Open Windows

Open Windows (2014) is Nacho Vigalondo's thriller, available to watch online on iFILM. Nick runs a fan site for actress Jill Goddard and wins a contest: dinner with the star after her film premiere. The prize is yanked away — and then a stranger calls with another offer.

The caller, who names himself Chord, hands Nick remote access to Jill's devices: her phone, her laptop, her hotel room. At first it feels like forbidden spying, but step by step Nick turns into a pawn in someone else's scheme, with the actress's life on the line. Elijah Wood plays Nick as a man who grasps too late what he's walked into, while Sasha Grey is Jill. Nearly the whole film plays out across one laptop screen — browser windows, video calls, tracking maps.

Vigalondo built the entire thriller out of interfaces well before the "desktop movie" became a trend, which is where that 21st-century Rear Window tagline comes from. The plot goes off the rails here and there, but as a technical experiment and a paranoid ride it delivers. For fans of twisty stories about surveillance and digital exposure. Stream Open Windows (2014) online on iFILM.