Influencer had its world première at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2022 Madison (Emily Tennant) has never felt so isolated. A popular influencer, she is staying for a fortnight at a luxurious resort in Thailand, packaging her every experience, indeed her every meal, into shots and videos which she posts on Instagram with cheery messages and…
Follow Her had its UK première at FrightFest 2022 Sylvia Caminer’s feature debut Follow Her begins with dark, ominous music, and a crack opening in the darkness, as we see, from the point of view of a bound man (Brian Vincent) peeking out of the chest freezer in which he is trapped, a woman holding…
Sissy had its world première at SXSW 2022 At the beginning of Sissy, from co-writing/co-directing team Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes (For Now, 2017), we see online influencer Cecilia (Aisha Dee) preaching the bland bromides of wellness. Yet the hyperventilation exercise that Cecilia has been demonstrating seems not a little unhinged, and as the recording…
Followers has its world première at FrightFest 2021 Writer/director Marcus Harben’s Followers opens with the sense of an ending, as Zauna (Loreece Harrison) speaks – significantly in the past tense – of ‘infamous social media influencer’ Jonty Craig. “He was a fool, a liar and a cheat,” she says, as though delivering a eulogy, “but…
Longer version of piece published by Sight & Sound as part of coverage of the Cult programme at the London Film Festival 2015 The masked killer and the point-of-view shot have long been staples of the slasher, uncomfortably allying the viewer’s identity and perspective to those of the film’s antagonist – yet in Branden Kramer’s feature…
First published by Grolsch FilmWorks College student Sam (Michelle Mylett) has important news for her boyfriend, but before she can even articulate it, she is dumped by him in a chatroom and made subject to online gossip from strangers. So as she seeks consolation from her old friend Mark (Cody Thompson) at a New Year’s…
Review first published by FilmLand Empire “Wow! You’re like Shia LaBeouf from that movie with the creep next door.” Here, catching her first glimpse of the electronic monitoring device tethered to the ankle of Daniel (Keir Gilchrist), Abby (Stella Maeve) is only giving voice to what we are already thinking. For like the LaBeouf-starring Disturbia…
Review first published by Sight & Sound, December 2014 Review: “Is it too sad? Should I delete it?”, Mary Malony (Patcha Poonpiriya) asks her best friend Suri (Chonnihkan Netjui) near the beginning of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit‘s Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy. “But it’s so pretty.” Thamrongrattanarit, like Mary, is concerned with locating and preserving the…
The Den (aka Hacked) first published by FilmDivider Restricting its point of view to the numerous minicams installed in an isolated house serving as a set for a reality show, Marc Evans‘ My Little Eye (2002) used an innovative narrative frame borrowed wholesale from contemporary programmes like Big Brother in order to expose the undercurrent of sadistic voyeurism…
Review first published by Little White Lies “You’ve had a mad life!” 16-year-old Mark (Jamie Blackley) declares to his new friend John (Toby Regbo). “I want to have a mad life, I want people to just look at me and go, ‘Wow, did you see that?’” Popular at school, but largely ignored at home, Mark is full…