Jonty Craig (Harry Jarvis) was making a lot of money on reality TV as a teenager, not that he needed it as he was already well-off thanks to his parents, but some ill-advised behaviour on said TV show meant he has had to begin rebuilding his social media presence. What better way to do that than as an influencer? Online promoters make the world go around, or so they would like you to believe, and Jonty feels he can slot into this world very snugly and generate the income, and just as important, the followers and likes, that he needs to bolster his bank balance and his self-esteem. Now at university, he lacks a real USP until the student flat he is sharing with three others proves to have an unexpected visitor: a ghost.
The horror genre struggled more than most with the social media age, some examples presenting themselves as satires on the attention-seeking that goes with it, others as actively and violently punishing those who set themselves up as online celebrities as if what the audience wanted to watch was someone who specialises in makeup tutorials or conspiracy theories meet a very nasty end for their hubris believing anyone would want to listen to them. Even most mainstream shockers would feel the need to include a character who was constantly on their phone, broadcasting to the viewing thousands, all in a somewhat desperate try at staying relevant in a world where many audiences were watching movies with one eye on their phone anyway.
Was it sadism or masochism that brought those audiences to the social media horror trend, as there but for the grace of God go I could be the observation the majority of them could make. By rendering this trend in the format of online videos, the filmmakers could pretend they were creating content for viewers with a longer than usual attention span and, with any luck, hold their gaze that way, but there was no guarantee. Marcus Harben, the writer and director here who sadly did not live to see this film released, exhibited many indications he was very savvy about what kept you glued to your screen: splashy videos, the promise of ramping up the spectacle or concepts with each successive posting, and of course the opinions of others watching to fool yourself this interaction was anything more than fuelling a monetised clickfarm.
There was certainly plenty you could take down the phenomenon for, but in the main these movies failed to go for the jugular, or the social media companies themselves, knowing what side their bread was buttered, and unfortunately that was the case with Followers. Harben went to a lot of care to construct his online world, and you could tell he knew what he was talking about, but it was really in the service of the central ghost story which was utilised in such a way that online influencers would be very familiar with the techniques this effort implemented. It wasn't scary because you were always at arm's length, either because we were instructed to stand in stern judgement on the characters or simply because we knew it wasn't authentic. It was accurate to say the twist was very well hidden, but so farfetched that if you had seen it in an actual online video even the most gullible consumer of "Ghosts Caught on Camera" nonsense would have queried, "Yeah, right!" It didn't outstay its welcome at under ninety minutes, and Harben had shown promise, but this looked to be a middle step to better things, alas forever unrealised.
[FOLLOWERS - exclusively in UK cinemas 18th March 2022.]
