Movie Review: FOLLOWERS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 24th, 2023 / 02:47 AM

FOLLOWERS movie poster | THE LOST KING movie poster | ©2023 Terror Films

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Harry Jarvis, Loreece Harrison, Daniel Cahill, Erin Austen, Nina Wadia
Writer: Marcus Harben
Director: Marcus Harben
Distributor: Terror Films
Release Date: March 24, 2023

Right at the top of FOLLOWERS, we know something has gone horribly wrong. Zauna (Loreece Harrison), who we’ll shortly find out is a student documentarian, tells us we’re watching the story of “the cassette murders.”

FOLLOWERS takes place in the present, but yes, that’s an audiocassette. We’ll find out its history in due course. Meanwhile, Zauna says, “This is the truth – share it.”

We then get a title: “Day 1 (of 50).” For a while, it seems like we’ll be watching dual documentaries as we meet Jonty Craig (Harry Jarvis). Jonty is nineteen, rich, entitled, white, and intent on being a social media influencer.

To this end, Jonty is video-recording and posting everything he does. He’s just enrolled at a prestigious university, and is sharing a house with three fellow students. There’s Zauna, who is simultaneously irked and impressed with Jonty’s ability to get followers. There’s Pete (Daniel Cahill), who is Scottish, slightly older, and even more annoyed by Jonty. And there’s Amber (Erin Austen), who is pretty, glamorous, and easily led.

Hovering on the outskirts is campus counselor Becky Dubar (Nina Wadia), who claims to be interested in everybody’s emotional well-being, but who may be more interested in using Jonty’s vlog to promote her self-help book.

There’s also a ghost, whose presence becomes more and more evident, despite distractions like pranks and a scary squatter. Common wisdom (and general advice) is that everyone should vacate the house. But Jonty sees that the supernatural events are boosting his following, and Zauna is now making a film about Jonty.

Writer/director Marcus Harben (who passed away shortly after FOLLOWERS was completed) doesn’t have much new to say about the perils of pursuing online fame. For one thing, that topic has been exhaustively covered in many other films in various genres. While it’s nice to for once see the issue of how the characters afford all this high-tech audio/video equipment – Jonty has the funds – it also takes away the profit motive to a large extent. Why Jonty needs to impress so many strangers is never really investigated; he seems to be doing just fine in his own social sphere.

On the flip side, Harben does have some original twists on ghosts and what surrounds them. This provides FOLLOWERS with an engaging, propulsive tension. As things progress, we also get a specific villain to root against, which is not always the case with found-footage horror. This gives the plot dynamics added focus.

The acting is good and naturalistic throughout. Jarvis finds the sweet spot between brattiness and likability for Jonty, and Harrison gives Zauna a credible air of curiosity and seriousness. Becky is meant to be overemphatic and a show-boater, traits that Wadia enacts well.

The title of FOLLOWERS turns out to have a double meaning. If it doesn’t shed much light on the thirst for Internet fame, it’s still a solid horror film. It’s a shame Harben is no longer with us, but he’s left a respectable legacy.

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