and his sister-in-law (Krista Bridges), but that's about it. Essentially, we are watching someone watch someone and that distance creates a sense of apathy in the viewer. In addition, James never comes across as likeable or sympathetic, which further hurts things. The movie does get points for offering a plot twist involving a pet which I must admit I've never seen before.

388 Arletta Avenue marks yet another take on the seemingly never-ending found footage genre, which has here been mixed with the paranoid genre. Combining these two elements isn't necessarily a bad idea, but the movie simply doesn't do enough to make us care. Editing this movie must have been a chore, given the amount of angles used here, but more work should have gone into the story. The ending is meant to be shocking, but most will find it highly unsatisfying. The most shocking aspect of 388 Arletta Avenue is the brief appearance by Devon Sawa, who I would have never recognized had his name not been in the credits.

388 Arletta Avenue questions the sanitation of feeding a cat on the counter on DVD courtesy of New Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. Given that this is a found-footage, shot on hidden-camera movie, the transfer is difficult to judge. I can say that the image is sharp and clear, showing no unnecessary grain and no defects from the source material. In some shots, the colors look good. However, the expected focus changes and blurring, which are part of the film's style, really stand out on this transfer. This is most likely how the director wanted us to see the movie, and you get used to the footage after a while. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The audio effects are actually surprisingly good here. There is a nice use of stereo and surround effects when James is roaming his house. We can hear sounds from other parts of the house, or movement from side-to-side. Likewise, when the camera is in a moving car, we are enveloped by the car sounds.

The lone extra feature on the 388 Arletta Avenue DVD is an interview with the cast and crew (3 minutes). The on-screen title for this is "Shooting Like A Stalker". We hear from Stahl, Director Randall Cole and Cinematographer Gavin Smith discuss the logistics of making a hidden camera feature film.