Followed
blue finchWith the rise of influencer culture and overall praise for stepping over reasonable boundaries on the internet, cinema has started to join in on the conversation analyzing and condoning this behavior. From Nerve to Spree, multiple films have attempted to show the flaws of this collective mindset, with the newest addition to this collection being Antoine Le's Followed. Following a content creator named Mike (Matthew Solomon), who, alongside his crew, decides to stay at a hotel over Halloween that has a bloody and brutal past, the film attempts to be a blend of horror and satire of the modern true crime investigation genre to extremely mixed results.
The backbone of the conversation within Followed is a commendable one. Whether audience agrees or disagrees with the main social commentary, the idea of social influencers using true crime – such as horrendous murders – to create entertainment is a layered discussion that is a specific deep dive into modern online culture that hasn't been explored to great depth before. There is a real nuanced conversation to be found regarding the morals behind this act, and a film of legitimate craft could actually expose some real questions and flaws regarding the subject but, sadly, Followed doesn't have this craft as it would like to.
The entire film is purposefully trying to be over the top as a form of satirisation of the characters in the film. From the performances to the dialogue, the film very clearly attempts to make its characters as cringy and gross as possible, yet the same thing it is trying to criminalise others for, it does itself. Followed, very openly, is trying to make a statement on the exploitation of real life tragedy for entertainment, yet it does the same thing itself basing its plot details on real events. It in itself is finding comedy exploiting real life crime which creates a double standard that drastically undermines the message the film is trying to have. The film, as a whole, is also lacking any form of subtlety. From the screenplay by Todd Klick to the editing by Matthew Brewbaker, the film constantly tries to create a worthwhile experience both in substance and style which ends up feeling so over the top and obvious that they become almost laughably so.
In this regard, despite the film failing to live up to its goals as a social commentary, the film finds a new life as an almost comedy. Where it clearly has less of a handle on its goofiness as a film such as Spree, the film is undeniably fun and the characters never become overly annoying to where they became a pain to experience. Where this might not have been the intentional goal of the film, especially in the second half, it stands as the strongest positive takeaway from the film.
Followed has an undeniable good heart as it tries to have a layered and important conversation, sadly it lacks any of the craft to actually engage in a meaningful dialogue. Filled with strange editing and over the top characters, unless you view the film as an absurd comedy, there is a severe lack of positives found within the movie and, overall, it is undeniably skippable, especially with the sheer amount of great content that could be viewed at home right now.
