Even if The Gift, the Australian director Joel Edgerton's creepy stalker thriller, didn't make a dramatic U-turn at around the halfway point, it would still rank as a superior specimen. This movie doesn't foam at the mouth like "Fatal Attraction." No bunnies are boiled. But fish are poisoned, a family dog goes missing and the soundtrack is tricked out with the sudden jolts dear to the genre. Any revenge is more pitiable than cathartic.

Eventually "The Gift" abandons its formulaic premise, in which prosperous young adults are menaced by malevolent outside forces, and a subtext reveals itself. The movie morphs into a different subgenre - closer in spirit to "Gaslight" or "Dial M for Murder" - in which a frightened wife fears her husband, but that, too, is only suggested before being abandoned. Underneath it all, "The Gift" is a merciless critique of an amoral corporate culture in which the ends justify the means, and lying and cheating are O.K., as long as they're not found out. Bullying and cruelty are good for business.

The first half of "The Gift" observes a reasonably happy, attractive couple settling into their beautiful new home in the Hollywood Hills. Simon (Jason Bateman) , an executive at a computer security company, and his wife, Robyn (Rebecca Hall) an interior designer, have moved from Chicago to a dream house in Los Angeles, where Simon grew up. The couple are childless. Robyn, depressed after a miscarriage, is anxious and sullen.

Simon, a go-getter on the fast track to a promotion at his new job, is an attentive husband, but a little too brusque and beady-eyed for comfort. While shopping for housewares one afternoon, they are approached by a stranger. Introducing himself as Gordo (Mr. Edgerton in a sly, troubling performance), he says he remembers Simon from his high school class. Simon, claiming no recollection, invites Gordo for dinner, and the three spend an uncomfortable evening making awkward conversation. Gordo is quite handsome, but dead-eyed and excessively polite in a slightly ominous way. Clearly there is a hidden agenda. When Gordo leaves, Simon, whose memory seems to have been refreshed, recalls their guest's high school nickname, Gordo the Weirdo.