Mala Noche

After being disturbed by the creepy obsession depicted in Gus Van Sant's film Mala Noche, I did some research to try to understand it better. I was surprised to find that it's based on an autobiographical novella by Walt Curtis, on whom the character of Walt in the movie is based. I wonder how much of the novella, and subsequently the film, was actually based in reality, because it's hard for me to understand that such an obsessive, condescending and exploitative person could actually exist. I also thought it was interesting when I found that Van Sant is also gay and living in Portland. I wonder if he was able to identify with Walt at all because of those commonalities.